Nominations for Top Workplaces now open

Journal Sentinel’s program surveys thousands to find best employers

The squeeze is on: Recruiting talented workers is becoming ever more difficult as unemployment rates locally and nationally shrink to what economists consider “full employment” levels.

One solution: Create a workplace that is among the very best in the region — and then let the world know about it.

We can help with that last part. For the past eight years, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and JSOnline.com have surveyed hundreds of thousands of local employees to find and recognize southeastern Wisconsin’s Top Workplaces — employers who take pride in providing work environments that give each employee the greatest opportunity to succeed.

Those are the businesses and organizations we want to reach, as today we officially open the nomination process for our ninth annual Top Workplaces program.

During the past decade, Top Workplaces has developed into the most prestigious and credible recognition of the region’s most admired employers, the businesses and organizations that offer their employees topnotch opportunities, flexibility and support.

This year, we’re again working with research firm WorkplaceDynamics to survey employees at the area’s leading small, medium and large employers about a host of issues: leadership, compensation, work environment, communication and other factors.

Companies and organizations — public, private, nonprofit or government — that have 50 or more employees in the 10-county southeastern Wisconsin area — Milwaukee, Waukesha, Washington, Ozaukee, Racine, Kenosha, Walworth, Sheboygan, Jefferson or Dodge — are eligible.

Anyone can nominate a company or organization, and those nominated will be asked to have their employees participate in the confidential online surveys at no cost. The surveys involve about two dozen questions and take just a few minutes for employees to complete.

WorkplaceDynamics then analyzes the results and does the rankings. Employers are ranked within three categories based on size: small (fewer than 150 employees), midsize (150-499 employees) and large (500 or more).

Nominations are welcome through Oct. 20.

For last year’s Top Workplaces awards, 1,350 companies were invited to participate, and 245 ultimately chose to be surveyed. Those companies employ 110,650 people in the region. Of those who received surveys, 69,204 responded.

WorkplaceDynamics asks employees to respond to a set of statements about their own workplaces. Each of the statements has been tested to ensure it has a high correlation with how employees feel about the place they work. The statements help assess employees’ views on organizational health, their own job as well as employee engagement.

Among the statements presented to employees were the following: “I believe this company is going in the right direction,” and “At this company, we do things efficiently and well.”

Once the survey process is completed, WorkplaceDynamics runs statistical tests to look for any questionable results. It disqualifies a small number of employers based on those tests.

Workplaces are grouped into size bands — large, midsize and small — based on the number of employees. These groupings were developed because smaller employers tend to score higher than midsize employers, and midsize employers tend to score higher than large employers.

Nominating an employer is easy: Just go to

or call (414) 376-5560.

Results will be released in the spring in special sections of the Journal Sentinel and JSOnline.com.