Florida Trend | Florida's Business Authority

Q&A with Best Company HR Professionals

Florida Trend asked HR professionals at some of its Best Companies to Work For to answer three questions:

Biggest Challenge...

In the past year, what has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced as a human resource professional?

How I Contribute...

How do you believe that you, as a human resource professional, contribute to your company being one of the best to work for?

Most Significant Company Policy ...

What’s the most significant thing your company does, in your opinion, that makes it one of the best to work for?

 

Peggy Smith
Administrator, Radey Law Firm - Tallahassee

Biggest Challenge...
I would say that the biggest challenge this year from an HR perspective has been making sure our employees have health care coverage that protects them from huge, unexpected out-of-pocket expenses while at the same time keeping the firm’s expenses from skyrocketing.

How I Contribute...
I don’t feel I do anything more than anyone else to make this a great place to work – I think that we all make it happen together. The owners of the firm empower us to be problem-solvers and forward thinkers, and they show us by their example that we are in this together with a common goal of working to perform as perfectly as possible for our clients.

 

Heather Jones
Human resources leader, PowerDMS - Orlando

How I Contribute...
By leading the drive to hire, support and engage the best, brightest and most talented individuals in the market, by positioning myself as an ambassador of the culture and by keeping our primary corporate goal in focus.

Most Significant Company Policy...
The single most significant thing we do is we genuinely care for one another. We celebrate each other’s successes; we travel to support each other in our hobbies and personal passions; we are transparent and communicate readily, sharing and working through concerns and then pledging to do better going forward, and we really, really like to pull pranks on one another.

 

Melissa Rawson
Human resources communications specialist, Navy Federal Credit Union - Pensacola

Biggest Challenge...
Navy Federal’s Pensacola location has experienced tremendous growth over the last year, adding more than 1,000 employees in Florida alone. In addition to attracting highly skilled team members from among Florida’s current residents, Navy Federal chose to entice our existing employees from other Navy Federal locations to come to Pensacola. We offered a weeklong ‘Pensacola experience’ trip so employees could see the community and work environment firsthand. Over 600 employees visited Pensacola and about 400 decided to take the offer to move to the beach.

How I Contribute...
We support our employees and their families by providing best-in-class benefits, promoting work/life balance and listening and responding to employee feedback. Annual employee engagement surveys and various employee appreciation events help us create an even greater place to work.

 

Joslin Matteson
HR director, DPR Construction - Orlando

Most Significant Company Policy...
One of our core values is enjoyment. We believe that work should be fun and intrinsically satisfying, so if we’re not enjoying ourselves, we are doing something wrong. We find ways to celebrate our achievements – both work and personal. All 19 DPR offices have a wine bar in the center section of the office – a meeting location where most celebrations are held. From a project win or a topping-out celebration to a wedding or graduation, we’re a huge family with members all over the country who care for one another and enjoy celebrating these milestones together.

 

Maureen Lucido
Area human resources director, Hyatt Regency Clearwater Beach Resort & Spa - Clearwater

Biggest Challenge...
One of our challenges is to continue to enhance the training we provide to our employees to assist them in being more resourceful in the fast-paced environment our industry is experiencing thus allowing them to better meet the needs of our guests.

Most Significant Company Policy...
I am most proud of our global corporate responsibility platform, Hyatt Thrive, which is designed to help make our local communities a place where our associates are proud to work, our guests want to visit, our neighbors want to live and owners want to invest.

 

 

Jan Phillips
Director of human resources and administration, The Lord’s Place (homeless services) - West Palm Beach

Biggest Challenge...
The Lord’s Place has experienced enormous growth in the last year. As a result, our biggest challenge has been to balance financial resources during this growth period, while maintaining a professional workforce and retaining valuable employees with limited resources. As a non-profit agency, we must be creative in finding ways to attract and retain professional employees to elevate our agency within our budget restraints.

How I Contribute...
I believe that being accessible and approachable to employees, being neutral so that all employees feel heard, having excellent listening and mediation skills and looking out for our employees’ best interests are the foundation of our HR department.

Most Significant Company Policy...
The Lord’s Place honors individuals while instilling a team concept. This is accomplished by hosting full-day staff retreats held offsite to encourage employee engagement, unexpected paid time off, birthday and holiday cards personally written by our CEO and employee bonding experiences. We recently instituted a ‘day of caring’ held one day per month. The Day of Caring allows employees to volunteer their time during work hours to assist with specific facility projects within the agency. This program has proven to further enhance the bonds between employees across the agency.