When it won the inaugural Top Workplaces award for small companies in 2015, AccuTrans painted a glorious picture of everyday life at the maritime service business. The boss calls employees to sing “Happy Birthday,” hands out Saints tickets and hosts staff and their families for crawfish boils and barbecues.

But like any other company, AccuTrans also deals with the occasionally unhappy employee. It may be someone who has been passed over for a promotion or a worker whose home stress follows him to the job. In these instances, the leadership’s open-door policy and responsive management style helps not only stave off discontent but also reinforces the team spirit at the heart of the company’s high standard of service.

These factors led to the Kenner company repeating as the NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune Top Workplace in the small employers division.

Chris Carter, AccuTrans senior vice president, said the company’s philosophy — efficiency, communication and constant employee growth — is stressed when hiring employees and vetting internal candidates for promotion. Both processes are extremely thorough, with the goal of making sure the future or current employee knows exactly what their job entails.

“We’ve been known to call Hell Week,” Carter said with a laugh, adding that some candidates withdraw when they figure out they aren’t cut out for the job.

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