Awards and Recognition
Advance Financial is proud to have been honored with awards and recognition for various different reasons, such as community service, our training program, best in business, chamber of commerce, workplace and learning, as well as recognition for members of our executive team. See below for a selection of the awards and recognition we have received.
Top Workplaces in Tennessee 2022
Advance Financial was named a Top Workplace by the Tennessean for the second time in 2022. The Tennessean Top Workplace program is designed to highlight companies in Middle Tennessee that have created great environments for their employees. To select the winning companies, a survey is sent out to collect feedback from employees. This makes it a very meaningful award to receive since it was decided on by our employees. We are looking forward to continuing to serve our community and employees in the future.
Forbes' List of America's Best Midsize Employers 2022
Advance Financial was honored to be named to Forbes' List of America's Best Midsize Employers in 2022. The award is based on a study done by Forbes in collaboration with the research company Statista. In the study, Statista surveyed 60,000 Americans working for mid-sized businesses. The respondents were asked to rate how likely they were to recommend their employer. Participants were then asked to name companies other than their own that they would and would not recommend. We were ranked 81 out of 500 on the list.
Forbes' List of Best Employers for New Grads 2022
Advance Financial was named to Forbes' ranking of The Best Employers for New Graduates in 2022. Employees were asked to rate their workplace based on different factors such as work environment, competitiveness of compensation, and more. Then, they were asked if they would recommend our company to someone else seeking employment. In the end, the research resulted in a list of 300 companies that received the most recommendations. Of the 300 companies, we were able to make the list again in 2022. We were ranked 67 on the list.
Activa Award from INFiN
Advance Financial received the prestigious Activa Award, given out by INFiN, a Financial Services Alliance, in recognition of our outstanding commitment to involvement in local communities across the country. The award was presented to us at the MoneyTrends 2022 conference in Austin, Texas, in particular recognition of our ongoing support of the National Museum of African American Music. The National Museum of African American Music encourages its visitors to discover the role African Americans have played in shaping the music industry throughout the years.
Forbes list of America's Best-In-State Employers 2021
In 2021, Advance Financial was named to the list of Forbes' list of America's Best-in-State Employers. This list is determined by a survey sent out by Statista. This survey was taken by 80,000 Americans working for businesses with at least 500 employees. They were asked to rank their employers on factors such as competitiveness of compensation, safety of their workplace, and more. The number of businesses that received this award was based on two factors - the number of qualifying employers and the size of the state's workforce.
Forbes' List of America's Best Midsize Employers 2021
Advance Financial was proud to be named to Forbes' list of America's Best Midsize Employers in 2021. To determine what companies made the list, Statista surveyed 50,000 employees working for midsized companies in the United States. Respondents were then asked to rate how likely they were to recommend their employer on a scale of 0 to 10. In the end, there were 500 midsize employers that made this list.
Forbes' List of Best Employers for New Grads 2021
Advance Financial was honored to be named to Forbes' list of Best Employers for New Grads in 2021. We were ranked 228 out of the 250 companies that won this award. We were also one of the only three Nashville-based organizations to be named to the list. The award is given based on a survey of more than 10,000 young professionals working for companies within the United States. On a five-point scale, employees were asked to rank their workplace based on certain factors such as working conditions, salary, diversity, etc.
2020 Manchester's Finest
Advance Financial is honored to be recognized as the finest Non-Bank Lender in 2020 Manchester's Finest. We are so thankful that the Manchester community recognized us for the amazing services that we provide. Thank you, The Manchester Times.
Advance Financial Awarded With Nashville Business Journal Fast 50
Advance Financial is honored to have ranked #3 on the Nashville Business Journal Fast 50 list in 2020. This award is taken from the Nashville Business Journal 100, a list of the area's 100 top private companies ranked by revenue that's been compiled for more than a decade. All the companies on this list are then asked for revenue totals for each of the past four years and ranked by the greatest revenue growth.
Advance Financial Awarded With 2020 Inside Arm Best Places to Work
Advance Financial was ranked in the list of 2020 Best Places to Work in Collections for the third consecutive year by industry leader insideARM. We found our place in the Medium Employer (50-149 US Employees) category. Winning is truly an honor and achieving it for three consecutive years is an overwhelming feeling.
CEO World Awards
The CEO World Awards program is Business Awards Recognizing Leadership and Management Achievements. It encompasses the world's best in leadership, organizational performance, CEO case studies, corporate social responsibility, innovation, new products and services and milestones from every major industry in the world. Organizations from across the world are eligible to submit nominations including public and private, for-profit and non-profit, largest to smallest and new start-ups. We are honored to be the Gold Winners for Milestone of the Year for hiring the 1,000th employee and opening our 100th store
Pillar World Awards
The Pillar World Awards is a premier awards program that recognizes the Best Employers and their Best Employees. Advance Financial was awarded a Gold Pillar World Award for Milestone of the Year in Jobs Growth in 2019.
Globee Awards
The Globee Awards is the World's Premier Business Awards for every industry. This is the second year in a row we were awarded the Globee award. Last year we received a Silver Globee Award. This year, it's a Gold Globee Award for Jobs Growth of the Year for welcoming hundreds of new employees.
Inc. 5000
The Inc. 5000 ranks the country's top 5000 fastest-growing private companies. The magazine recognized us for our revenue growth of 219 percent over the past three years. We are ranked #1851 in the overall ranking in 2019. "We are proud to say that this our eight consecutive year on the Inc. 5000 list". We ranked #1165 in the overall ranking in 2012. #1590 in the overall ranking and #96 in Financial Services Companies in 2013, #1771 in the overall ranking in 2014, #2230 in the overall ranking in 2015, #2061 in the overall ranking in 2016, #2000 in the overall ranking in 2017 and #2285 in the overall ranking in 2018.
Nashville Business Journal Fast 50
Advance Financial is honored to have ranked #3 on the Nashville Business Journal Fast 50 list in 2019. This award is taken from the Nashville Business Journal 100, a list of the area's 100 top private companies ranked by revenue that's been compiled for more than a decade. All the companies on this list are then asked for revenue totals for each of the past four years and ranked by the greatest revenue growth.
2019 Inside Arm Best Places to Work
Advance Financial was ranked in the list of 2019 Best Places to Work in Collections for the second consecutive year by industry leader insideARM. We found our place in the Medium Employer (50-249 US Employees) category. Winning is truly an honor and achieving it for two consecutive years is an overwhelming feeling.
Next Awards
We were named the winner of the Family Business Market Mover at the 2018 NEXT Awards. Organized by the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, the NEXT Awards recognize businesses of all sizes that make a significant impact on the Middle Tennessee economy.
The Best Employers for New Graduates
We were named to Forbes' first-ever ranking of The Best Employers for New Graduates.Forbes partnered with market research company Statista to conduct an independent survey of more than 10,000 young professionals working for companies that have at least 1,000 employees within the United States. On a five-point scale, employees were asked to rank their workplace based on atmosphere, development, image, working conditions, salary, workplace and diversity. They were also asked if they would recommend their company to someone seeking employment and were able to evaluate their industry's competitors. The 250 companies that received the highest scores were awarded a ranking on the list.
2018 Inside Arm Best Places to Work
As a leading fintech company, we were awarded one of insideARM's 2018 Best Call Centers to Work For To be eligible to rank as an insideARM's 2018 Best Call Center to Work For, a company must be operating a call center in the U.S. with more than 15 employees, which provides "either customer care, outsourced services, collections or online chat services." Employers complete a survey to share information about the company's policies, practices and demographics, and up to 400 employees per company fill out an Engagement and Satisfaction survey. Based on the answers from both questionnaires, companies are scored according to eight Core Focus areas: leadership and planning, corporate culture and communications, role satisfaction, work environment, relationship with supervisor, training, development and resources, pay and benefits, and overall engagement.
CEO World Awards Best 2018 Gold
Tina Hodges, our CEO and Chief Experience Officer, was a Gold CEO World Award for CEO of the Year and a Gold Women World Award for Female Executive of the Year in 2018.
Best Globee Awards Silver 2018
We were awarded a Silver Globee Award for Jobs Growth of the Year in 2018.
Pillar Awards Best 2018 Gold
We were awarded a Gold Pillar Award for Best Employer Achievement of the Year in 2018.
Women of Influence
We announced the inclusion of our Chief Executive and Chief Experience Officer, Tina Hodges, on the Nashville Business Journal's Women of Influence list for 2018. Tina was honored in the Family Business category.
CEO Connection
The Most Influential Women of the Mid-Market recognizes the women who are influencing change, innovation, and standards for excellence within mid-market companies (with revenue between $100 million and $3 billion). Honorees are evaluated by Annual Revenue, Number of Employees, First Impression on Social Media and Community Involvement. Tina Hodges, our CEO and CXO, was named to CEO Connection's list of the ‘Most Influential Women of the Mid-Market.'
The Golden Bridge Awards
We won gold for Corporate Giving in the Golden Bridge Global Awards. We were honored for our corporate citizenship program, and the Advance Financial Foundation, which gave $203,755 in charitable contributions in 2015 to education, health and wellness organizations in Nashville and the other 34 cities throughout Tennessee. Employees also logged a total of 1,557 community service hours in these cities. In the first half of 2016 the program gave $142,000 and volunteered nearly 1,000 hours.
One Planet Awards
The One Planet Awards is the world's premier awards program honoring business and professional excellence in every industry around the globe. We were named in both the Gold and Silver levels in 2016 and 2017. In 2017 we were named the Gold Level winner in both the Fastest Growing Company of the Year and Corporate Milestone of the Year categories. In 2016 we were named the Gold level winner for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Program of the Year and the Silver level for Most Customer Friendly Company of the Year.
FiSCA
Advance Financial recently received the highest honor in its industry: The Financial Service Centers of America (FiSCA) William Siegel Financial Service Provider of the Year Award. The company was also recognized as one of the seven financial service centers granted the 2016 Activa Award for leadership in their community through volunteerism and ongoing charitable contributions.
American Business Awards
The Stevie® Awards are the world's premier business awards. They were created in 2002 to honor and generate public recognition of the achievements and positive contributions of organizations and working professionals worldwide. In 2017, we were named a Bronze winner for Company of the Year, Financial Services, in the large category. In 2018, we won Bronze for Corporate Social Responsibility Program of the Year up to 2,500 employees and Silver for Fastest Growing Company of the Year up to 2,500 employees.
CEO World Awards Best 2017 Gold
The coveted annual CEO World Awards program encompasses the world's best in leadership, innovation, organizational performance, new products and services, CEO case studies, corporate social responsibility and milestones from every major industry in the world. Organizations from all over the world are eligible to submit nominations including public and private, for-profit and non-profit, largest to smallest and new start-ups. We are so proud of our Female CEO of the Year – Gold Winner for Corporate Social Responsibility, Tina Hodges.
Best in Biz Awards
Now in its 7th year, Best in Biz Awards honors companies, teams, executives and products for their business success in the current and previous year. We were honored to receive a Silver Award for the Most Customer Friendly Company of the Year
Lipscomb University
We are the proud recipient of the 2014 Business with Purpose Award, which is sponsored by the Dean Institute for Corporate Governance and Integrity at Lipscomb University. The award recognizes those individuals and companies who have demonstrated their unusual commitments to outstanding service to the community, to encouraging their employees to achieve a higher social mission and to achieving the highest level of profitability and financial success.
Most Admired CEOs and Their Companies
The Nashville Business Journal announced the winners of their Most Admired CEOs and Their Companies late in 2014, and Advance Financial's CEO Tina Hodges was among the winners. NBJ solicited nominations from the public, and nominees then voted on one another by category.
Best in Business Awards
The Nashville Business Journal identifies the companies that set the standard for growth, service, quality, innovation and execution of a superb business strategy. Finalists and winners were picked by a panel of judges who considered financial data like profitability and other metrics. We have been a finalist in 2013, 2012, 2011 and in 2014 we won in the 500+ employees category.
Training
Training Magazine votes the top 25 Emerging Leaders in Training. These people have been in the training industry between two and 10 years, led a large-scale training initiative, demonstrated specific leadership qualities and have the potential to lead the training or L&D function at an organization in the next one to 10 years. We were in the top 25 in 2013.
FiSCA
This award is centered on encouraging store owner/operators to improve the appearance of their stores. The association recognizes members that are operating stores that reflect positively on the industry, and encourage others to do the same. We won this award in 2013 and 2012.
25 Fastest Growing Companies
This award is taken from the NBJ 100, a list of the area's 100 top private companies ranked by revenue that's been compiled for more than a decade. The companies on this list are then asked for revenue totals for each of the past four years and ranked by the greatest revenue growth over the past three years. We were the #2 Fastest Growing Privately Held Company is 2013.
Mary Catherine Strobel Volunteer Awards
The Mary Catherine Strobel Volunteer Awards recognize volunteers who give their time and talents to improve the community. Hosted by Hands On Nashville in partnership with the Strobel family, the Awards honor the spirit of service demonstrated by Mary Catherine Strobel. We were a Corporate Service Project Finalist in 2013.
Inc. 5000
The Inc. 5000 ranks the country's top 5000 fastest-growing private companies. The Inc. 5000 is ranked according to percentage revenue growth over a four-year period. We have been on the Inc. 5000 list for seven years in a row. We ranked #1165 in the overall ranking in 2012. #1590 in the overall ranking and #96 in Financial Services Companies in 2013, #1771 in the overall ranking in 2014, #2230 in the overall ranking in 2015, #2061 in the overall ranking in 2016, #2000 in the overall ranking in 2017 and #2285 in the overall ranking in 2018.
Top Workplaces
The Tennessean Top Workplaces program is designed to highlight companies in Middle Tennessee that have created great environments for their employees. Out of the 605 employees that were invited to complete the survey, 515 employees responded, giving us a response rate of 85%. In 2013 and 2014 the program has recognized companies as Top Workplaces based solely on surveys about the workplace completed by its employees and we were one of those companies both years.
BizLibrary
BizLibrary, a leading employee training and development solutions provider for small and mid-sized companies, is proud to announce Advance Financial as the recipient of its 2012 Best Measured Results award. In 2012, we were recognized as having the Training Professional of the Year.
Chief Financial Officers Awards
Chief Financial Officers from across Middle Tennessee are selected by the Nashville Business Journal as finalists and winners by a panel of judges. In 2012, we won CFO of the year in the Small Private Company category.
ASTD Awards
The ASTD Awards programs recognizes individuals and organizations for their impact on the workplace learning profession and for contributions to ASTD. We won The Golden Torch Award for Technology Initiatives in 2012 and The Golden Torch in recognition of Achieving Results in 2011.
Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce
The Future 50 program identifies and celebrates the 50 fastest-growing, privately held companies in the Nashville area. The winners have contributed to economic growth in areas such as health care, technology, construction, manufacturing, finance, retail and services. We won the Future 50 Award in 2010.