If the pandemic taught employers one thing it was that its workforce is everything.
The 14th annual Top Workplaces program in Orange County saw a record number of companies and organizations honored. In a year that continued to throw challenges related to COVID-19, even more companies stepped up to say their people made the difference.
For the first time since the program began in 2008, the Orange County Register is recognizing 155 companies.
In all, 3,194 employers in the county were invited to have their employees take a survey managed by program partner Energage. Any organization was eligible to participate, provided it had at least 35 employees in Orange County. Employers could be public, private, nonprofit or governmental. There is no cost to enter the Top Workplaces program.
Combined, the companies surveyed for the 2021 program employed 39,787 people in Orange County. Of employees who received questionnaires, 23,568 responded, either on paper or online. For 2021, a record 155 employers earned recognition as Top Workplaces.
The large company category recognizes 16 companies out of 17 participants with 500 or more employees in the region. The midsize division is honoring 54 firms out of 73 survey participants with 100-499 employees. For small-size companies, there are 85 honorees out of 117 survey participants with 99 or fewer employees in the county.
CEO Craig Bundy with Experian North America in Costa Mesa, the Top Workplace winner for large companies, said his people “never missed a beat.”
“We’ve never ever used the term ‘back to work’ because that implies that people stopped working,” he said. “Experian people never stopped working.”
A newcomer to the program and a first-time winner, Newport Beach-based Jobot excelled by creating a workplace that has not laid off a single employee. The recruiting firm landed in the top spot for mid-size companies. It specializes in engineering and tech jobs and has a chief executive who insists on putting her people first.
“As a CEO, I feel like it’s my job to save money in good times so I can protect the jobs of people who work so hard,” said Heidi Golledge.
And if the family Labradoodle appears in a Zoom meeting with staff? No problem, said Jim Andronaco at Sidepath in Laguna Hills.
“That’s all part of our culture,” he said. “It’s a different environment from corporate America. It’s a personal touch that will never change.”
Here’s the list of the 2021 winners.
Large company winners
5 MemorialCare Shared Services
6 BEHRProcess Corp.
7 American Advisors Group
8 Beckman Coulter
9 MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center
10 Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers
11 Ambry Genetics
12 MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center
13 Orange County Transportation Authority
14 Reborn Cabinets
15 MemorialCare Medical Group
16 City of Irvine
Mid-size company winners
1 Jobot
2 Moulton Niguel Water District
6 Harvest Small Business Finance
7 The Raymond Group
8 Tait & Associates
9 Channel Bakers
10 Edward Jones
11 Orion Lending
12 Nations Direct Mortgage
13 John Patterson’s OC Auto Team
14 Performance Lighting System
15 Ally Financial
16 Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club
17 Sgt Pepperoni’s Pizza Store
18 Marque Medical
19 Prime Choice Funding
20 Kind Lending
21 CyberCoders
22 Hometown Equity Mortgage or theLender
23 BluePoint Mortgage
24 The New Home Co.
25 Evolus
26 Healthy Smiles for Kids of OC
27 LCPtracker
28 Tevora
29 American Financial Network
30 HUB International Insurance Services
31 InBrace
32 Service Champions Plumbing, Heating & AC
33 Veri-Tax
34 Marsh McLennan Agency
35 Tom Ferry
36 Seneca Family of Agencies
37 Redfin
38 Coury and Buehler PT
39 Harbor Distributing
40 Paramount Residential Mortgage Group
41 United Rentals
42 Veritone
43 Paciolan
44 Spireon
45 Specific Media
46 Advanced Management Company & R³ Construction Services
47 United Auto Credit Corp.
48 Avid Bioservices
49 Herbalife Nutrition
50 System Pavers
51 The Travel Corp.
52 Love 2 Learn Consulting
53 Astronics Test Systems
54 Zymo Research
Small-size company winners
1 Sidepath
6 PeopleG2
7 ClearEdge Lending
8 Open Gym Premier
9 Optimum Professional Property Management
10 Antis Roofing & Waterproofing
11 RJI International CPAs
12 Navy Federal Credit Union
13 Fenix Consulting Group
14 Red Hill Lutheran Church and School
15 DEB Construction
16 Savills
17 C.W. Driver Cos.
18 TechMD
19 Regents Capital Corp.
20 Pinner Construction Co.
21 Restaurant365
22 Tarsus
23 The Energy Coalition
24 W. L. Butler
25 Omega Accounting Solutions
26 Stance
27 Murow Development Consultants
28 Church & Casualty Insurance Agency
29 RBA Builders
30 Specright
31 Artemis DNA
32 Carothers DiSante & Freudenberger LLP
33 Robert Half
34 Orange County Rescue Mission
35 Smart Circle International, LLC
36 Milender White
37 American Income Life – Orange County
38 FM Restaurants
39 N2Funding
40 SetSchedule
41 ECOS
42 Momentum Textile
43 CPS Insurance Services
44 Blue-White Industries
45 Perficient
46 Orion Risk Management an Alera Co.
47 Prominent Escrow Services and Quality Escrow
48 Advantest Test Solutions
49 Obagi Cosmeceuticals
50 Trilogy Financial Services
51 SmartFinancial
52 Harvey
53 BigRentz
54 GoodLeap
55 DreamHost
56 Planet DDS
57 Advanced Office
58 H. Hendy Associates
59 SRS Real Estate Partners
60 First National Capital Corp.
61 City of Hope
62 Zyxel Communications
63 Southern California Illumination
64 Technologent
65 El Toro Water District
66 Consolidated Contracting
67 Western Resources Title Co.
68 True Recovery/True Behavioral Health LP
69 Kimco Staffing Services/KTimeHR
70 ZO Skin Health
71 ALBD Electric & Cable
72 Alvaka Networks
73 DBM Group
74 CPT Group
75 IPS – Integrated Project Services
76 Boudreau Pipeline Corp.
77 CORE Physical Therapy
78 Brown & Streza
79 Helium 10
80 Genea Energy Partners
81 MegaMex Foods
82 Hurtt Family Health Clinic
83 KushCo Holdings
84 Financial Partners Credit Union
85 HPI Architecture