With hiring — and evolving worker expectations — top of mind, there’s no better time than now to stamp your company as one that employees in North Texas hold in the highest esteem. To help it happen, The Dallas Morning News is kicking off its annual Top Workplaces D-FW competition for the 18th straight year.
The program, conducted via our partnership with Pennsylvania-based research firm Energage, is free and open to any organization with 50 or more employees in the Dallas-Fort Worth region. This area includes Dallas, Tarrant, Denton, Collin, Ellis, Johnson, Kaufman, Parker, Rockwall and Wise counties. Public and private companies, non-profit entities, and government agencies may participate, and there’s no obligation to purchase any product or service.

Brinker International, a No. 1 2025 Large Top Workplaces winner, is making Chili’s hot again. President and CEO Kevin Hochman also won a leadership award.
Kathy Tran
To qualify for the awards, workplaces are evaluated by their employees using a brief, 26-question survey. Winners are grouped in Large, Midsize, Small or Real Estate categories, and earn recognition if their scores exceed national standard benchmarks (set by Energage) and rank among the top tier of all the organizations surveyed.
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Energage conducts Top Workplaces surveys for media in 70 markets, and in the last year surveyed more than 2 million employees at more than 8,000 organizations. “Earning a Top Workplaces award is a celebration of excellence,” said Eric Rubino, CEO of Energage. “It serves as a reminder of the vital role a people-first workplace experience plays in achieving success.”
In D-FW last year, 8,090 organizations were invited to participate in the program, and 275 were surveyed. Of those, a total of 200 winners were recognized. One hundred and fifty of them were ranked as Top Workplaces, and the remaining 50 were named national standard winners for exceeding the national benchmarks. In 2025, 36 companies received Top Workplaces awards for the first time.

Each year, the Top Workplaces competition culminates with an exciting event where the winners are announced. In 2025, the event was held at Rayleigh Underground in Irving.
Melissa Spurrier
This year’s deadline for nominations is April 3, and organizations will be surveyed through mid-June. The competition’s top performers will be profiled in a special glossy publication in the fall. To nominate a deserving company, or for more information about the Top Workplaces program, visit www.dallasnews.com/nominate or call (214) 550-8155.
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