It’s official: Red Level is decidedly cool.

You don’t have to take our word for it. Just ask Crain’s, or the folks at Best Companies Group – they’ll tell you.

In fact, they’re telling the world. And we’re not shy, so we’ll announce it too: Red Level has been officially been proclaimed one of the 2017 Cool Places To Work in Michigan by Crain’s Detroit Business. We couldn’t be more pleased.

“Cool,” of course, means different things to different people. Depending on your perspective, it could mean having a “Bring your Lhasa-apso to work day,” an indoor lacrosse field, or hot and cold running Red Bull. We’re not cool in that way. But we seem to be cool enough to pass muster with Best Companies Group’s judging team, who got a good hard look at who we are, what we do, and how we do it.

It meant peering under the hood, kicking the tires, and asking a lot of questions – about our workplace, about our benefits, about our company culture and policies. And it meant taking a step that a lot of companies might feel a little squeamish about: Surveying our employees to find out how they really felt about the work they did, the people  they worked with, and the company they worked for. For anyone in management, or in a position to be concerned with employee satisfaction, it’s a moment of truth when you just might find out some things you really didn’t want to know.

We weren’t worried. Based on the results, we certainly didn’t have to be; the survey results indicated strongly that our team members think Red Level’s pretty cool too.

We really aren’t terribly surprised. You can’t work for long in our office without getting a sense of type of place Red Level is. Ultimately, we’re a company of friends: People who cooperate, who work hard, who collaborate, who pitch in to lend a helping hand to colleagues when needed. People who share information and ideas freely and openly, and who have no problem being their authentic selves. Maybe best of all, we’re people who care about the work that we do and the way that we do it; there’s a strong commitment to doing a really good job – and a little bit of friendly competition that drives us to do it a little bit better the next time.

We think that’s pretty cool. It means that we’re succeeding in meeting an important goal: Creating a team that people want to be a part of, and that other companies want to work with. Ultimately, that’s great for our employees, our clients, our community, and our bottom line.

We may not have all the hallmarks of what others consider to be cool, such as the Lhasa-apsos or the Red Bull, or even especially good fashion sense. But we’ve got something a lot of companies don’t: A solid group of people who love what they do, and who have a good time doing it. The adjustable standing desks and occasional impromptu Nerf gun battles probably don’t hurt, either.