By Denise Gredler
Founder & CEO, BestCompaniesAZ
As BestCompaniesAZ celebrates its 25th anniversary, I’ve spent time reflecting on the journey, the partnerships, and the mission that continues to guide us today.
Over the years, many people have come to know BestCompaniesAZ through the workplace awards and recognition programs we’ve helped introduce, support, and elevate throughout Arizona.
“Oh, you’re the awards company,” people would often tell me.
And honestly, I understand why.
For more than two decades, BestCompaniesAZ has been connected to many of Arizona’s most recognized workplace, leadership, and business awards, including Best Places to Work, Top Companies, Top Workplaces and Arizona Most Admired Companies.
But the awards were never the destination. They were the vehicle that helped us fulfill our mission.
The Mission Behind BestCompaniesAZ
While workplace recognition has always been an important part of what we do, it has never defined who we are. Our mission has always been much broader.
For 25 years, our mission has remained the same:
“To identify, promote, and elevate Arizona’s best companies while helping connect them with top talent, customers, and the communities they serve.”
We identify Arizona’s best employers through credible local and national workplace awards that use independent research and employee feedback, including programs such as Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For®, Great Place To Work® Certified, BuiltIn Best Places to Work, Forbes, Newsweek, and those respected Arizona-based recognition programs mentioned above.
We also know great employers come in all sizes and stages of growth, including organizations with highly engaged employees and exceptional workplace cultures that might not yet have received formal recognition. We help employers navigate the recognition landscape, build credibility, and share their stories through awards, employer branding, and authentic storytelling.
I’ve learned that award recognition is only part of the story.
Some great employers earn recognition, celebrate it for a day, put the trophy on the shelf, and let the momentum fade. Others have incredible cultures and employee experiences but lack a platform to share their stories.
That’s where BestCompaniesAZ found its purpose.
Over time, BestCompaniesAZ evolved into an employer branding and media platform dedicated to helping employers share authentic stories, increase visibility, strengthen their reputation, attract talent, and connect with the customers and communities they serve.
How a Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® Inspired BestCompaniesAZ
Before launching BestCompaniesAZ, I served as vice president of human resources for an Arizona company that became the first Arizona-based organization recognized on Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® list, ranking #12 and #16 in two years.
That experience gave me a front-row seat to the power of a great workplace culture and how it can influence everything from attracting and retaining talent to strengthening reputation, customer relationships, leadership, and business success.
Inspired by that experience, I launched BestCompaniesAZ in July 2001 with a goal to help Arizona’s best employers gain the recognition they deserved.
Launching Arizona’s First Best Places to Work Program
After leaving corporate America in the early 2000s, I saw an opportunity to bring what I had learned about workplace culture to more Arizona employers.
Because of my HR experience with a Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For®, I was familiar with the Great Place To Work® , Fortune magazine’s survey and research partner.
When I learned they had launched a state-level Best Places to Work program in Pennsylvania, my home state, I couldn’t help but think, “Why not bring it to Arizona?”
What started as a simple conversation became Arizona’s first Best Places to Work program and ultimately helped shape the future of BestCompaniesAZ.
Great Place To Work® provided the research and employee survey methodology, and after evaluating several media organizations, we chose the Phoenix Business Journal as our media partner to publish the list and co-host the awards program. We launched Arizona’s first Best Places to Work program in 2003.
Our goal was ambitious: to attract 100 participating organizations and recognize at least 20 winners. We hit those numbers exactly in year one.
More than two decades later, the program continues under the leadership of the Phoenix Business Journal and remains one of the most recognized workplace awards in metro Phoenix.
Helping Shape Arizona’s Recognition Landscape
The success of Arizona’s first Best Places to Work program opened doors I never could have imagined.
As workplace recognition programs began emerging across Arizona and throughout the country, BestCompaniesAZ was frequently asked to help introduce, support, and promote these initiatives locally, creating new opportunities to spotlight great employers and share their stories.
One of the most significant milestones came in 2010 when BestCompaniesAZ and AZ Big Media co-founded Arizona’s Most Admired Companies.
Inspired by Fortune’s Most Admired Companies program, it was designed to recognize organizations holistically across five pillars of excellence: leadership, workplace culture, customer opinion, social responsibility, and innovation.
Today, Arizona’s Most Admired Companies remains one of the state’s most respected business recognition programs, celebrating its 17th anniversary this year.
Since 2013, another important chapter in our journey has been serving as Arizona’s Brand Ambassador for Top Workplaces (formerly Top Companies). Through partnerships with azcentral and Energage (and in the program’s early years, CareerBuilder/azcentral and Best Companies Group), BestCompaniesAZ has increased awareness of the employee-driven award and encouraged employer participation across Arizona.
Like many of the recognition programs we’ve supported over the years, our role was to help introduce, promote, and elevate these programs —not conduct the surveys, select the winners, or determine the rankings.
Looking back, it’s easy to understand why so many people came to know BestCompaniesAZ as “the awards company.” But that was only part of our story.
Building Connections Across Arizona
Over the past 25 years, BestCompaniesAZ has created, supported, and collaborated on a wide range of initiatives designed to advance our mission.
From Career Connectors, Vet Talks, the Arizona University Career Mixer, and Women Who Lead, to workforce initiatives during the COVID workforce crisis, we’ve been honored to serve as a connector—bringing employers, job seekers, educators, workforce organizations, and community leaders together.
While these initiatives evolved over time, our mission never changed.
For a broader look at our journey, I invite you to explore our 25-year timeline.
The Next Chapter
As we celebrate 25 years, my heart is filled with gratitude.
To every client, partner, employer, team member, community leader, friend, and family member who has been part of this journey—thank you. Your trust, support, encouragement, and friendship have helped shape BestCompaniesAZ.
While much has changed over the past 25 years, one thing never has—our mission “to identify, promote, and elevate Arizona’s best companies while helping connect them with top talent, customers, and the communities they serve”.
The future of employer branding is changing rapidly, and so are the ways great companies connect with talent, customers, and their communities. I’m more excited than ever about helping Arizona’s best employers navigate what’s next.
If you’ve only known BestCompaniesAZ through the workplace awards, I hope you’ll follow our journey over the coming months. We’ll be sharing the stories of remarkable Arizona employers, celebrating their milestones, highlighting what makes them exceptional, and exploring new ways to help great companies earn the visibility they deserve.
After 25 years, I truly believe we’re just getting started.
