A company's culture is difficult to judge from the outside. The people who experience it every day can offer a much clearer view.
Heartland America has been named a 2026 Minnesota Star Tribune Top Workplace, marking the company's fifth year in a row receiving the recognition.
The honor is especially meaningful because the Top Workplaces program is driven by employee feedback. Rather than relying on a panel of judges or written award submissions, the program uses an employee engagement survey developed by Energage to evaluate the workplace experience.
Five Years of Top Workplace Recognition
Heartland America's latest recognition continues a multi-year record as a Minnesota Top Workplace. The company is based in Chaska, Minnesota, where teams support its catalog and digital retail business.
Heartland America describes its workplace around four core values: Passion, Curiosity, Humility and Grit. Those values emphasize serving customers, continuing to learn, listening to others and having the persistence to solve problems.
Purpose & Values
Heartland America was recognized in a category centered on how effectively an organization's mission and values are understood and reflected in its culture.
Leadership
The company's 2026 recognition also includes leadership, reinforcing the importance of communication, support and trust within the employee experience.
Professional Development
Heartland America was also recognized for professional development, an area closely tied to giving employees opportunities to learn, contribute and grow.
Why This Recognition Is Meaningful
Top Workplaces recognition is based on feedback captured through the Energage Workplace Survey. Employees are asked about the workplace experience and the culture themes that shape how people feel about their organization.
That approach gives the recognition added weight because the people who experience the workplace firsthand help determine which organizations earn the distinction.
The People Behind the Customer Experience
Workplace recognition may focus on employees, but the effects of a strong culture can extend beyond the office.
Heartland America's employees support the many pieces of the customer experience—from selecting merchandise and developing catalogs to answering customer questions, processing orders and preparing shipments.
Building a workplace where people can learn, contribute ideas and support one another helps the team stay focused on the company's larger mission: serving customers with useful products, strong value and personal service.
What makes the recognition meaningful is that it begins with the experiences of the people who know Heartland America's workplace best: its employees.
Recognition Built on the Workplace Experience
According to Top Workplaces, organizations do not earn the award through essays or a traditional judging process. Survey feedback is evaluated against research-based benchmarks used to identify workplaces that meet the program's recognition threshold.
That makes the award less about what a company says about its culture and more about how employees experience that culture themselves.
Continuing to Build the Culture
Five consecutive years of recognition are worth celebrating, but workplace culture is never finished. It is shaped by everyday decisions, conversations and the way people work together.
Heartland America sees its 2026 recognition as both a reason to thank its employees and a reminder to keep investing in the environment they help create.
To learn more about Heartland America's history, customer-first approach and other recognition, visit the About Heartland America page .
Learn More About the Recognition
About Heartland America
Heartland America has served value-minded shoppers since 1985. What began as a catalog retailer has grown into a catalog and digital shopping destination focused on useful products, strong value and personal customer service.
The company is headquartered in Chaska, Minnesota, and continues to serve customers nationwide through its website, catalogs and customer-service team.