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Answers to the most commonly asked questions about Top Workplaces
Requirements vary from award to award. Generally, your organization must have at least 35 employees to qualify for Top Workplaces awards. Some awards have higher minimum employee counts and/or require an organization to be in a particular industry.
For more information about specific awards, visit these pages:
You can also connect with a Top Workplaces expert who can help you determine which awards to pursue. Start by nominating your company here.
No! A single employee survey qualifies your organization to participate in all eligible awards. Survey just once, and your results can be applied to any award in the next 12 months.
Gathering employee feedback from all levels of the organization is key to building a strong, people-first workplace culture. Employee inclusion in the survey is at the organization’s discretion. However, Top Workplaces encourages organizations to include as many voices as possible.
While surveying all full-time employees is required (a random sampling option is available for large organizations), the following categories of employees are encouraged to participate in the survey but are not required:
*The above excludes real estate and insurance organizations, which must survey all employees.
Additional considerations:
Eligibility for organizations with remote employees:
For organizations that have one or more physical locations but a concentration of employees within an area outside of the award region:
Remote employees may be counted towards an office location.
In cases where an organization would not meet the minimum employee count requirement, this may help them reach the minimum employee count.
Example: Sample Co. has a location in Austin with 40 employees. They also have 10 remote employees in San Antonio, where no office is located. The 10 remote employees in San Antonio can count towards the employee count for the Austin award and are now eligible for the Austin award because they meet the minimum of 50 employees.
If an organization has an eligible employee count that meets the minimum employee count designated by that award region, they can participate in that award.
Top Workplaces awards are based entirely on employee feedback. Unlike many other awards, there are no essays to submit or judging panels involved.
Organizations earn a Top Workplaces award by meeting or exceeding established benchmarks, developed from over 20 years of research into what makes a great workplace.
For fair comparison, organizations are grouped by size, with categories that may vary by award.
You can see examples of how organizations are grouped on the Top Workplaces award pages here.
International employees may be included in the survey, but only U.S.-based employees count toward the minimum employee count for Top Workplaces awards.
National Top Workplaces awards have specific eligibility requirements, which may vary by award. Below are some common examples:
USA TODAY Top Workplaces: Organizations must have at least 150 employees. The award is open to all industries except real estate, local hotels, and K–12 educational institutions.
Industry and Culture Excellence Awards: Organizations must have at least 35 employees. Organizations from all industries except real estate, local hotels, and K-12 educational institutions may participate. Industry and Culture Excellence awards are determined within days of completing the employee survey, which means you can start celebrating and promoting the recognition right away, rather than waiting for the list to publish.
To qualify for any Top Workplaces award, organizations must achieve a minimum survey response rate of 35%.
In addition to the national Top Workplaces award requirements, at least 50% of surveyed employees work primarily or entirely remotely. This award is open to all industries.
Employers must have 150+ employees. Organizations participating in the DE&I Practices awards must complete a supplemental questionnaire that evaluates the practices and processes organizations have in place to promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. This award is open to all industries.
The Top Workplaces for Nursing award participation criteria differ from other national awards.
Employers must have at least 35 employees, with 35% of the workforce being nurses, or at least 50 nurses. All levels of nursing are eligible, including CNA’s, RN’s, APRN’s, NP’s, and LPN’s.
Organizations participating in the Top Workplaces for Nursing award must complete five additional survey statements. These measure key aspects of the nurse employee experience.
The Top Workplaces for Engineering award participation criteria differ from other national awards. Employers must have at least 35 engineers, or 10% of the workforce must be engineers. Open to all industries, provided the engineer requirements are met.
Top Workplaces are determined by the results of the Workplace Survey. It consists of 26 statements covering the areas of the employee experience most related to employee engagement. The survey can be completed by employees in less than 10 minutes.
The core statements in the Top Workplaces survey cannot be removed. These standard questions ensure a consistent, level playing field across all participating organizations.
If you’d like to gather additional feedback, you can add custom survey statements by upgrading to the Energage Platform.
Yes! Once your survey is complete, the results are automatically applied to any award your organization would like to pursue within the next 12 months.
And even better – if you participate in the Industry and Culture Excellence Top Workplaces awards, you’ll receive your award outcome only days after your employee survey closes.
The Workplace Survey is available in these languages: Arabic, Burmese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, French–Canadian, German, Haitian Creole, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Nepali, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Spanish – Castilian, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Vietnamese. Additional languages can be added for a fee.
A 35% response rate is the minimum to be considered for Top Workplaces awards.
For organizations with fewer than 85 employees, 30 survey responses are required. This ensures a representative sample of an organization’s culture is captured.
We have surveyed tens of millions of employees via email. We never have nor will we ever release an email address to another party or use a survey-taker’s email address for any purpose other than inviting the individual to take the survey.
Yes, Top Workplaces takes confidentiality extremely seriously. Your company’s survey results are not shared with any third party.
Your organization’s award status is only shared publicly if you are named a Top Workplaces winner. If your organization does not win, your results are not published or shared with our media partners, so there is no risk to your reputation for participating.
We also take the confidentiality of employee responses seriously. This is critical for gathering candid employee feedback to accurately assess an organization’s culture.
Most organizations distribute the online survey via email or SMS text message. However, we can work with you to determine the best distribution option.