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Best Companies To Work For In Florida - 2016
Using play time to bolster business
Cornhole, Table Tennis and Team-Building
Free Lunch
Surgical instrument maker Arthrex has an executive chef, culinary department and state-of-the-art kitchen at which lunch — entrée, soup and side plus full salad bar — is prepared for 2,000 employees at its locations in Collier and Lee counties. A recent weekly menu included broccoli rabe, honey-pepper salmon and German apple onion soup. It’s an American Heart Association “Platinum Level Fit-Friendy” worksite.
Accounting firm Markham Norton Mosteller Wright & Co. provides fresh fruit, nuts and other healthy snacks plus a free salad bar. During the busy tax season, it adds catered lunches. Workers are asked to contribute $3 per lunch to the United Way. The firm has been an American Heart Association “Gold Level Fit-Friendly” worksite for four consecutive years.
Encouraging Fitness
Berkowitz Pollack Brant Advisors and Accountants in Miami offered its workers Fitbits two years ago. It’s since distributed more than 200 to employees. Monthly contests see departments, offices and groups vie to come out on top for things like longest distance traveled or most steps taken. “During football season, we host a Fitbit draft where top performers gather around a table and based on past performance recruit members from across the firm to their team,” says the firm’s marketing coordinator, Vanessa Botero.
On the Water
National firm Duke Realty has a person from each of its markets serve on a companywide wellness committee that plans events. Duke’s Orlando office held a canoe outing in 2015 at Wekiwa Springs that drew the entire local office staff. It also took on a high-ropes course in Kissimmee and visited a trampoline arena. This month, the outing will be a rock-climbing gym. “All our employees look forward to these events, and we are excited for our next one,” says Katyann Beerbower, a property manager.
At Uproar PR in Orlando, there are half-day Fridays, wellness hours and potluck meals. Once a quarter, it holds a team-building exercise as well so that employees can work together on something beyond the day-to-day tasks. One such exercise: Team racing swan boats around Lake Eola, with a lunch afterward.
Wage Factor
Best Companies To Work For generally pay well compared to average wage levels statewide. The median annual salary for exempt (salaried) employees on our list is $78,675. The average for non-exempt: $39,797. The overall median is $53,583. That compares to Florida’s 2014 per capita income of $42,737, according to the University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research. Much of the disparity owes to the prevalence of professional firms on our list.
Wine Down Wednesdays
For the past three years, primarily during the busy season for accountants, from February through May, employees at PDR Certified Public Accountants based in Clearwater wind down on Wednesdays at 5 with “Wine Down Wednesdays” featuring cheese platters, sometimes chips and dip and, of course, wine. Conversation ranges from client and community events to family and upcoming training. “It’s a time to decompress and have more of a team-building time, while also talking about how everyone is doing with work during the busy season,” says Veronica Malloy, marketing manager. In the fall, the firm plans to pick it up again.
Giant Jenga
Nitro Mobile Solutions in Tampa builds camaraderie and team spirit with a giant version of Jenga, the tower building challenge game around since the 1980s. Digital branding specialist Zach Marner says the company’s had it for about a year and a half. It’s played during employee breaks and downtime and sometimes taken to events to draw people to the company’s booth.
Jenga isn’t the only game at Nitro. Several months ago, it also brought in a foosball table. “It’s a pretty even match when employees challenge each other, though I’ll say that our CEO (Pete Slade) loves to challenge employees to foosball. It’s a great way for us all to interact,” Marner says.
