Growth at Accolade, where CEO is still a top leader

Last year, Tom Spann, chief executive officer of Accolade Inc., was named the top leader for small workplaces in the Philadelphia region. At that time, the company had 72 employees in the area.

This year, Spann was again named a top leader, based on employee responses to this prompt: I have confidence in the leader of this organization.

But now he's No. 1 for leadership among midsize workplaces. That's because a year of growth has more than doubled the regional head count of Accolade, based in Plymouth Meeting, to 152 employees.

Spann has said he is building the health-care management company on mottos of doing the right thing for clients and taking care of each other as teammates.

Here are some of the ways Accolade workers answered the WorkplaceDynamics survey question: What does the leader of this company do well?

He is very accessible to everyone. He is caring and approachable.

He is very transparent about his goals for the company, what we're doing well, and what needs to be worked on. He makes a point to interact with all of us and doesn't hide in a corner office.

He knows the role of Health Assistant as well as the Health Assistants do. I think this is vital!

He listens to the HAs that are on the front line.

[He] supports our motto in taking care of our clients and taking care of each other, encourages us to think outside the box and come up with ideas.

- Reid Kanaley