Distant work was presupposed to erode firm tradition. The argument was acquainted by the early 2020s: camaraderie wants hallways, and loyalty wants a shared roof. Workers at Risepoint, scattered throughout america, Canada, the UK, and Australia, might have a counterargument.
The training expertise firm, which companions with greater than 100 universities and faculties on on-line diploma applications, earned 4 2026 Comparably Greatest Locations to Work Awards: Greatest Profession Development, Greatest Management Groups, Greatest Gross sales Groups, and Greatest Product & Design Groups. Comparably’s awards come completely from nameless worker suggestions gathered over 12 months, throughout classes that consider management, profession development, compensation, work setting, and group effectiveness.
A Workforce That Makes use of What It Builds
Risepoint employs greater than 1,400 folks, and the composition of that workforce reads like the scholar physique of the schools it serves. Of that group, 9 in 10 maintain school levels, and 4 in 10 had been the primary of their households to attend school. Roughly half have labored in training earlier than becoming a member of, and 43% have spent a decade or extra in larger training.
Probably the most telling determine could also be this one: 15% of staff have enrolled within the very diploma applications Risepoint helps. A large slice of the workforce has sat on the scholar aspect of the expertise, becoming coursework round a full work week the way in which most college students in these applications do. The corporate encourages the overlap: it reimburses tuition for workers who enroll in Risepoint-supported applications.
Chesley Fernandes, a group member who earned an M.Ed. in Academic Management, described what that appears like in observe. “I accomplished my diploma on the similar college I now assist and may relate to the scholars I work with day-after-day,” she mentioned. “With this connection, I can reassure them via my very own experiences that they aren’t alone and may succeed of their program.”
Profession Development, Measured From Inside
Of the 4 awards, Greatest Profession Development would be the hardest for a distant firm to win. Development in distributed organizations can favor whoever occurs to be most seen. Constructing profession paths with no hallway to be seen in takes deliberate construction: outlined improvement applications and leaders skilled to develop folks they not often meet in individual. Comparably provides the award to employers whose folks fee their room to advance, be taught, and develop professionally as sturdy, and Risepoint staff put the corporate in that group.
“These awards are particularly significant as a result of they arrive immediately from worker suggestions,” mentioned Fernando Bleichmar, the corporate’s CEO. “Our persons are on the middle of every part we do. We’re dedicated to fostering a tradition the place staff really feel supported of their development, empowered to make an influence, and related to a shared mission.”
Belief That Travels
The Greatest Management Groups award activates whether or not staff belief the manager group and the route it has set for the group. That form of confidence is constructed in another way over video calls than over lunch tables, and it tends to be extra fragile. The award sits alongside earlier Comparably recognitions for Greatest CEO, Greatest Firm Tradition, and Greatest Firm Work-Life Stability, a sample that factors to one thing sturdier than one good survey cycle.
Worker accounts echo the score information. “The work tradition is wonderful at Risepoint,” mentioned Jazzie Santos-Rogers, a senior supervisor on the expansion advertising and marketing group. “Not solely do you’ve got wonderful friends to collaborate with every day, however administration is educated and supportive on each stage.”
The remaining two awards, Greatest Gross sales Groups and Greatest Product & Design Groups, acknowledge the departments that anchor reverse ends of the enterprise: the individuals who construct college partnerships and the individuals who construct the instruments these partnerships run on.
The Mission Beneath
Risepoint concentrates on regional universities, the establishments that serve their surrounding communities and educate a lot of the native workforce. Its companion establishments span 40 states and 5 international locations, and the applications it helps lean towards fields the place demand stays sturdy: healthcare, training, enterprise, and public service. Most college students in these applications are working adults.
That focus shapes the tradition being rated. Workers who got here from training, had been first of their households to complete school, or earned levels via the applications they now assist have lived the mission from either side. When that workforce arms its employer 4 tradition awards in a single yr, the decision carries credibility no headquarters might provide.
