2018 Free Press Top Workplaces nominations open

April 22--Who doesn't want great co-workers?

What boss doesn't want to improve recruiting and retention?

Those can be among the benefits of participating in the annual Detroit Free Press Top Workplaces program, which began accepting nominations Sunday, April 22, for awards to be announced later this year.

Any Michigan business or nonprofit organization with at least 50 employees may enter. Nominations will be accepted through June 15, and anyone -- employees, CEOs, retirees or customers -- is welcome to enter a workplace at freep.com/nominate.

Workplaces that join the competition are evaluated by their employees using a short 24-question survey. The survey is created and scored by Energage, formerly WorkplaceDynamics, the Free Press research partner for the project.

Energage conducts Top Workplaces surveys for more than 45 major metro newspapers, including the Free Press since 2008. The surveys covered more than 2.5 million employees at more than 6,000 organizations in 2017. The evaluations are designed to gauge and recognize organizational health and employee engagement.

The Free Press honors winning organizations on its website freep.com, at an awards event and in a Sunday newspaper in November. Details of the event and this year's keynote speaker will be announced as nominations wrap up.

The Free Press this year will continue enrolling workplaces in the Circle of Excellence, sponsored by the Better Business Bureau. The honor is bestowed on organizations whose employees give them top marks each year. Since 2015, 22 companies have been recognized.

Winning organizations get bragging rights, yes. And the honor raises their profile and validates that they are good places to work.

There's more, though.

"Top Workplaces is more than just recognition," said Doug Claffey, CEO of Energage. "Our research shows that organizations that earn the award attract better talent, experience lower turnover and are better equipped to deliver bottom-line results."

Energage created the Top Workplaces Fund, a virtual stock fund composed of the publicly traded companies recognized as Top Workplaces throughout the U.S. If you'd invested $10,000 in the Top Workplaces Fund at its inception, you'd have more than twice that today -- a 43% higher return than if you'd invested in the Russell 2500, an index of midsize companies.

Workplaces in the competition are categorized by the number of employees -- small companies have 50-149 workers, medium 150-499, and large 500 or more -- and then ranked based on anonymous survey responses from employees.

Last year, 241 businesses participated, with 150 winning recognition. In all, more than 59,000 Michigan employees weighed in on their workplaces.

2017 large winners

1. Team Rehabilitation

2. Credit Acceptance Corp.

Best places to work: Edward Jones, Plante Moran, MSU credit union

2017 midsize winners

1. Custom Home Health

2. Home Instead Senior Care

Best places to work: Service Express, Zach Hart Agency, Kapnick Insurance

2017 small winners

1. Financial Services of America

2. Optimal care

Best places to work: Image One, Capital Michigan, Atomic Object

Reach Randy Essex at ressex@freepress.com; follow @randyessex.

Details

Sign up at freep.com/nominate

Call 313-887-0471

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