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Atlanta Business Chronicle has just named the finalists for the 2018 Atlanta’s Best Places To Work awards. (Check out the list here.) The rankings will be announced at the Chronicle’s annual Best Places To Work awards on the evening of Sept. 6 at Flourish Atlanta. 

We asked one of the finalists, Hire Dynamics, to share some of the company’s secrets to becoming a Best Place To Work. Here’s what Celeste Bottorff, the company’s chief marketing officer, told us:

Question: How has being one of Atlanta’s Best Places To Work helped your business?

Answer: Being a Best Place to Work starts with our people and it gives Hire Dynamics a competitive advantage in hiring the best talent available. After all, everyone wants to work at a best place to work! But far beyond that, Best Places to Work mirrors our Hire Dynamics vision and how we define success: we want to be the #1 company you would refer to a friend. That goal applies to our employees as well as our clients and talent. So being a best place to work enhances our ability to attract, engage and retain top talent. Top, highly engaged talent delivers the best results for our clients.

Question: Is being one of Atlanta’s Best Places To Work meaningful to your company’s employees?

Answer: We have Best Place to Work initiatives each year that are identified through our surveys and employee feedback. This process establishes a cultural norm of open communication about what’s great, what’s not working and what can be done to make Hire Dynamics even better. Our employees are willing to share their thoughts because they know and trust that our leadership team cares. They are proud to work at a Best Place to Work and understand that it differentiates us from other places of employment and enables greater personal growth.

Question: Tell us some of the things you’ve done to become one of Atlanta’s Best Places To Work that other companies can do, too.

Answer: It all starts with the hiring process. We know what people will thrive in our culture and we ensure that our candidate’s career objectives align with where we are going as an organization.

Hire Dynamics employees share a fundamental belief that What We Do Matters…to our clients who need great talent to achieve their growth objectives; to our talent who need career opportunities; to our employees who embody the servant leader mentality; and to our communities who seek involvement in building a better life for people. Every day is better when you understand that what you do matters to so many.

Hire Dynamics employees truly enjoy helping others succeed. It is a key part of our culture to assist in whatever ways we can both in our everyday relationships with those around us and in volunteering within our communities. Service truly is our pleasure and brings us joy. That trait is something that everyone at Hire Dynamics shares.

Question: If you could offer other companies one piece of advice on how to become one of Atlanta’s Best Places To Work, what would you tell them?

Answer: The leadership team must develop a clear vision and core values, and commit to creating a great workplace. Managers at all levels must consistently live the values and foster trust, pride and camaraderie. Business practices should align with the vision/core values and support trust-building. At HD, we start every week with a Monday morning meeting and the first thing on that agenda is our non-negotiables which reflect our values. We discuss every week about how we are doing in adhering to those and cite our successes and ways we could have been better over the last week. Our employee meetings always include shout-outs to people who have exemplified our core values. It is an important part of our success to celebrate those stories.

We also believe that having fun is an important part of being a best place to work, so we regularly arrange competitions and themed days to give employees an opportunity to show another, more relaxed side of themselves. When people feel empowered to bring their whole self to work, they are more productive and happier to be at work.

Best Places to Work is a journey, not a destination. Our ability to sustain Best Places to Work over the past 10 years can be attributed to our culture of empowerment, servant leadership and listening to our employees.

This article originally appeared on The Atlanta Business Chronicle Online.

Want to learn more about building workplace culture? Hear best practices from Sonya Buckley, Chief People Officer.