CompTIA Named a Leading Small Business Employer for Fifth Straight Year

There are lots of big names in the IT certification universe, some of which borrow a certain degree of their stature from a parent organization's reputation in other IT realms. Microsoft, Cisco and Oracle, for example, all have thriving certification programs, but certification isn't really what those companies are known for. It's kind of the other way around with CompTIA, which has such impressive and long-established notoriety in certification circles that its other activities are sometimes a bit overshadowed by that sterling reputation.

What's interesting about the Computing Technology Industry Association's monolithic stature is that it's actually not all that large in organizational terms. Which is a long-winded way of explaining how it is that when CompTIA this week was named one of the Best Places to Work in Illinois by the Chicago-based Business Ledger (a Daily Herald imprint), the recognition was bestowed in the category of "medium-sized" employer. And that's a bit of a misnomer, really, since the "medium" range is from 100 up to 499, and CompTIA is "large" enough to be included by just 17 entries on the company payroll. (Did you just do a double-take? That's right, CompTIA has 116 employees in Illinois, out of a global workforce of ... 195.)

CompTIA, which has its world headquarters in Downer's Grove, Ill., has been an apple of the eye of the Illinois small business scene for quite some time. This marks the fifth straight year that CompTIA has been deemed a premier Illinois workplace, a run of success that human resources vice president Colleen Hughes said in a statement to media members is no accident. "Our commitment to making CompTIA a place where our employees can balance careers and home lives is fully supported by our executive leadership and our board of directors," Hughes said.

CompTIA has curated a thriving certification program since 1992, bestowing its general purpose IT knowledge A+ credential for the millionth time last year. Yet just as the A+ is but one certification among many (CompTIA offers 17 professional credentials in all), certificaiton is but one of CompTIA's many activities.

That global workforce of 195 employees manages relations with more than 2,200 member IT companies, as well as 3,000 partner organizations worldwide. Throughout the year, CompTIA conducts studies and publishes reports, arranges well-attended technology conferences, supplies a leading technology advocacy voice, provides various business services to members, and oversees the work of its own busy charitable foundation.

All of that gets accomplished, it would seem, without CompTIA's losing focus on the importance of its employees. CompTIA was ranked third among the 27 employers honored in the "medium" catergory. The Business Ledger doesn't bestow its recognition lightly, either. Nominated companies are subject to an external evaluation that reviews workplace policies and practices, but the real hurdle is internal. A second evaluation is given by each organization's individual employees, who respond to a survey that assesses their day-to-day experience.