Top Workplaces deadline extended until March 24

The deadline to nominate a company for the Minnesota 2017 Top Workplaces honor has been extended until March 24.

This is the eighth year the Star Tribune is partnering with Pennsylvania-based WorkplaceDynamics to survey Minnesota companies to find Top Workplaces.

In 2016, for the second year in a row, Minnesota had the highest overall rankings and the most companies that met the criteria for a Top Workplace in the more than 45 regions across the country that WorkplaceDynamics surveys.

People can nominate any organization with 50 or more employees in Minnesota, including their own.

WorkplaceDynamics will then contact the companies, which must decide whether to allow workers to take a short survey sometime before mid-April. Only those organizations that agree to be surveyed are included for consideration in the results.

Nominations can be made at startribune.com/nominate or by calling 612-605-3306.

WorkplaceDynamics asks employees to rank 24 statements to measure the following three elements of the workplace:

• My job — pay, training, managers and work/life balance

• Engagement — employees' motivation, desire to stay and willingness to recommend their workplace to others

Last year, 1,556 workplaces were asked to participate, and 385 agreed to be surveyed. The firms employed 119,298 people in Minnesota.

In the end, after the surveys were tallied, the 150 top scorers were split into large, midsize and small categories and ranked. Another 110 employers met WorkplaceDynamics' national standards but didn't score high enough for the ranked lists.

Many employees in the survey talked about intangibles such as being valued. In a tight labor market, it's not surprising that the surveys also showed companies raising pay but also offering flexible workplace policies such as options for compressed workweeks or telecommuting.