This year marks our second annual Best Places to Work Mid-Columbia program that recognizes Tri-City area employers creating cultures that make employees proud to work there. Does your business have a workplace culture like this? 

If so, you should participate for a chance to be in the limelight. If not, you should participate to find out what areas could use improvement.

This isn’t a popularity contest in which the same people and their friends vote for themselves each day. Winners designated as a Best Place to Work earn the honor based on employee feedback, quite possibly the most important metric out there.

Our Best Places program provides a way for local businesses to showcase their commitment to employee satisfaction and bolster their reputation. In a competitive market, these advantages can lead to sustained business success and community goodwill.

Our results – and the ensuing bragging rights of being named a Best Place to Work – are determined using comprehensive employer and employee surveys. In other words, those who make the list do so because their employees anonymously rated them high enough on some pretty sophisticated workplace culture metrics.

We hired a national research firm to gather the data. It will poll participating businesses’ employees, anonymously, of course. Participation is free, though employers can buy a detailed report about their employees’ aggregate responses and learn how their organization stacks up against others in the region. 

We strongly encourage qualifying Tri-City businesses to participate. Registrations are now being accepted, and the deadline to apply is June 27. For program details, go to: tcjournal.biz/BPTW. 

Winners will be highlighted in a special supplement in our November edition. We also plan to celebrate them at an in-person breakfast event on Nov. 13 at the Three Rivers Convention Center in Kennewick. 

A special thanks to our three major sponsors who clearly recognize the value of the program, Kadlec, Windermere Group One and the Columbia Basin Society for Human Resource Management. 

Best Places to Work is a great chance for employers – especially those without big budgets for employee engagement – to get real insights into what’s working and where they can improve. It’s always wise to take a step back, reflect and make changes that can lead to happier teams and better retention. After all, keeping and attracting great people starts with understanding what they value.