To truly understand what’s happening at work, you have to ask the people on the front lines.
That’s the foundation of the Top Workplaces awards. For the 15th year, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has partnered with employee survey company Energage to honor the best places to work in Greater Atlanta.
This award can’t be bought; it has to be earned, based on employee feedback. Winners are chosen through a scientific survey process. Positive employee feedback equals recognition, while workplaces that don’t have strong feedback are excluded from the winners’ list.
Energage crunches the data based on a 25-question survey. The survey requests feedback from employees on various factors, including pay and benefits, direction, leadership, meaningfulness and appreciation.
Organizations do not pay any fees to survey employees or to earn a Top Workplaces designation. If they choose, organizations can purchase the survey data. But there is no obligation for winners to purchase any product or service.
For the 2025 winners list, 8,180 organizations were asked to survey their employees, and 264 responded. Based on the survey feedback, the top 175 have earned recognition as Top Workplaces in Greater Atlanta.
“Top Workplaces awards are a celebration of good news,” said Eric Rubino, CEO of Energage. “They exemplify the significance of a people-first workplace experience, reminding us that employees are the heart of any thriving organization.”
Some workplaces participate in the survey year after year. Others have only recently gotten involved. This year, 37 survey newcomers — 15 large-size, 12 mid-size, and 10 small-size organizations — received recognition as a Top Workplace. They included 811, the free service that marks buried utilities before homeowners or companies dig, and the restaurant chain Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers.
For some, the survey is much more than a means to earn another award to display on a wall already filled with accolades. It is a way to let the boss know change is needed.
For instance, Headmaster Colin Creel said students at Cornerstone Christian Academy in Peachtree Corners would not have new science labs were it not for employee feedback on a recent survey.
Teachers said in the survey that they needed more physical space.
“Even though it had come up in the past, seeing it in print helped all parties involved understand the importance of what was needed,” Creel said. “The results of the survey helped propel the school to add our additional science labs, which opened in January 2025.”
Cornerstone has been named the No. 1 Top Workplace in the small business category for four out of five years.
Jodi Taylor, chief human resource officer at Brasfield Gorrie, No. 1 in the large business category, said her company digs into the AJC information and then does its own internal survey.
“What’s great is they really match up,” she said. “We get similar feedback from both. It’s been helpful from that standpoint to validate across the board where we’re seeing positives and opportunities.”
It’s also a great recruiting tool, Taylor said. One of Taylor’s team members was seeking a company designated as one of the “Best Places to Work” and saw that Brasfield & Gorrie fit the bill, she said.
To qualify for Top Workplaces recognition, employers must have at least 50 workers in the region.
Beginning this year, employers are grouped by the overall size of their organizations and the number of employees invited to take the survey, which might include employees outside Greater Atlanta. Employers are grouped by size to facilitate comparison of similar employee experiences. They are then ranked within those groups based on the strength of the survey feedback.
Employers earn Top Workplaces recognition if their aggregated employee feedback score exceeds national benchmarks. Energage has established those benchmarks based on feedback from about 30 million employees over 19 years.
Survey results are valid only if 35% or more employees respond; employers with fewer than 85 employees have a higher response threshold, requiring responses from at least 30 employees.
Why might a particular employer not be on the list? Perhaps it chose not to participate, or perhaps it did, and employee feedback scores were not strong enough. Energage also conducts tests on survey feedback and, in some cases, may disqualify an organization if, for example, a high number of employees report feeling pressured to answer in a positive manner.
To participate in the 2026 Top Workplaces awards, or for more information, go to the nomination page at ajc.com/TWPnominate.
Additional contributions from Top Workplaces writer Laura Berrios
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