Training magazine Ranks the Winners of the 2025 Training APEX Awards

CONTACT:

Lorri Freifeld

Editor/Publisher

Training magazine

lorri@trainingmag.com

Excelsior, MN (February 18, 2025)—This year, Training magazine celebrated a quarter of a century of recognizing organizations that provide best-in-class employee training and development. At the top of the 2025 Training APEX Awards rankings is ESL Federal Credit Union (#1), followed by Applied Materials, Inc. (#2); Southern New Hampshire University (#3); Michigan State University Federal Credit Union (#4); and Allianz Insurance Company of North America (#5).

Training magazine recognized the 2025 Training APEX Awards winners with crystal awards and revealed their rankings during the Training APEX Awards L&D Silver Jubilee black-tie Gala held last night during the Training 2025 Conference & Expo at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando, FL. The black-tie gala was sponsored by Adobe, Awarding You, Brainier/ClearCo, and the Training Hall of Fame. Brella Productions served as the special events management partner. Adobe and Brainier/ClearCo provided special giveaways, including an Apple iWatch, gift cards, and a donation to the winner’s charity of choice.

Training Hall of Fame Inductees and Special Awards

Paychex, Inc.; State Compensation Insurance Fund; and The Haskell Company were inducted into the Training Hall of Fame after earning a Top 10 ranking for four consecutive years. The Training Hall of Fame now numbers 17 companies.

During the Gala, Training also recognized innovative and successful learning and development programs and practices utilized by some of the Training APEX Awards winners. Best Practice and Outstanding Training Initiative award winners received crystal trophies. They are (in alphabetical order):

BEST PRACTICE AWARD WINNERS

• ESL Federal Credit Union for E&I Academy
• Forvis Mazars, LLP, for STAR Integration
• JLL for One Team S.A.F.E.R. Together
• Johns Hopkins Medicine: Patient Access for Practical Application Training
• Walden Security for Shield360 Officer Training

OUTSTANDING TRAINING INITIATIVE AWARD WINNERS

• Carilion Clinic for Advance Care Planning
• Dexian for Center of Excellence
• Gilbane Building Company for Baseline Operations Training Initiative
• Mariner Finance LLC for Virtual New Hire
• Michigan State University Federal Credit Union (MSUFCU) for Superior Service Micro Learning Series

The Training APEX Awards is the only awards program that ranks companies unsurpassed in harnessing human capital. The Training APEX Awards ranking is determined by assessing a range of qualitative and quantitative factors, including financial investment in employee development, the scope of development programs, how closely such development efforts are linked to business goals and objectives, and their effectiveness in terms of behavior change and business impact.

Companies that wish to be considered for Training APEX Awards ranking complete a detailed application, which is scored both quantitatively (74 points) by an outside research and statistical data company and qualitatively (53 points) by Training magazine’s editor/publisher and Training Hall of Fame representatives.

“For the last 25 years, Training magazine has recognized organizations for their excellence in employee training and development,” said Lorri Freifeld, editor/publisher of Training magazine. “We are proud to honor this year’s winners for their inspiring achievements, innovation, and dedication to continuous learning and skill building.”

L&D Statistics

Some overall statistics from the quantitative analysis of the winning 2025 Training APEX Awards applicationsinclude:

• Some 19 new companies broke into the Training APEX Awards ranking this year.
• The majority of the winners are in the finance/banking and health/medical services industries.
• The mean revenue for winners was $5.9 billion U.S. and $9.6 billion worldwide. Representing 3.7 percent of payroll, the mean training budget was $11.9 million.
• The mean number of employees trained was 66,003. Winners had a mean of 80 full-time trainers and 68 part-time trainers. Organizations had a mean ratio of 839 employees per trainer. Technology infrastructure included: a learning management system (99 percent), talent management system (91 percent), and workforce management system (90 percent).
• Nearly 90 percent offered a tuition reimbursement program. A mean of 8 percent of eligible employees made use of tuition reimbursement programs in the last year. Median spend on tuition reimbursement programs was $193,823.
• Some 90 percent of the winners used employee satisfaction surveys, while 96 percent used competency maps. Some 72 percent tied managers’ compensation to the development of their direct reports.
• In terms of measuring training effectiveness, 93 percent of applicants utilized Return on Value and Return on Investment; 81 percent utilized Balanced Scorecard; and 78 percent used Six Sigma. Usage of the Kirkpatrick model was as follows: Level 1—99 percent; Level 2—98 percent; Level 3—97 percent; and Level 4—96 percent.

For a profile of each of the companies ranking in the Top 5 of the 2025 Training APEX Awards, additional information about the training efforts of all 95 companies, and details on the programs receiving Best Practice and Outstanding Training Initiative Awards, see the March 2025 issue. The digital edition can be found online later this week at https://www.trainingmag.com/.

Click here to order a copy of the issue or Training APEX Awards merchandise.

2025 Training APEX Awards Winners

1. ESL Federal Credit Union
2. Applied Materials, Inc.
3. Southern New Hampshire University
4. Michigan State University Federal Credit Union
5. Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America
6. HD Supply
7. Forvis Mazars, LLP
8. Walden Security
9. Ascend Federal Credit Union
10. Panda Restaurant Group
11. Hayes Locums
12. ArcBest
13. Long & Foster Real Estate
14. The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America
15. Coast Professional, Inc.
16. Carilion Clinic
17. Edward Jones
18. Shaw Industries Group, Inc.
19. The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
20. BankWest, Inc.
21. CBE Companies, Inc.
22. JLL
23. Veeam Software
24. Dexian
25. Apple Federal Credit Union
26. Mariner Finance LLC
27. First Horizon Corporation
28. Gilbane Building Company
29. Limbach Holdings, Inc.
30. Premise Health
31. AAA Northeast
32. Two Men and a Truck
33. Aptive Environmental
34. Bell and Howell, LLC
35. EisnerAmper
36. Bronson Healthcare
37. Hackensack Meridian Health
38. CVS Health
39. Greystar
40. Western & Southern Financial Group
41. Fisher Investments
42. Blue Sprig Pediatrics
43. Core & Main
44. VSP Vision
45. Sunstates Security, LLC
46. Valley Bank
47. One Nevada Credit Union
48. CNO Financial Group
49. Collective Health
50. England Logistics
51. MJHS
52. Northwestern Mutual
53. Johns Hopkins Medicine: Patient Access
54. PartnerHero
55. General Dynamics Information Technology
56. Spectrum Enterprise
57. ConServe
58. Cardinal Health
59. Huntington National Bank
60. Compass One Healthcare
61. Microchip Technology
62. Impact Networking, LLC
63. OpenTable & KAYAK
64. Ryan Companies US, Inc.
65. HGS (Hinduja Global Solutions)
66. PointClickCare
67. Groundworks
68. International SOS
69. Persistent Systems Ltd.
70. Allied Universal
71. Zensar Technologies
72. Harris Health
73. Bright Horizons Family Solutions
74. CCMR3
75. AKBANK
76. CCA Global Partners
77. Penn Station East Coast Subs
78. Kimball Midwest
79. Sovos Compliance
80. Nebraska Medicine
81. Thermo Fisher Scientific Research and Safety Division NA
82. Community First Credit Union of Florida
83. Unite Us
84. Kwest Group, LLC
85. Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration
86. LPT Realty, LLC
87. LaSalle Network
88. BankUnited
89. LCS
90. National Head Start Association
91. Minitab
92. Towne Properties
93. Fractal Analytics Pvt. Ltd
94. Axon
95. Alliant Insurance Services, Inc.

About Training magazine

Training magazine is the leading business publication for learning and development and HR professionals. It has been the ultimate resource for innovative learning and development—in print, in person, and online—over the last 60-plus years. Training magazine and Training magazine Events are produced by Lakewood Media Group. For more information about the 2025 Training Conference & Expo, please visit: www.trainingconference.com.