This year’s Best Places to Work represent businesses who are committed to their employees and the overall health and wellbeing of their workforce. They represent organizations that prioritize employee growth; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and maintaining a positive work environment. They represent businesses whose leadership are champions of positive change. In short, they are the businesses that make living and working in the Lynchburg region such a positive experience.
On the following pages, we are highlighting local businesses that strive to retain happy, empowered employees. Each was nominated by a current employee and selected for its incredible culture.
Brown’s Heating Air & Plumbing
Who We Are: Brandon and Dara Brown started Brown’s Heating, Air, and Plumbing in 2006 with a vision to serve the community through exceptional HVAC and plumbing services. Over the past 18 years, we have proudly won numerous awards for our outstanding service. Our priority is to provide each customer with a 5-star experience, welcoming them into the Brown’s family and ensuring their comfort and satisfaction every step of the way.
Our Core Values: Our company culture is built on humility, customer focus, adaptability, community awareness, and passion. We lead our team with a Christ-like approach, ensuring everyone is appreciated and valued. We enjoy celebrating our team monthly, cheering on their successes, and building them up to be their best. We also close down for an Employee Appreciation Day to enjoy and celebrate together.
Positive Work Environment: We promote a positive work environment by encouraging teamwork and organizing events to strengthen our bonds. We support a healthy work/life balance, allowing time off for important moments. We value sharing ideas and listening to everyone on the team. We cheer each other on, make work fun, and ensure everyone can be their best both professionally and personally.
Recent Accomplishments: We’re most proud of the passion, kindness, and quality of work our team brings to the community. Our commitment shines through initiatives like the annual Brown’s Giveaway, providing a free heating and air system to a local family in need, and our annual participation in the St. Jude Dream Home. While we’ve won many awards for service excellence, our greatest achievement is serving and bettering our community with genuine care and dedication.
Work-Life Balance: We support work/life balance by encouraging days off to enjoy moments with family. We’re flexible with time-off requests, ensuring everyone can enjoy life outside of work. Each employee receives a paid day off on their birthday to relax, unwind, and enjoy their special day.
Campbell Insurance
Who We Are: Campbell Insurance, established in 1918, is a trusted independent insurance agency based in Lynchburg, VA. With over a century of experience, we offer comprehensive commercial, personal, life, and health insurance solutions. As an employee-owned company, our dedicated team of advisors is committed to protecting your business, family, and assets. We pride ourselves on personalized service and community support.
Our Core Values: At Campbell Insurance, our company culture is guided by integrity, customer focus, innovation, and teamwork. We prioritize ethical practices, strive to exceed client expectations, embrace new ideas, and foster a collaborative environment where every team member’s contribution is valued.
Positive Work Environment: At Campbell Insurance, we promote a positive work environment by fostering open communication, recognizing and rewarding employee achievements, and providing opportunities for professional growth. We also host company-wide events to build camaraderie and strengthen team bonds.
Recent Accomplishments: In the past year, Campbell Insurance has proudly expanded its client base by adding a 5th location in Knoxville, TN, received the “Best Workplace” award, and implemented innovative risk management solutions. Our dedicated team, with minimal turnover, has significantly improved client satisfaction and operational efficiency.
Work-Life Balance: Our company promotes a healthy work-life balance by offering a generous PTO package, accommodating flexible schedules when possible, and not charging the first two hours of a doctor’s appointment to PTO. This approach ensures our employees and leadership can maintain their well-being and productivity.
Electronic Design and Manufacturing (EDM)
Who We Are: Electronic Design & Manufacturing is a regional Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) provider based in Lynchburg, Virginia. Since 1990,
EDM has been a trusted partner in resolving the intricate engineering and manufacturing challenges faced by our valued customers. As a 100% employee-owned company, we have always been a People First organization. We embrace the vision of our founder, Robert Roberts, who wanted to create a different kind of EMS company; one that truly cares about its customers and employees and operates on principles that drive the way we do business and treat one another.
Our Core Values: EDM’s culture is rooted in shared ownership, integrity, a focus on solutions, and a people-first approach. We emphasize collaboration, open communication, and innovative problem-solving. Our commitment to employee development and well-being fosters a supportive, inclusive environment where everyone is empowered to contribute to our collective success.
Positive Work Environment: EDM firmly believes that work should be fun.
We recognize and celebrate employee-owner achievements, offer support for personal and professional challenges, and foster a culture where every voice is heard and valued. We host both on-site and off-site events that strengthen employee relationships and often include families to cultivate a sense of community.
Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion: EDM fosters a people-first approach, ensuring every voice is valued and respected. We conduct annual cost of living and market research to ensure equitable pay. Additionally, we invest in our team through educational opportunities, offering an apprenticeship program and continued industry training, creating an environment where everyone can thrive.
Framatome
Who We Are: Framatome is an international leader in nuclear energy, providing products and services for the world’s existing nuclear power plants and developing technologies for advanced reactor designs that are critical for the future of our clean energy economy. We are also harnessing the power of nuclear in the delivery of cancer fighting medical isotopes and developing innovative energy sources for space exploration. Our global headquarters is located in France with more than 18,000 employees that work every day to help our customers supply safe, reliable, clean energy, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We’re proud to call Lynchburg home of our North America headquarters where our teams lead in advancing the nuclear industry by providing breakthrough innovations in research, development and technology that our customers count on.
Our Core Values: At Framatome, the work we do matters. From electrifying homes to developing life-saving cancer diagnosis and treatments, our expertise and innovation in delivering solutions for the nuclear industry is vital. By collectively embracing our values of safety, future, performance, integrity and passion, we solidify the very best of our organization’s culture as we deliver unmatched value to our customers and attract the workforce for our future.
Work-Life Balance: As a global company with substantial size and reach, we offer the perfect blend of scale and agility, allowing our employees multiple opportunities and engagement in special projects while respecting work-life balance to acquire valuable experience and growth. Our innovative industry and company ensure that fresh challenges constantly arise, keeping our employees’ journey engaging, dynamic and balanced.
Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion: Framatome strives for an environment where every employee feels like they belong, are valued, respected, and empowered to succeed. We recognize a diverse and inclusive workplace with unwavering dedication makes us more innovative and creative, enabling us to attract, retain, and advance top talent. We challenge ourselves to identify and address any barriers that prevent individuals from reaching their full potential, while working tirelessly to create a company culture that celebrates differences and promotes inclusiveness at every level.
positive work environment: We couldn’t do what we do every day without the authentic, outstanding people at our core. We work hard to see and support them through great benefits, flexible environments, professional development opportunities and investments in their futures and families. We aim to be a place where our employees can bring their full self to work every day and go on to thrive in an inclusive, open and transparent work environment. People matter most in our world and we’re proud to invest fully in our employees and their future.
Horizon Behavioral Health
Who We Are: Horizon Behavioral Health is the premier provider of mental health, substance use and intellectual disability services, supporting individuals and families in Central Virginia for 55 years. Horizon’s mission is to support and promote the health, independence and self-worth of individuals and families by providing a continuum of community-based treatment, prevention, early intervention, and aftercare services for persons affected by mental health, intellectual disabilities, substance use and co-occurring disorders.
Our Core Values: The culture at Horizon is marked by sincerity and empathy, establishing an encouraging family-like environment to promote growth and new beginnings for both employees and clients alike.
Our teams work together collaboratively with a shared passion for serving others. We celebrate success by highlighting the remarkable achievements of our patients, clients, and employees by recognizing that their success brings us one step closer in building a healthier community, free of stigma and rich in resilience. Horizon’s clinical teams and providers maintain an array of reputable credentials to provide cutting edge treatment models and practice evidence-based therapies proven to be most effective in treating unique behavioral health concerns.
Work-Life Balance: Horizon empowers our teams to prioritize their mental health, recognizing the need for self-care and a healthy work-life balance. To support our teams, we offer mental health and sick days to employees and have undertaken numerous special efforts to promote “Wellness for Me Too” which has included special staff activities, wellness bags, employee wellness fairs, and regular training opportunities.
Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion: Horizon’s Executive Leadership Team has made organizational history in its efforts to ensure our team of talented professionals are compensated appropriately, with careful consideration to equitable pay. In fiscal year 2023, we proudly implemented the largest budgeted compensation plan in Horizon’s history. Horizon’s Cultural Diversity and Inclusion Committee serves as an advisory committee to Horizon’s Executive Leadership who fully supports their efforts to celebrate diversity, culture, and heritage within the workplace. Horizon also provides regular training opportunities for all clinical staff to expand their trove of evidence-based practices and therapeutic skills.
S&S Services
Who We Are: Established in October 2021 by Samantha Simmons, S&S Services has expanded to a dedicated team of seven professionals. Specializing in assisting small businesses utilizing QBO, Appfolio, and Buildium, we provide tailored services including setup, cleanup, training, payroll, and bookkeeping. Our offerings are customizable to meet the unique needs of your business, catering to enterprises at any stage, from startups to multimillion-dollar corporations. We prioritize every client relationship, ensuring each is nurtured with utmost care.
Our Core Values: At S&S Services, we value family, integrity, and strong relationships. Our team celebrates growth, learns from failures, and aims to provide top-notch service to clients in a supportive work environment. Emphasizing work-life balance, transparency, and innovation, we also prioritize giving back to the community. Samantha Simmons co-founded Dream Forge, a non profit geared towards supporting women entrepreneurship after trauma.
Positive Work Environment: We foster a positive work environment by prioritizing our team’s well-being, valuing family first. Regular check-ins help us assess our physical and mental well-being, offering support when needed. Samantha, our owner, aligns her goals with the team’s, supporting them in reaching milestones such as revenue targets and flexibility. Quarterly dinners and outings strengthen staff relationships.
Recent Accomplishments: Over the past year our company has been named Top 25 up-in-coming USA ProAdvisor by Insightful Accountant (Samantha Simmons), Top 50 Accounting Firms by Woodard, Silver Best Accounting Firm and Silver Champion of Change/Inclusion by Lynchburg Business Best in Business, received over 20 nominations in both national and local publications. We pride ourselves on being the most rapidly expanding and highly communicative accounting firm in our region.
The Virginian Hotel
Who We Are: The Virginian underwent a four-year complete renovation starting in 2014 that was meticulous in every detail. In their first hotel project, George Stanley and Blair Godsey led a gifted team of designers, trade artisans, and construction managers to painstakingly restore and enhance a building that had all but disappeared for 40 years. Supported through a City of Lynchburg performance agreement and utilizing historic tax credit programs administered through the National Park Service and Virginia’s Department of Historic Resources, the building meets rigorous preservation standards. Partnering with Hilton, The Virginian Hotel joined the international chain’s elite Curio Collection of one-of-a-kind luxury properties. Today, the hotel offers the finest modern amenities, while saving the best of its historic character. The hotel won the 2021 Hilton Connie Award, has the #1 ranking on Trip Advisor, and has consistently achieved AAA’s four-diamond rating. A passionate and gifted management and operational team is bringing The Virginian to the highest level.
Our Core Values: Our mission statement best sums up our values: At The Virginian Hotel, our team’s mission is to deliver exceptional Southern Hospitality, preserve Lynchburg’s and The Virginian Hotel’s history, and to foster community success. We will create memorable experiences for our guests through genuine care and warm elegant service. With compassion, we will ensure every team member is valued and empowered to succeed together.
Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion: We foster diversity and inclusion by actively recruiting from a diverse talent pool and providing training on cultural awareness and unconscious bias. We encourage open dialogue and ensure that every employee feels respected and valued, and heard regardless of their background. Our commitment to diversity is reflected in our policies, practices, and daily interactions, creating an inclusive environment where everyone can thrive.
Recent Accomplishments: Our biggest accomplishment alongside winning the Conrad Award as the best Hilton Curio collection hotel in North America is that of the 19 leaders on the Leadership Team 16 of them have been promoted from within the company. We prioritize team member education and promotion from within as we work toward developing the finest hospitality leaders in Central Virginia.
Wooldridge Heating Air Electrical Plumbing, Inc.
Who We Are: Wooldridge Heating Air Electrical Plumbing, Inc. was founded in 1975 by Lester and Trisha Wooldridge. Our company is committed to customer satisfaction, serving the community, and giving back to local charities like CASA, Patrick Henry Family Services, Habitat for Humanity, Lynchburg Touch-A-Truck, United Way and many others. We are the area’s largest residential dealer of heating and air equipment. We sell, install, and service a wide variety of HVAC and Generator equipment. We also offer full-service electrical work.
Our Core Values: We use the acronym GREAT to guide our core values: Growth, Reliable, Ethical, Accountability, and Teamwork. This guides our day-to-day operations to promote a positive culture and comradery to keep our business a success with customers and coworkers.
Positive Work Environment: We organize monthly department meetings, weekly team huddles, 1:1 coaching, birthday and work-anniversary recognition, and multiple company wide events throughout the year. Along with regularly scheduled activities, we also like to keep our employees lively with things like surprise breakfasts and monthly contests for prizes.
Work-Life Balance: We promote work-life balance with flexible scheduling and remote work accommodations for office staff when needed. Our leaders model this balance, helping employees succeed professionally while preserving personal well-being. In addition to paid vacation time off, we do our best to ensure employees are off on-time or early for important personal events, such as anniversaries and birthdays!
Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion: Our commitment to equitable pay involves regular performance reviews to ensure fairness across the board.
By fostering a culture of respect and inclusivity, we make certain every team member feels appreciated and valued. We have career paths laid out for each individual. We are state accredited through NCCER Apprenticeship Program with a live lab onsite to allow for our technicians to receive hands on training to then be able to sit for their Journeyman & Master’s Exam.
Recent Accomplishments: So far in 2024 we have won Gold in Lynchburg Living’s Best Of Contest, Hall of Fame Recognition, and Best of Business contest for both Heating & Air and Electrical Company! We also have added a Plumbing Division that will begin offering services in September. In September 2025 we will be celebrating 50 years in business!
