By Joe Napsha
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, October 5, 2007

With a workplace philosophy of "everyone looking out for each other," it's easy to understand why the Downtown insurance company of Henderson Brothers Inc. was named Thursday as one of 100 Best Places to Work in PA.

"We're consistently trying to make it a better place to work. We try to take it to heart" when an employee makes a recommendation to improve the workplace at the 114-year-old business, said Daniel P. Grealish, chairman of Henderson Brothers. He runs the company, which has about 106 employees, along with his brother Thomas, who is president.

Henderson Brothers was one of 13 companies with operations in Western Pennsylvania that were named to the list by the nonprofit Team Pennsylvania Foundation of Harrisburg. The foundation worked on the Best Places to Work in PA Program, in partnership with the state Department of Community and Economic Development and the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry.

The list was compiled from the results of an evaluation of workplace policies and practices, and a survey measuring employee experience on the job. The rankings of the 100 companies will not be released until a Nov. 27 awards ceremony in Hershey, the foundation said.

Concurrent Technologies Inc., which is based in the Johnstown suburb of Richland and has an office in Pittsburgh, made the list for the seventh consecutive year, said spokeswoman Mary Bevan. The positive feedback from employees of the technology company, which has 1,500 workers, including 800 in Johnstown, "shows we do a lot of exciting high-tech work," Bevan said.

Among other repeat performers from the 2006 list were three hospitals: the Indiana Regional Medical Center in Indiana, Butler Memorial Hospital and St. Clair Hospital in Scott; Corazon Inc., a medical consulting firm in Ross; Sheetz Inc., a convenience store chain based in Altoona; Ad-Base Systems Inc., a telecommunications firm in Castle Shannon; and S&T Bank of Indiana.