ALEXANDRIA, MN - Tastefully Simple, Inc., the original national home taste-testing company featuring easy-to-prepare food products, is a great place to work - according to its more than 300 team members. The company ranks in the top 5 percent of companies surveyed by an independent consulting firm.

"We are elated by the results of our survey," says Jill Blashack Strahan, Tastefully Simple founder and CEO. "It means we're providing team members with an outstanding place to work and living our principles of abundancy, magic and realness."

The survey, conducted by the Center for Values Research (CVR), an employee relations consulting group, looks at employees' satisfaction with a variety of elements including benefits, opportunities, culture, working conditions, fairness, work-group cooperation and overall satisfaction. The multi-faceted survey included participants nationwide. Divisions of companies such as Best Buy, Nabisco, Bayer and Mission Foods were among those that took part in the survey.

This is not the first time Tastefully Simple has made the survey's top 5 percent. The company has achieved the esteemed standing for five consecutive years and is aiming for a sixth. "We are committed to seeking feedback from our teams and we shape our decisions based on what we hear and learn from them," says Edgar Timberlake, Tastefully Simple Vice President of Team Relations.

CVR has conducted surveys for more than 800 corporations and nearly 1 million employees, using its capabilities to help to bring the values of employees and the goals of management into systematic alignment. CVR has worked with major companies including Hershey Chocolate USA, Iams, Lillian Vernon, Mercedes-Benz, Star-Kist Foods and Rubbermaid.