OKCBusiness presented the top 30 companies with awards at the Best Places to Work in Oklahoma in Oklahoma reception and dinner May 1 at the Cox Business Services Center.

Selected companies were grouped in categories of medium companies (25 to 249 employees) and large companies (more than 250 employees). Large company Edward Jones and medium company CFR Insurance and Risk Management took top honors.

Medium companies honored as Best Places to Work included:

Tate Publishing Tullius, Taylor, Sartain and Sartain Scott & Goble Architects Inc. Selser Schaefer Architects Vox Printing Claimetrics Coppermark Bank Grant Thornton LLP (Oklahoma City) BVA Advanced Eye Care North American Group Scott Rice Rees Associates, Inc. Eide Bailly LLP Beam's Seatbelts

Large companies honored as Best Places to Work included:

U.S. Cellular Chesapeake Energy Corp. Capital One Auto Finance Emergency Physicians Billing Services Diagnostic Laboratory of Oklahoma Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation Great Plains Regional Medical Center Tinker Federal Credit Union Integris Health Stanley Inc. First Fidelity Bank N.A. Oklahoma City University Kimray Inc. Norman Regional Health System

"The competition for qualified employees in Oklahoma intensifies as our state's economy grows," Bill Bleakley, OKCBusiness' publisher said. "These companies have clearly made the connection between a quality workplace and a quality workforce."

The selection process included the Best Companies Group engaging Modern Think, a workplace excellence consulting firm, to independently conduct an employee survey and assessment of each company that applied.

Peter Burke, Best Companies Group president spoke at the event along with Oklahoma Lt. Gov. Jari Askins.

Criteria for eligibility requires a company to be a for-profit or non-profit business or governmental organization, have a local Oklahoma facility and have 25 employees within the Oklahoma workforce.

Oklahoma Department of Commerce, Oklahoma Manufacturing Alliance, The State Chamber, Oklahoma State Council for HR Management, Greater Oklahoma City Chamber and the Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits partnered with OKCBusiness to present the state-wide program.