Top 50 Innovative Businesses: Hood College, HR Answerbox and iHire

This year FCOED is recognizing and celebrating Frederick County’s innovative businesses. These businesses are making the biggest impact on their industries, workplace, and community — thriving in today’s ever-changing environment. Join us as we get to know our Top 50 Innovative Businesses.


Hood College
401 Rosemont Ave
Frederick, MD 21701
https://www.hood.edu/

Hood College has launched innovative new programs, such as sustainability studies and nutrition science, while also expanding its business and nursing programs to meet emerging workforce needs. Local partnerships with major organizations allow for ample internship & research opportunities.

We innovate with a host of exciting projects that anticipate emerging needs, while also enriching student experiences & benefiting the community. We have expanded into new markets by launching programs in public health, sustainability and nutrition science.

Our partnership with Kite Pharma provides students with a state-of-the-art lab to study cell therapy manufacturing. The establishment of The Ruth Whitaker Holmes School of Behavioral & Health Sciences in collaboration with Frederick Health will train the next generation of healthcare workers. Data Driven Frederick, housed at The George B. Delaplaine Jr School of Business, is a valuable resource that offers data analytics to Frederick-based organizations. Our doctoral program has partnered with Leadership Frederick County to recruit Hood professors for graduate-level leadership instruction. The NeighborHOOD Partners program grants scholarships to partners’ employees & their dependents.

For more than 125 years, Hood College has been a leader in higher education locally, regionally and nationally. Hood serves the needs of Frederick and the surrounding regions by providing leading-edge content in business, STEM, the humanities and education. Local partnerships with major organizations allow for ample internship, networking & research opportunities, ultimately contributing to the workforce, keeping graduates to contribute to the vitality of the community.

HR Answerbox
12509 Legore Bridge Road
Woodsboro, MD
https://hranswerbox.com/

HR Answerbox is a human resources consulting firm that solves people management challenges for small and mid-size businesses. We offer HR advisory services, training and coaching. We launched January 19, 2016.

By leveraging technology, HR Answerbox offers a Virtual HR Service that provides clients an online portal with hundreds of resources, as well as live support from our HR advisors. We also converted our most popular training into an online course called New Manager Bootcamp.

iHire
41 E All Saints St
Frederick, MD 21701
https://www.ihire.com/

iHire is a career-oriented platform that powers 57 industry-focused talent networks. For more than 20 years, iHire has combined advanced job matching technology with its expertise in the talent acquisition space to connect job seekers with employers faster and easier than a general job board.

With “Innovative” serving as one of our core values, iHire constantly identifies ideas, processes, and products that generate positive change for our customers, associates, and community – including launching an internship program to break down career barriers for entry-level software developers.

There is a growing gap between the skills of an entry-level software development candidate and the skills required to obtain positions. The industry has set standards that can be unrealistic – entry-level jobs often require 6 months of experience or a degree. iHire recognizes that candidates with diverse backgrounds can be top-performing employees if given a chance and a sustainable income. To break down career barriers for entry-level devs, we launched the iHire Internship Program in the spring of 2022. Per 6-month session, 5 interns work 4 days a week in our Frederick office. Interns assist in creating tech for our platform and backend systems – no making copies or fetching coffee!