Finding a good career home can be challenging. But working for a great company, enjoying what you do and seeing the impact of your efforts, shouldn’t be something you’re forced to sacrifice.
There are too many great employers out there to settle for just any of them.
You would be an asset to any organization.
In recognition of this — and the excellent work their employees do — the best companies focus on creating top-notch work environments, cultivating an atmosphere where people can enjoy themselves, feel welcomed, leave an impression and thrive.
Unsurprisingly, the companies that make this a priority are often found within flourishing communities.
Located in Stearns County, Minnesota, St. Cloud and its surrounding areas are home to nearly 200,000 people. A short drive from the Twin Cities and a stone’s throw from many of Minnesota’s wonderful lakes, St. Cloud is a place with activities and opportunities for all kinds of people.
As a result, St. Cloud has historically been fertile ground for businesses, in a variety of industries, to grow.
Anderson Trucking Service (ATS), for example, started in 1955 as a two-driver trucking company. Today, ATS is proud to rank among the transportation industry’s largest companies with more than 1,200 full-time corporate and maintenance employees and 1,500 drivers.
Over the years, we’ve witnessed other local companies grow at a similar pace, drawing more talented people (like you) to the St. Cloud area.
Although we’re always looking for new team members and firmly believe that our culture, values, benefits, history and the growth potential offered here are hard to beat, we also recognize there are other options out there — and some pretty great ones at that.
In the end, the only thing that matters is that you find a job you enjoy at a company that truly values the work you do. That’s why this article will list 10 of the best companies to work for in the St. Cloud, Minnesota area in 2024. Below this list, we have also included some criteria you should consider when choosing your next employer to ensure as sound a selection as possible.
Please note: this is not a comprehensive list of the best companies in St. Cloud. Instead, we’ve listed a group of the most prominent businesses in this area. Each of these businesses has a rich history in Minnesota and makes an impact on the larger world every day.
These companies are ordered based on the year they were founded.
Top 10 Companies to Work For In The St. Cloud Area
- Blattner Energy
- Xcel Energy
- Stearns Bank
- Bernick’s
- Coborn’s, Inc.
- Magnifi Financial Credit Union
- Park Industries
- Microbiologics
- Marco Technologies
- CentraCare
Blattner Energy
Founded Date and Location: 1907 (became Blattner Energy in 2008) | Sauk Rapids, Minnesota
Headquarters Location: Avon, Minnesota
Ownership: Privately held
Values*: Leadership, Legacy of Learning, Character, Personal Fulfillment
Mission Statement*: “We strive to be the most preferred service provider in the renewable construction industry and create value for each client by:
-Delivering solutions that result in client satisfaction and trust
-Seeking to discover what barriers may exist
-Understanding our clients' businesses
-Teaming with our clients to fulfill their wishes
-Building the foundation to power communities”
Industry: Energy and Construction
Number of Locations*: 1
Number of Employees*: More than 1,500
*According to Blattner’s website
Xcel Energy
Founded Date and Location: 1909 | Stillwater, Minnesota
Headquarters Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Ownership: Publicly Traded
Values*: “Ensure safety for ourselves, our coworkers and the public, Work productively and create a challenging and rewarding workplace, Treat all people with respect, Conduct all our business in an honest and ethical manner, Work together to serve our customers, Be accountable to each other for doing our best, Promote a culture of diversity and inclusion, Protect the environment, Achieve operational excellence.”
Mission Statement*: “We provide our customers the safe, clean, reliable energy services they want and value at a competitive price.”
Industry: Energy and Utilities
Number of Locations*: 20
Number of Employees*: More than 11,000 employees
*According to Xcel Energy’s Website
Stearns Bank
Founded Date and Location: 1912 | Saint Cloud, Minnesota
Headquarters Location: Saint Cloud, Minnesota
Ownership: Employee-owned
Values*: Trailblazing Creativity, Constant Progress, Sense of Urgency, Ambitious Hard Work, Proactive Communication, Common Sense, Tenacious Pursuit of Excellence, Employee Ownership, Surpassing Expectations, Community and Family, Culture of Success, Teamwork, Integrity and Accountability, Constant Progress
Mission Statement*: “We are driven by our passion to help others achieve their greatest ambitions. We get the job done with urgency, tenacity and unlimited imagination.
We are an unrivaled trailblazer, most admired for our people, our imagination, our simplicity. Business starts here and thrives here — we are the bank you can’t live without.”
Industry: Banking and Financial Services
Number of Locations*: 11
Number of Employees: More than 500 employees
*According to Stearns Bank’s website
Bernick’s
Founded Date and Location: 1916 | Saint Cloud, Minnesota
Headquarters Location: Saint Cloud, Minnesota
Ownership: Privately held
Values*: Team Members and Customers, Building Long-Term Relationships, Community Involvement, Strive For Excellence
Mission Statement*: “Our team members professionally sell and service all customers with solutions benefiting all stakeholders.”
Industry: Beverage Warehousing and Distribution
Number of Locations*: 6
Number of Employees*: More than 650
*According to Bernick’s website
Coborn’s, Inc.
Founded Date and Location: 1921 | Sauk Rapids, Minnesota
Headquarters Location: Saint Cloud, Minnesota
Ownership: Employee-owned
Values*: Fresh, Guest Focus, Health & Nutrition, Promotional Excitement, Sustainability
Mission Statement*: Be remarkable! Inspire happiness, healthy living and simplicity, one guest at a time.
Industry: Food and Beverage
Number of Locations*: >100
Number of Employees*: Nearly 10,000
*According to the Coborn’s, Inc. website
Magnifi Financial Credit Union
Founded Date and Location: 1939 | Melrose, Minnesota
Headquarters Location: Melrose, Minnesota
Ownership: Member-owned
Values*: “building up our shared communities, providing financial solutions that are easy and simple, earning the trust and respect of each member through our expertise, and doing what is right for our entire membership”
Mission Statement*: Your world in focus. We will continue to serve you, the member.
Industry: Banking and Financial Services
Number of Locations*: 24
Number of Employees: More than 300 employees
*According to Magnifi Financial’s website
Park Industries
Founded Date and Location: 1953 | Saint Cloud, Minnesota
Headquarters Location: Saint Cloud, Minnesota
Ownership: Privately held
Values*: Trust, Integrity, Respect
Mission Statement*: “...purpose of creating outstanding experiences by providing the most dependable, high-precision manufacturing solutions that enable our customers, associates and community to thrive”
Industry: Steel and Stone Fabrication Machinery
Number of Locations*: 1
Number of Employees*: More than 280 employees
*According to Park Industries’ website
Microbiologics
Founded Date and Location: 1971 | Saint Cloud, Minnesota
Headquarters Location: Saint Cloud, Minnesota
Ownership: Privately held
Values*: Trust, Customer Focus, Innovation, Engagement, Accountability, Winning
Mission Statement*: To provide the highest quality biomaterials for a safer, healthier world.
Industry: Biological products and services
Number of Locations*: 4
Number of Employees*: More than 200
*According to Microbiologics’ website
Marco Technologies
Founded Date and Location: 1973 | Saint Cloud, Minnesota
Headquarters Location: Saint Cloud, Minnesota
Ownership: Privately held
Values*: Employee Engagement, Client Satisfaction, Community Support, Vendor Partnerships,
Mission Statement*: “To help our customers effectively apply technology that contributes to their success.”
Industry: Technology Services
Number of Locations*: 47
Number of Employees*: More than 800
*According to Marco’s website
CentraCare
Founded Date and Location: 1995 | Saint Cloud, Minnesota
Headquarters Location: Saint Cloud, Minnesota
Ownership: Nonprofit
Values*: Health and Wellbeing, Listening, Expert Clinical Care and Collaboration, Human Dignity, Smart Stewardship, Community and Relationships
Mission Statement*: “Our collective mission is to serve, providing expert health care that is close to home.”
Industry: Healthcare
Number of Locations*: >50
Number of Employees*: About 11,800
*According to CentraCare’s website
Essential Considerations When Selecting an Employer
If you’re looking for a new job in the St. Cloud area, these ten companies are a great place to start. Obviously, the type of work you’re looking for will influence which businesses you explore first. Your interests will likely play a role here too.
At the end of the day, you need to exit your job search with an offer at the right company. Realistically, though, the right company for you might not be listed here.
For this reason, it’s important that you have the tools to pick an employer regardless of where your career hunt takes you.
During our time hiring employees across the nation, we’ve noticed that there are several commonalities in the company-selection criteria people have.
This is for good reason.
The ability to parse out the best employers from the field is an important skill for all job seekers to hone.
To help you do so, here are the most essential considerations to make when analyzing and selecting which business is right for you:
- Financial stability
- Reputation
- Environmental impact
- Compensation and benefits
- Career growth and training
- Work-life balance
Let’s touch briefly on why each of these is important and what you should, ideally, be looking for.
Financial Stability
The value of working for a financially sound company is difficult to quantify. Knowing that their income stream won’t falter due to an economic downturn, or for any other reason, is important to everyone. Your job helps you purchase essentials and live a comfortable life.
As such, it’s not unreasonable to seek a company that will be there, no matter what the world throws at it, offering you employment well into the future. Though they’re terribly inconvenient and stressful, layoffs happen. However, they occur far less frequently at financially stable companies.
Additionally, financially stable businesses can invest in their employees more substantially than companies that struggle to make ends meet. For these reasons, look for a financially stable institution, a company that grows through downturns, is constantly adding new talent and gives back to the communities they operate in.
Reputation
At the end of the day, our reputation is really all we (as individuals) have. The same can be said for businesses. Companies with a bad reputation usually struggle to offer their employees the same opportunities as more reputable organizations.
Beyond this, other companies and individuals tend to steer clear of those with a bad reputation — whether it’s for service quality, trustworthiness or otherwise.
So, as your job search continues look for companies that are in good standing within their industry and community. Ask yourself: does this employer seem to have high turnover?; Does its reputation precede them? And, if so, do they generally have a reputation for treating their employees well and customers attentively?
Don’t overlook a potential employer’s reputation when seeking out work; in the end, this reputation (good or bad) is passed to those associated with them.
Environmental Impact
Every company under the sun has started to take steps to monitor, assess and improve its overall environmental impact. This strategy can take many forms. At ATS, for example, we consistently work to reduce our fleet’s emissions and strive to remain on the cutting edge of technological advancement in our industry.
Most companies have similar strategies and environmental impact goals. Ask your prospective employers about theirs. Every great company will have a comprehensive corporate plan for improving its environmental impact and openly display as much on their website. These are the companies you, in all likelihood, will want to work for.
Compensation and Benefits
This is a big one. Feeling like you are being properly compensated for the work you do is important. The truth is, some companies pay better than others. As a result, if you are driven by money and determined to find the job that will pay you most, you may have to sacrifice in some other areas — but not always.
Make sure to ask each potential employer about the pay scale for the role you’re looking at. Though many make this information readily available, some will keep pay information shrouded. The last thing you need is to get all the way through the interview process, dedicating significant time in doing so, to find out the pay range is not where you need it to be.
Benefits are another thing to consider here. Often a company’s benefits affect the pay they can offer. As such, it’s important to weigh benefits and pay in tandem instead of individually. Ask each business about their benefits packages and make sure they’re offering everything you’re looking for.
Related: Understanding Your Benefits Package: What to Look For and Consider
Career Growth and Training
We all want to grow in our careers. Working at a large, tenured company, although a great way to accomplish this goal, isn’t the only way to do so. Plenty of businesses offer people the chance to expand their skillsets and grow professionally.
It can be really frustrating to start a new job only to find years down the line that there is no opportunity to expand in your role or progress into the organization. If this is important to you, make sure your next employer lays out a path for employee growth and training before signing on.
Work-Life Balance
Some professions make achieving work-life balance more difficult than others.
Some companies make work-life balance a priority by giving employees avenues for achieving it, motivating them to take paid time off and allowing them to disconnect during non-work hours. Other companies aren’t as good at this and form something of a burnout culture where work comes first and everything else falls by the wayside.
As you continue your job search, it will be crucial to understand what every position can truly offer you here. Without this knowledge, you may find yourself accepting a job that doesn’t meet your expectations or needs.
Have You Considered Working in Transportation?
Now you have a list of companies in the St. Cloud area where thousands of employees clock in every day. Any of these businesses has the potential to be the career home you’re looking for and. . . now you know exactly what to look for during your search :).
Here at ATS, we are also proud to rank among the premier employers in St. Cloud.
And, with regional offices around the country, if you’re looking to join a growing company that values integrity, determination, responsibility, innovation and excellence, we’re confident we have the right position for you.
However, it’s not uncommon for people to have trouble seeing themselves in the transportation industry. If you feel the same way, we totally get it; from the outside looking in, it can be difficult to imagine your place in such a large, complex space.
Honestly, we’d love to have you but also want you to be sure when making such an important decision. Check out this article which goes over a few of the pros and cons of working in transportation. We’re willing to bet some of the advantages will surprise you.
Finally, if you would like to learn more about what working at ATS could mean for you, check out our careers page today!
