The Enquirer invited all 100 Top Workplaces to tell us what makes each so special. Here are excerpts from their responses.

These companies did not respond to our invitation, and so are not listed here: Aerotek, Beech Acres Parenting Center, Cohen Bros. Inc., Creekside Early Childhood School, Edward Jones Investments, the Kenwood by Senior Star and Northern Kentucky Area Development District.

AAA Allied Group Inc.

AAA was founded in 1902 by owners of the nation’s first automobiles, and today we have more than 53 million members in North America. AAA continues to provide best-in-class roadside assistance and mapping products. Our company is successful due to the dedicated service professionals supporting our members each and every day.

Account Control Technology

Account Control Technology, established in 1990, helps companies manage and collect debt. ACT has been recognized by Inc. magazine as one of America’s 5,000 fastest-growing private companies for the past seven years.

Alliance Data Retail Services

Alliance Data Retail Services is one of the nation’s leading providers of branded credit card programs with many of North America’s best-known brands. Alliance Data was named to Fortune magazine’s 2014 list of World’s Most Admired Companies.

Apollo Heating, Cooling Plumbing

Founded in 1910, Apollo remains a family-owned and operated business. We recently added a Home Handymen team to take care of just about any item on a homeowner’s to-do list.

AssureRX Health Inc.

AssureRx is one of the nation’s leading personalized medicine companies. Based in Mason, our company has an open-concept office that is used to push teamwork. Employees enjoy the perks of sharing a campus with the Mason Community Center.

The Bank of Kentucky

The Bank of Kentucky opened its doors in a small trailer in Burlington in 1990. Today, it’s the largest community bank in Northern Kentucky and the sixth-largest in Greater Cincinnati. The bank recently opened its first location in Ohio, a branch at Fourth and Walnut streets Downtown.

Belcan Corp.

If you have stepped on a plane or eaten off a paper plate, you have likely used a product that Belcan engineers helped design. We provide engineering and staffing resources to more than 1,300 companies every year.

The List: Find out where each company ranks

Database: Search the list and find out more about each company

Top Large Company: Ohio National Financial Services

Top Midsize Company: Burke Inc.

Top Small Company: Systems Evolution

Top leaders: Advice from the corner office

Top Workplaces: What matters most

The Belting Co. of Cincinnati Inc. (CBT)

CBT has grown since its founding in 1921 into one of the largest distributors of industrial automation, electrical supplies, mechanical power transmission, belting and conveyor components in Southwest Ohio.

BioRx

BioRx is a national provider and distributor of select specialty pharmaceuticals, related supplies, and clinical, reimbursement and in-home support services.

Butler County Educational Service Center

Established in 1914, the agency serves grades K-12 and has grown from 23 employees to 410 during the past 21 years.

CE Power Solutions

CE Power Solutions, founded in 2001, provides engineering and technical services to the high-voltage power industry. We provide field studies, field testing/maintenance, repair and upgrade services for high-voltage electrical power equipment.

The Children’s Home of Cincinnati

We are one of Cincinnati’s oldest private child-serving agencies. Founded in 1864, we have transformed from an orphanage to an adolescent residential treatment center. Now we are a multi-service agency for children facing social, behavioral and learning challenges.

The Cincinnati Insurance Cos.

Our associates have made it possible for our parent company, Cincinnati Financial Corp., to pay a shareholder dividend that has increased every year for 53 straight years, a record that only nine other U.S. companies can match.

Cincinnati Zoo Botanical Garden

The Cincinnati Zoo is one of the oldest nonprofits in the city and the second oldest zoo (founded in 1875) in the country. The Zoo is home to more than 500 animal species and more than 3,000 types of plants. As the “Greenest Zoo in America,” the Zoo is home to the largest publicly accessible urban solar array in the U.S. and diverts more than 360 tons of waste from local landfills.

City Gospel Mission

City Gospel Mission was founded by James N. Gamble, inventor of Ivory soap, and has served Greater Cincinnati since 1924. We help the homeless and hurting obtain food and shelter, chemical recovery, jobs and youth services. We collaborate with more than 350 churches to annually serve 9,200 adults and 12,000 youth.

Coldwell Banker West Shell

More than 1,100 sales associates of Coldwell Banker West Shell and Coldwell Banker King Thompson serve the residential real estate needs of central Ohio, Greater Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky and Southeastern Indiana. Founded in 1906, the companies are part of NRT LLC, the nation’s largest residential real estate brokerage company.

Crossroads Hospice

We care for terminally ill patients and their families and caregivers. We provide bereavement services to anyone in the community for any type of loss whether it be a death, loss of job, divorce or a loss of a pet.

CTI Clinical Trial Consulting Services

Established in 1999, CTI delivers a full spectrum of clinical trial and consulting services. We focus on immunology and have a passion for helping life-changing therapies succeed in chronically and critically ill patient populations.

Custom Design Benefits Inc.

We offer a full menu of health-benefit administration. Included: Services related to self-funded medical, dental and vision plans; flexible spending accounts; health reimbursement arrangements; and health savings accounts.

Daymon Worldwide

Daymon Worldwide has evolved from a private brand pioneer into a full-service global retail branding and sourcing company. It works in areas of strategy and branding, sourcing and logistics, retail services and consumer experience marketing.

Divisions Inc.

We were founded in 1999 in Northern Kentucky by four friends in their early 20s with a total investment of $2,400. Our revenue in 2013: $100 million. This facilities-maintenance company annually grows between 15 and 20 percent and has expanded to 36 cities across the country.

Dressman Benzinger LaVelle PSC

DBL is the largest Northern Kentucky-based law firm. Two of DBL’s current clients (the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington and St. Elizabeth Healthcare) have been with the firm for more than 50 years.

Epipheo Inc.

Since the company started in 2008, we have produced Internet videos for more than 500 clients, including Google. Epipheo offers unlimited paid vacation time to employees and provides free, home cooked lunches three days a week to employees at its office.

Episcopal Retirement Homes

We deliver more than 400 meals on wheels each day to elders in 25 neighborhoods. Ninety-five percent are delivered by volunteer drivers.

The E.W. Scripps Co.

Scripps, founded in 1878, is a diverse media enterprise whose properties have 5,000 employees distributed among 19 TV stations; daily and community newspapers in 13 markets; and the Washington, D.C.-based Scripps Media Center, home of the Scripps Howard News Service.

The F.D. Lawrence Electric Co.

This year marks the 110th anniversary of our company, a wholesale distributor of electrical supplies, lighting equipment and controls. We’ve grown from our original location at 217-219 W. Fourth St. to four fully stocked warehouse locations across the region.

Fifth Third Bank

The region’s largest bank traces its origins to the Bank of the Ohio Valley, which opened in Cincinnati in 1858. In 1871, that bank was purchased by the Third National Bank. With the turn of the century came the union of the Third National Bank and the Fifth National Bank. Eventually the organizations became what is known today as Fifth Third Bank.

4C for Children

4C, the region’s leading resource in early education and care, works to ensure that all children are prepared for success in school and life. After starting out in 1972 with one employee providing services to the city of Cincinnati, we have grown to an organization of 100 employees providing services to 40 counties in Ohio and Kentucky.

FRCH Design Worldwide

Founded in 1968, FRCH provides comprehensive services in architecture, interior design, graphic design and brand strategy. Our clients include Disney, Hershey, Macy’s, Tiffany’s, Hilton, Xavier University, FedX-Kinkos, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Hyatt, Ohio State University, Darden, Ann Taylor, Loft, Godiva, McDonalds, Marriott and Westin.

Fund Evaluation Group LLC

We are one of the top 50 U.S. investment advisory firms, based on client assets under management. Our clients trust us with more than $40 billion in assets.

Funky’s Catering and Events Services

Funky’s, founded in 2004, is named after the nickname of primary owner Michael “Funky” Forgus. We are a true custom caterer and event services company.

God’s Bible School College Missionary Training Home

Ours is among the oldest continuously operating U.S. Bible colleges, founded in 1900. Noted alumni include Lillian Trasher, orphanage founder in Egypt; Sam Emerick, founder of Habitat for Humanity; and C.B. Widmeyer, hymn writer, educator and denominational leader. Our students operate Kids Club in downtown Cincinnati.

The Gorilla Glue Co.

We are a leading manufacturer of adhesives for DIYers, woodworkers and professionals. Our products have earned Popular Science magazine’s Best of What’s New Award, Popular Mechanics’ Editor’s Choice Awards and the Good Housekeeping Seal.

Great Oaks Career Campuses

Great Oaks Career Campuses, founded in 1972, is a public career technical school district that provides career programs for 36 school districts in Southwest Ohio. High school students can earn college credit while preparing for a career. Great Oaks also offers adult workforce development and personal enrichment classes.

Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health Services

Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health Services is the most comprehensive mental health agency in Hamilton County serving adults with severe mental illness.

Hamilton County Educational Service Center

Our staff of 500-plus talented professionals helps the PreK-12 school community in areas including special education, curriculum, standards, leadership, assessment, data analysis, instruction, professional development and educational technology.

Heritage Bank

Founded in 1990, Heritage Bank has 122 employees and is headquartered in Burlington.

Heritage Club

This Mason-based private country club founded in 1996 offers golf, tennis, swimming and dining for members.

HGC Construction Co.

HGC Construction hires and retains top talent to reflect the customers we serve. We bring together individuals from different backgrounds, cultures and thinking styles to create a variety of perspectives that cultivates ideas and originality.

Hydrotech Inc.

Hydrotech is a full-service hydraulics, pneumatics and automation distributor and systems integrator. We work with our customers to find innovative solutions to their unique applications and needs.

Integrity Express Logistics

Companies that need freight shipped, both nationally or regionally, rely on our dependable transportation, 24/7 availability and honest communication.

Intelligrated Inc.

Intelligrated is a leading North America-based (in Mason), single-point provider of automated material handling solutions. Our services drive distribution and fulfillment productivity for retailers, manufacturers and logistics providers around the world.

Johnson Investment Counsel Inc.

Since its founding in 1965, Johnson Investment Counsel has steadily grown to become Ohio’s largest independent wealth management firm, currently managing more than $8 billion for clients in 45 states.

Keating Muething Klekamp PLL

As a family-based law firm, it is nice to have our founding fathers’ family members still working at KMK. The foundation of the firm that started in 1954 has blossomed and grown, yet the family feel still remains.

Kinetic Vision

Kinetic Vision has been providing full-service product development services to international customers since 1985. Our areas of expertise include: concept ideation and industrial design, prototype development, product design and engineering, custom software development, reverse engineering, product visual communication and digital media creation.

The Kleingers Group

The Kleingers Group, founded in 1993 and based in West Chester, provides civil engineering, land surveying and landscape architecture design services.

LADD

Since 1975, LADD has been helping adults with disabilities learn the skills needed to obtain an optimum level of independence.

London Computer Systems Inc.

Loveland-based London Computer Systems is a developer of business-critical software technologies. LCS has grown by an average of 20 percent on a yearly basis for the past 13 years.

Loveland City School District

Founded in 1878, the Loveland City School District has 560 employees.

Madeira City Schools

Every March the Madeira Schools Foundation sponsors an auction that has raised more than $2 million the past 20 years for student enhancement. The school district was founded in 1808.

MarketVision Research Inc.

MarketVision Research originally was part of Taft Broadcasting. We’re one of the 50 largest marketing research firms in the U.S., according to the American Marketing Association.

MassMutual Financial Group – Innova Financial Group

A financial services and insurance provider since 1851, we offer a straightforward approach to building financial strategies focused around you, your schedule, your circumstances and your objectives.

The Matrix Cos.

We specialize in areas including workers’ compensation claims management, group-rating programs, self-insurance administrationand fraud investigations. We were founded in 2000 as an investigations company by two people in the Hamilton County Business Center.

Meadowbrook Care Center

Specializing in rehabilitation and skilled nursing healthcare and dementia care, Meadowbrook Care Center was founded in 1978.

Merchants Bank Trust

Despite the Great Depression in 1929, a group of private investors opened the Merchants Bank Trust Co. in West Harrison. Today, our board is made up of successful individuals from local business and academic communities, and our managers have more than 85 years of combined banking experience.

Michelman Inc.

Michelman is a global developer of water-based barrier and functional coatings for flexible film packaging, paperboard and corrugated cartons and other products. Our production facilities are in the United States, Europe and Singapore.

Mike Albert Fleet Solutions

Mike Albert Fleet Solutions is one of the top 10 fleet management companies in the country, and is currently the nation’s No. 1 privately held closed-end lessor.

Northeast Cincinnati Pediatric Associates Inc.

Our practice started in 1991 with one office in Montgomery, four physicians and nine employees. We now have three locations and 67 employees.

Paycor Inc.

Paycor moved into its new high-tech headquarters in Norwood in April. The company delivers paychecks not just to its 500 employees, but also to nearly 1 million employees of its more than 25,000 clients.

Pep

We handle timelines, budgets and vendor coordination for programs like direct mail, sweepstakes and events. Pep started 10 years ago with seven employees working out of a conference room and has grown to more than 180 employees working out of 12 offices throughout the United States and Latin America.

Perfection Group Inc.

Perfection, a third-generation family-owned business founded in 1951, provides commercial HVAC services, green building solutions and mechanical design-build services.

Phototype

Family-owned since 1919, Phototype is a fourth generation provider of innovative strategy-to-shelf packaging services to help Fortune 500 companies grow market share and reduce total delivered costs. Our Cincinnati campus consists of seven buildings between Florence Street and Gilbert Avenue. Fifteen percent of our workforce has been employed by Phototype 20 years or more.

Protective Life Insurance Co.

Protective, founded in 1907, provides a wide array of insurance and investment products.

Rhinestahl Corp.

Rhinestahl is a family-owned business, established in 1967. With multiple state-of-the-art facilities, we are an industry leader in innovative high-speed five-axis machine precision grinding, electron-beam welding, and equipment for fabrication and machining complex components and assemblies. We grew 50 percent in 2013.

RoundTower Technologies

With a three-year growth of more than 600 percent, our IT solutions provider has been recognized both locally and nationally. Recent awards and recognitions include Inc. Magazine’s Fastest Growing Companies and Ernst Young’s 2013 Entrepreneur of the Year.

St. Ignatius Loyola School

We’re a National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence, and the largest K-8 school in Ohio with 1,024 students from 24 ZIP codes. The school has waiting lists for many of its grades. It was one of the first schools to be approved for the Peterson Scholarship, which provides state funding to individuals with special learning needs.

St. Joseph Infant Maternity Home

St. Joseph Home is the only agency in Hamilton County providing a residence and respite center for children and adults with profound development disabilities. During our 144-year history, we have evolved to meet the changing needs of the community.

School Outfitters

School Outfitters is a leading web resource for furniture, equipment and information helping educators create the best possible learning environments. We offer a complete selection of more than 30,000 products, online shopping and customer support.

Sharefax Credit Union

Sharefax Credit Union, a nonprofit financial institution, was founded by Ford employees in 1960. (Those workers stood for hours in the morning and evenings to enroll members in the parking lots of the company’s Sharonville and Fairfax plants. This is where Sharefax got its name.) Today, anyone who lives or works in Adams, Brown, Butler, Clermont, Clinton, Fayette, Greene, Hamilton, Highland, Montgomery, Preble and Warren counties is eligible for membership.

The Shepherd Color Co.

The Shepherd Color Co., founded in 1981, is a fourth-generation, family-owned business dedicated to being a world-class producer of complex inorganic color pigments.

Sycamore Community Schools

Sycamore, founded in 1949, is one of only two school districts in Ohio to earn the highest rating from the state for 13 consecutive years. The property tax rate paid by residents (33.23 mills) is the fourth lowest in Hamilton County. The last property tax increase for operations was approved by the community in 2004.

TriHealth Inc.

TriHealth, an integrated health-care system, was formed in 1995 as a partnership between Good Samaritan and Bethesda hospitals. Providing a wide range of clinical, educational, preventive and social programs, TriHealth is the fifth largest employer in the region with approximately 11,400 employees.

UBS Financial Services

UBS has the highest market share of any financial firm in Cincinnati. UBS in Cincinnati has the firm’s largest market share of any major city.

United Community Bank

Our community has continued to grow. When we had a merger of two community institutions in 1999 we had two offices and approximately $185 million in assets. Today we have eight offices and approximately $509 million in assets.

The Urology Group

The Urology Group is one of the largest single specialty groups of urologists in the United States. In 2012, the Urology Group built a $20 million state-of-the-art outpatient facility in Norwood. We annually perform more than 14,000 surgeries at the Norwood campus, as well as thousands of imaging procedures, diagnostic tests and treatments.

Valicor Environmental Services

Valicor recycles oil, light bulbs, batteries, oily waste water, plastic, cardboard, paper, ballasts, electronics, inks, etc. In 2011, we managed more than 80 million gallons of liquid waste and recovered or recycled 7.2 million gallons of oil.

VRI

VRI, founded in 1989, is a medical monitoring company that provides health monitoring solutions to seniors and people with disabilities. Our The employees work hard to improve the quality of life and allow our clients to be safe and live well.

West Chester Hospital

West Chester Hospital, a 186-bed, all-private room, hospital opened in 2009 and is a member of the University of Cincinnati Health system. Services include an emergency department, inpatient and outpatient surgical procedures, as well as a full spectrum of inpatient and outpatient diagnostic testing and treatment facilities.