To identify Florida's best employers, Florida Trend partnered with the Best Companies Group, which surveyed firms that chose to participate. Any firm with at least 15 employees in Florida, including firms based outside the state, could participate at no cost.

The first part of the survey involved a questionnaire about company policies, practices and demographics. The second part went to a sample group of each firm's employees, who responded — anonymously — to 72 statements on a five-point agreement scale.

The survey also included two open-ended questions and seven demographic questions. The questions focused on eight themes: Leadership and planning; corporate culture and communications; role satisfaction; work environment; relationship with supervisor; training and development; pay and benefits; and overall engagement.

Firms were divided into three groups — large companies of 250 or more U.S. employees, midsized companies of 50 to 249 U.S. employees and small companies of fewer than 50 U.S. workers.

Contract employees were not included in employee surveys and not added to employee counts.