Award-winning Team

Honored to Serve You. Recognized for How We Do It.

Year after year, Greenleaf Trust has been named a “Best and Brightest Company to Work For” along with similar accolades from Fortune, Crain’s, Great Place to Work and others. It’s a reflection of our corporate culture, in which dynamic, top-notch people embrace a mindset of integrity, continuing education, service and putting clients’ interests first. This ensures that we not only hire highly qualified candidates but also retain highly satisfied clients.

2026 Awards

• USA Today Top Workplaces winner
• Best Companies Group Inclusive Workplace 
• Michigan Best and Brightest for Wellness winner 
• Best and Brightest Company to Work For in West Michigan
• Best and Brightest Company to Work For in Metro Detroit 
• Best and Brightest Company to Work For in the Nation 
• Crain’s Detroit Business’ 2026 Best Places to Work in Michigan (Embargoed Aug 20)
• Crain’s Grand Rapids Business’ Best Places to Work in West Michigan (Embargoed Aug 13)
• Innovation Top Workplaces
• Work-Life Flexibility Top Workplaces
• Compensation & Benefits Top Workplaces
• Leadership Top Workplaces, Purpose & Values Top Workplaces
• Top Workplaces for Appreciation
• Employee Well-Being Top Workplaces
• Professional Development Top Workplaces
• Financial Services Top Workplaces

About the Awards

The Sloan Awards, given annually by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and the Families and Work Institute (FWI), honor organizations that are using workplace flexibility as a strategy to make work “work” better—for the employer and the employee.

In 2012, hundreds of organizations applied for the Sloan Award for Excellence in Workplace Effectiveness and Flexibility, resulting in 352 winning worksites. Since 2005, the Sloan Awards have been recognizing model employers of all types and sizes across the U.S. for their innovative and effective workplace practices. Data from the Sloan Award employer and employee surveys can help leaders determine the status of flexibility in their organization—identifying areas of excellence and room for improvement.

The Best and Brightest Companies to Work For™ competition identifies and honors organizations that display a commitment to excellence in their human resource practices and employee enrichment. Organizations are assessed based on categories such as communication, work-life balance, employee education, diversity, recognition, retention and more.  The competition is the nation’s most premier awards competition and gala that is not only challenging but creates meaningful impact. Companies that have participated in this program have found meaningful change that improves the company as a whole as well as with financial costs, operations and efficiencies. Participating companies go through a rigorous two-part survey process. The process is designed to gather detailed information about each participating company. Step one, the employer completes a questionnaire and step two, employees of the company complete an employee engagement survey. By elevating the bar of excellence each year, the program not only makes companies perform better, but it makes the region a better place to live and work. Winning companies receive valuable media recognition, access to critical statistics and analysis to help create positive change.

The Best and Brightest Iconic Award

The Best and Brightest Iconic Award is bestowed to distinguished companies that have been an Elite winner in their regions for 5 or more consecutive years.  Elite winners are the top scoring companies in their respective region and companies that have accomplished this great honor are leading the way.

The Best and Brightest Brilliance

The Best and Brightest Brilliance award is honored to companies that have made the regional or National list every year since inception of the program which in Greenleaf Trust’s case, that program is the Nation’s Best and Brightest Companies to Work For list.

Great Place to Work

The Great Place to Work Institute helps support efforts to improve workplace culture. Best Companies lists are much more than publicity and rankings.

In addition to gold-standard recognition and publicity, best companies lists provide the raw material for reports that deliver:

• Employee trust and engagement measures and benchmarks
• Workplace culture assessment
• Best practices in hiring, two-way communication, employee development, work-life balance, recognition and more

Top reasons why a workplace that is already great will benefit from participating in the Best Companies competition:

• Wide-Reaching recognition at a local and national media level.
• Millions of visitors see our best companies list each year, heightening a workplace’s reputation among prospective customers and job candidates.
• Attract Top Talent. On average Best Companies receive 42 applicants for every open position.
• Higher Retention. Turnover is 2 to 4 times lower among Best Companies than industry norms.
• Superior Stock Performance. Independent studies show that publicly traded Best Companies consistently outperform major stock indices by a factor of 3.

Top reasons why a company aspiring to great will benefit from participating in the Best Companies Competition:

• Sustain commitment to building a better workplace culture.
• Advance HR programs and practices to build a great workplace.
• Receive valuable benchmarking data.
• Benchmark employees’ experiences and see how policies and practices stack up against the Best.
• Receive a snapshot of employees’ survey results.

Cool Place to Work

Crain’s biennial Cool Places to Work in Michigan awards returns this year, and once again Crain’s is working with Best Companies Group of Harrisburg, Pa.

The competition has two parts: one questionnaire for employers, another for employees. The combined, weighted results of the two will determine who qualifies for Cool Places designation. Best Companies supplies all participating companies — regardless of whether they win the Cool Places recognition — with a Best Companies Group Employee Feedback Report based on employee responses to the 72-question survey. The report can help company executives identify strengths and weaknesses in their company culture and practices.

STAR Awards

Since its inception in 1986, Volunteer Kalamazoo and MLive Media Group/Kalamazoo Gazette have co-sponsored the annual STAR (Sharing Time and Resources) Awards program to recognize the contributions of the outstanding volunteers who exemplify the spirit of volunteerism.

Best Places to Work for Millennials 2015

Greenleaf Trust has earned the distinction of being ranked one of the Best Places to Work for Millennials 2015. Over 3,000 companies were considered, and only 75 made the list!

We received this award based on the collected and analyzed data from the Cool Places to Work in Michigan.  This recognition acknowledges our leadership, innovation, and commitment to employing the fastest-growing generation in the workforce.

This award is presented by the Center for Generational Kinetics and Best Companies Group.  The Center for Generational Kinetics is the authority on Millennials and emerging workforce trends

We were recognized nationally with promotions that included TV, print, and online outreach. Information was pushed out to 50,000 influencers subscribed to The Center for Generational Kinetics mailing list and 160,000 social media fans and followers.

Inclusive Workplace

Best Companies Group and COLOR Magazine recognized Greenleaf Trust as an Inclusive Workplace.  We received this recognition based on the results of a survey of all of our employees.  The survey ratings and comments from employees help to rate our workplace environment.  The employee survey focused on inclusivity and belonging at work to gauge how our people feel at work.  Because our team’s responses surpassed the data-driven benchmark, we are recognized by Best Companies Group and COLOR Magazine as an Inclusive Workplace.

DBusiness Top Corporate Culture Awards

DBusiness magazine’s Top Corporate Culture Award winners were selected based on survey results in 10 categories, the median score of all eligible employee responses, and the percentage of employee participation. With nearly 200 companies registered for the program in 2023, 56 companies chosen as finalists, and 21 awards were given.

InvestmentNews corporate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award

Finalists were selected from a competitive field of employers that each are making strides with diversity, equity and inclusion through focused, measurable programs; practices; and elements of culture that are proven to catalyze lasting change. 

Detroit Free Press Top Workplace

Working through the Free Press‘ research partner Energage, participating workplaces are evaluated by their employees using a short 24-question survey. Workplaces that compete are categorized by the number of employees — small companies have 50-149 workers, medium 150-499 and large 500 or more — and then ranked based on survey responses from employees.  Any organization with 50 or more employees in Michigan is eligible to participate. The organization can be public, private, a nonprofit or a government entity. Anyone can nominate a workplace.  The Top Workplace award was established in 2007.

Best Places to Work in Southeast Michigan

Crain’s Best Places to Work in SE MI is a research-driven program from Best Companies Group that examines company’s practices, programs and benefits and surveys employees for their perspective. Companies that meet certain criteria are considered the Best Places to Work in Southeast Michigan.

Top Purpose-Driven CEOs by Purpose Jobs

There’s no one-size-fits-all for a CEO. Each brings their own unique perspective, background and mindset to the role.  The way top executives treat employees is taking center stage in current conversations around the future of work. And the message is this: the way executives treat employees matters, and people don’t want to settle for less.  The Purpose Jobs community to be surrounded by so many executives who take a different approach: purpose-driven leadership. These 44 CEOs are leaders who are motivated by mission, support employees, and do the best job of aligning purpose, people, and profits.

Crain’s Excellence in HR Award

Greenleaf Trust is thrilled to announce and celebrate a remarkable achievement within our ranks: Kim Dudley has earned a coveted spot on Crain’s Detroit’s prestigious Excellence in HR list.  This recognition underscores Kim’s outstanding contributions to the field of Human Resources and her exceptional dedication in her field.

Crain’s Detroit curated this year’s list of Excellence in HR Award winners with the help of a distinguished panel of experienced HR professionals, alongside former Excellence in HR Award winners.  Kim Dudley’s inclusion on this impressive list of HR leaders reflects not only her personal achievements but also the values and commitment to excellence that define Greenleaf Trust as an organization.  Her success exemplifies our ongoing dedication to fostering a workplace where talent thrives, and we couldn’t be prouder to have her as a part of our team.

Newsweek’s America’s Most Loved Workplaces

The list was created in partnership with Best Practice Institute (BPI). BPI is a benchmark research company that studies and identifies the specific management practices that lead to employee motivation and satisfaction and has documented the vital link between worker satisfaction and productivity and performance. BPI measures five primary areas to determine how employees feel about where they work to create the Most Loved Workplaces® list: the level of collaboration at the workplace, how positive workers are about their future at the company, how much employer values align with employee values; respect at all levels and career achievement. In consultation with Newsweek editors, BPI also considered employee wellness, diversity, inclusion, career advancement, and other workplace and talent development initiatives.

To identify the top 200 companies on this list, companies were evaluated and scored as follows: 50 percent of the initial score was based on direct employee responses to BPI’s proprietary Love of Workplace Index® assessment. 35 percent came from BPI’s direct interviews and written responses from company officials. The final 15 percent was derived from analyzing external public ratings from sites such as Comparably, Careerbliss, Glassdoor, Indeed, Google, and others. Newsweek then conducted editorial research on every company before the final list of 200 companies and their rankings was completed.