What makes for a good place to work in Huntsville?

IronMountain Solutions CEO Hank Isenberg has a list of things companies should consider.

“There are a lot of categories you have to consider, good morale, good insurance, keeping your insurance up to date, having flexible schedules to accommodate the employees, have a really good HR department that takes care of the employees,” he said. “It’s across the board.”

According to more than 8,000 confidential employee surveys conducted at about 200 employers across the Rocket City, Isenberg knows what he is talking about. IronMountain Solutions was named the best place to work among the city’s largest companies by the Huntsville-Madison County Chamber on Tuesday.

“Our employees and our culture are our driving force,” he said in accepting the award as the gold winner at the Chamber’s Best Places to Work Awards luncheon at the Von Braun Center.

It was the sixth time his company won first place and 10th victory in the competition overall. With its 10th win, IronMountain Solutions joins three other companies in the Best Places to Work Hall of Fame: Intuitive Research & Technology; Modern Technology Solutions, Inc., and People Tech.

“We’ve finally got it down,” Isenberg said. “Now we’ve got to give space for other people to win.

IronMountain Solutions wasn’t the only winner. Integration Innovation, Inc. (I3) was the silver winner and Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc. was the bronze winner in the category of companies with 251 or more employees.

“There’s a healthy competition we enjoy in Huntsville,” Integration Innovation, Inc., CEO Richard Kretzschmar said. “It’s unique to our community.”

He added he had the pleasure of “leading a team of 820 folks that are committed to the culture we have, that are growth minded and look for ways to add value to the company every day.”

KODA Technolgies, Inc. was the gold winner in the large company category with between 101 and 250 employees. Monte Sano Research Corporation was the silver and Intrepid won the bronze.

KODA representative Dusty Nix said the company’s employees’ commitment to culture helped it win its category.

Offset Strategic Services, LLC, won the medium-sized company award for firms with 51 to 100 employees. QTEC Aerospace and Mission Driven Research, Inc., were in silver and bronze positions.

“We’re servant leaders,” Offset Strategic Services CEO TJ Wright said. “Our job is to serve our employees, serve our customers. This is really a servant-leadership mentality. Hire the best people. The best people aren’t the best people on paper. It’s the right attitude with the right goals, the right objective and moral compass. So, we find really good people. That’s what my team has done. We’ve built a great team.”

Focus Physiotherapy Huntsville won the small business category (25 to 50 employees), followed by Pinnacle Financial Partners and Capstone Research Corporation. New Hope Children’s Clinic won the micro business category, followed by Erica Lane Enterprises and Cahaba Federal Solutions.

Chamber Vice President of Image Development Claire Aiello said the awards are based on employee feedback.

“They really want to improve,” she said. “So, they keep these people. It’s all about retention. You don’t want to hire somebody who is going to hop to another company three months from now. You want to get a good person and keep them. You want to get a good team in place and keep them. These companies do that. They all have employee surveys that they do. They win based on the points they accumulate most. But an outside company handles that process for us.”

“Over the years I read them, and I pay attention,” Isenberg said of the surveys. “We try to make sure we are servicing the parts that the people care about.”

Companies also received health and wellness awards. The winners were Integration Innovation, Inc.; NMR Consulting; Mission Driven Research, Inc.; Focus Physiotherapy Huntsville; and Erica Lane Enterprises.