Atomic Object Named one of Michigan's "Cool Places to Work"

Article summary

An Award for Employees, by Employees
Defining "Cool"
Atoms on Atomic

Atomic Object has been named one of 75 “Cool Places to Work” in Michigan by Crain’s Detroit Business.

Carl Erickson, Atomic’s co-founder and CEO, described himself as “moved” by the honor: “Business success is nice,” said Erickson, “but achieving it with people who care deeply about what they do, and who they do it with, is better. I’m proud of what we’ve built, and inspired by the people I work with. Happy people do great work.”

An Award for Employees, by Employees

The “Cool Places to Work” recognition is awarded based on two things:

A questionnaire, completed by the company, about its benefits, policies, and procedures.
A questionnaire, completed anonymously by the employees, asking for their opinion on statements like:
- The leaders of this organization are open to input from employees.
- I have a good understanding of how this organization is doing financially.
- At this organization, employees have fun at work.
- My job makes good use of my skills and abilities.

Atoms ranked Atomic Object very highly, including a 100% agreement on “I like the people I work with at this organization,” “I have confidence in the leadership of this organization,” and several other statements.

Learn about our culture or what it’s like to work at Atomic on our website.

Defining “Cool”

The program honors employers “that go the extra mile to make employees feel appreciated.” Crain’s found a lot of similarities among the winners:

The leading organizations emphasized flexibility and diversity. An employer can offer any number of amenities and benefits, but keeping in mind that people are not all the same is important to maintaining a strong workforce…

Most of the organizations have no shortage of fun perks to keep their workers looking forward to coming to work every day. Free massages are a big one, as are free food, yoga trainers and the everlasting foosball table.

There’s also something to be said for letting employees do their jobs. Whatever an employer did to attract its workers — whether it was the benefits package, pay or free yoga lessons — one way to keep them is to get out of their way, several of the featured organizations said.

From Workplaces of note: Employee-friendly cultures keep companies happy, Crain’s Detroit Business, November 16, 2014.

Atoms on Atomic

If you’re a regular reader of Atomic Spin, you may have noticed how much Atoms love to talk about working at AO. Here are a few posts from the last year: