North Carolina managed IT services provider earns 2026 workplace culture award determined entirely by confidential employee survey results.
DURHAM, N.C., July 2026 — Net Friends, a managed IT provider serving businesses across North Carolina, has been named a Top Workplace by Energage. The award is determined entirely by confidential employee feedback collected through the Workplace Survey, the same research-backed tool used across the national Top Workplaces program.
What is the Top Workplaces Award?
The Top Workplaces award recognizes companies whose employees report a strong workplace culture through the Workplace Survey. The survey measures real, lived employee experience, evaluating areas like trust in leadership, growth opportunities, and day-to-day engagement. Companies cannot win by writing a good submission. Employees decide the outcome by describing, in their own confidential words, whether the workplace lives up to its promises.
Why did Net Friends win a Top Workplaces Award?
Net Friends earned the recognition because its employees rated the company highly on culture, leadership, and engagement in the confidential survey. Staff regularly point to the company's Core Values, known internally as FITS, as the foundation for a culture where mentorship is built in, recognition happens often, and new hires are set up to succeed from day one.
What are the Net Friends FITS Core Values?
FITS stands for four values that guide how Net Friends operates.
- Fulfill Implicit Needs means anticipating what a client or teammate needs before they ask.
- Improve People's Lives reflects the idea that the job is about reducing risk and helping people think long term.
- Treat Everyone Like a Partner is built on trust in both directions.
- Share Knowledge captures the team's belief that everyone grows faster when information flows freely instead of being hoarded.
How does Net Friends put its culture into practice?
Net Friends core values show up in tangible ways. Every new hire is paired with a mentor through a formal mentoring program. The company runs on the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), which keeps the whole team rowing in the same direction instead of guessing at priorities. Recognition is not saved for annual reviews. Big wins and small wins get celebrated as they happen.
There is also a shared sense of humor, which probably helps. Every employee gets a custom LEGO minifig, and the CEO's minifig pulls double duty as the official office tour guide.
Headquarters is home to Aloha, a leucistic axolotl who is, by all accounts, the only Net Friend who can glow green and considers eating bloodworms a personal achievement.
What do Net Friends employees say about working there?
One support technician described a culture that encourages collaboration and growth, where team members support one another and no one is left behind.
Another employee, who came into IT from a completely different background, described being welcomed in and invested in rather than overlooked. That there is a culture rooted in camaraderie, accountability, and grace. People are encouraged to ask questions and grow through mistakes instead of being afraid of them.
"This award means a lot because it is not based on what we say about ourselves, it is based on what our team says about us," said John Snyder, CEO of Net Friends. "We have put real effort into building a culture worth being proud of, and seeing that reflected back through employee feedback is the best kind of validation."
What other awards has Net Friends won recently?
Net Friends has earned several industry honors in 2026, including MSP 501 2026, ChannelPro 2026 Partner in Excellence Award, and a spot on Cloudtango's MSP Select 100 for 2026. Those awards spotlight the company's technical performance. The Top Workplaces award is about the people behind it, the engineers, technicians, and account managers who show up every day to make IT easy for their clients.
About Net Friends
Founded in 1997, Net Friends has built a legacy of award-winning excellence in managed IT, cybersecurity, and infrastructure solutions for small businesses across North Carolina. A seven-year continuous recipient of the SOC 2 Type II audit certification, Net Friends also ranks among an elite group of technology providers recognized by Channel Futures' MSP 501 Global Ranking, the ChannelPro Partner in Excellence Award, the GTIA, and the Triangle Business Journal's Fast 50. These honors reflect not just operational integrity and security leadership, but a deep and lasting commitment to the clients Net Friends serves.
Learn more at netfriends.com or connect on LinkedIn.
Media Contact
Emily Dao-Forrester
Brand Manager
Emily.Dao-Forrester@NetFriends.com
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