Scorpio, a full-service construction firm, launched in Gainesville in 2013 with just a handful of staffers. It has since swelled to around 60 employees. This year alone, the business opened offices in Orlando and Jacksonville. As those construction markets flourish, more offices may pop up around the state, says company talent manager Katie Kiester.
She credits Scorpio’s exponential growth, in part, to its active candidate recruitment strategy, competitive salaries and benefits, and respected reputation among its subcontractors.
“For some of the large companies, people might be attracted to them because of the glitz and the glamour. But then you feel like you’re just a number,” Kiester says. “We’re more of a smaller company feel ... You’re treated with respect, and you’re treated with genuine care as an individual — not like a business transaction.”
When the world stood still at the onset of COVID- 19, Florida’s non-agricultural employment took a hit. It has since rebounded to historic levels, reaching more than 9.9 million jobs in May, according to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. Careers across most sectors, especially trade, transportation and utilities, are up in numbers. The state’s unemployment rate is below the national average.
Amid the economic rebound, however, there is a nationwide workforce deficit. In 2023, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce diagnosed Florida as one of 16 states with a “more severe” worker shortage. For every 100 open jobs, the state only had 53 available workers.
Construction is among the industries feeling the pinch. Only a handful of Florida colleges have a construction management program, contributing to a shortage of new workers in the field. “There are definitely not enough (graduates) coming out,” Kiester says. “Florida, in general, has so much construction all up and down the entire state. So, there are just a lot of companies out there competing for a small group of candidates.”.
Scorpio and other organizations recognized as Florida’s 2024 Best Companies are combating the challenge with innovative techniques to recruit new talent. Their team sizes span from 15 to 4,000-plus staffers, and many are seeing year-over-year growth. To make those gains sustainable, the businesses are dialing in on company culture and values to turn new hires into lifelong employees.
Campus connections
A few years ago, as Karen Mosteller led a group around the Markham Norton Mosteller Wright & Company office, she pointed out which personnel were alumni of Florida Gulf Coast University. It turned out two- thirds of the staff had graduated from the school — a testament to the accounting firm’s primary recruiting strategy.
The company routinely visits FGCU to introduce students to the world of certified public accounting. It’s a regular at the university’s “Meet the Firms” events, where it offers job shadowing, mentorship and paid internship opportunities. The firm also supports an endowed scholarship fund at the school for accounting students.
Any given semester, Southwest Florida-based MNMW works with two to eight interns. This past year, three of those interns joined the company as full-time hires. “At the end of the day, our goal is to sell them on how awesome this career can be,” says Mosteller, MNMW’s managing partner. “That’s how we get them in.”
Wade Trim, a civil engineering firm with offices in Miami, Orlando, Palm Bay and Tampa, recruits talent from college campuses, too. It also incentivizes its employees to help bolster its 600-strong staff using a referral bonus program, says Tom Brzezinski, the company’s chief business development officer based out of its Tampa office. Those bonuses can range up to $10,000.
With the company’s “employee promise,” a commitment to helping its staffers feel supported, Wade Trim’s voluntary employee loss rate is half the national average. The combined strategies are boosting the bottom line. Wade Trim’s sales grew from $77 million in 2017 to more than $150 million in 2022, and the company aims to double its workforce to 1,200 employees by 2027 to accommodate Florida’s booming infrastructure needs, Brzezinski says.
“There aren’t enough resources in the state of Florida to get all the work done that’s going to be needed in the next 10 years,” he says. “If a company wants to grow, it needs to be able to hire the people to do it. We’re in the human capital business.”
Cultivating culture
Ryan — a tax services, software and technology provider — employs thousands of staffers around the world. Of its 84 offices, six are in Florida and available to the state’s 97 employees.
The physical offices scattered among its worldwide employee base help bring the team closer together, along with coordinated core work hours across the globe, says talent marketing and engagement specialist Alycia Truong. Every month, Ryan hosts a company-wide team talk for business updates and questions. It also organizes in-person community outreach among local employees, including events like beach cleanups in Florida.
That work culture is part of what the company sells when recruiting from college campuses, career fairs and job websites.
“We have a wonderful culture story that we are trying to incorporate in our conversations that we have with people,” Truong says. “We are all part of Ryan’s culture. I definitely feel like we are putting a lot more effort into making sure that we, as a total global organization, are really connecting.”
In this competitive hiring landscape, it’s more important than ever to retain employees as well as attract new ones. Enriching and promoting workforce culture — through perks like team activities and worker benefits — is one way to do so.
All of Florida’s 2024 Best Companies say they recognize employee milestones and coordinate fun activities for their employees, ranging from seasonal parties to team outings like go-karting or deep-sea fishing. More than 90% have a structured system for recognizing employees. On average, the annual percentage of voluntary employee turnover self-reported by Florida’s 2024 Best Companies is 11.6%. That’s less than 2023’s nationwide average of 17.3% reported by the consulting firm Mercer.
Work culture is infused into TalkingParents, a company with an app that facilitates co-parenting communication. It was born from an attorney’s pitch to Bit-Wizards, a Fort Walton Beach-based IT service provider that took on the project in 2012. The app’s usage has since catapulted to more than 500,000 users across 14 countries and nearly every U.S. state, reaching $10 million in annual recurring revenue.
When TalkingParents eventually became its own company, management knew they needed to have a distinct culture, says CEO Vince Mayfield.
That culture became centered around accountability — both for the parents using the app and the crew running it. Monthly staff meetings keep employees connected and up to date on company happenings; smaller meetings keep teams on track with their deadlines.
TalkingParents also works hard to preserve the camaraderie of the staff, Mayfield says. Each year, it flies remote employees in for an annual picnic, a group dinner and an awards ceremony. Throughout the year, it organizes virtual game nights and happy hours and recognizes employees’ special days.
“If you want to have a good culture at a company, it has to be done deliberately and has to be done with people in mind,” Mayfield says. “We have to take a lot of extra steps, spend extra money and make a deliberate effort to make them a part of the team and feel connected to the team.” The company also takes special care during its hiring process to attract employees who mesh well with existing teams.
Purpose-driven workplace
When The Lord’s Place, a nonprofit serving the homeless community in Palm Beach County, posted a job opening this year, it received 10 applicants in one hour. Another available position drew around a hundred candidates.
Chief human resources officer Jan Phillips credits the surge of attention, in part, to how the organization prioritizes one value at all staff levels: a passion for helping others in need.
“We’re here to serve some of the most vulnerable individuals in Palm Beach County, so we’re really looking for people who have the heart to help others,” she said. “We want people who think innovatively and share a common passion.”
Within two decades, The Lord’s Place has grown from around 30 employees to more than 130. The nonprofit uses personality surveys and references to find recruits who are passionate about the cause. It promotes those key values during weekly meetings, when staffers share acts of kindness and client success stories with the team.
Many of Florida’s 2024 Best Companies rally around a specific cause, value or priority — a mission that attracts like-minded candidates to create a strong, cohesive team. A 2016 Cone Communications survey of millennial employees — which will make up 75% of the workforce by 2025, by some estimates — found that three-quarters of respondents consider a company’s social and environmental commitments when deciding where to work.
Climate First Bank capitalizes on that. It was founded in 2021 as the world’s first FDIC-insured community bank dedicated to the environment and sustainability. With $630 million in assets already, the St. Petersburg-based company is the fastest-growing bank in the nation, says bank president Lex Ford.
He credits much of Climate First Bank’s success to its mission: reducing carbon output to combat the climate crisis. He estimates 30% to 40% of the bank’s transactions have occurred purely because of its mission. Since its inception, the company has dedicated about $100 million of its loans to solar energy projects. It also helps traditional fossil fuel companies adopt more sustainable practices amid the energy transition.
Climate First Bank’s mission attracts employees as well as clients. Ford recounted how the company’s CTO and chief digital banking officer left his previous job to join the company — simply based off its values. Other recruits may be agnostic or even skeptical of the cause. But it’s the bank’s duty to show them why its mission matters, Ford says.
“It’s our job to bring you in, inform you and educate you ... It’s about (hiring) people and showing them how they can make a difference,” he says. “I think that’s impact.”
Best Company Trends
- 66% of Florida Trend’s Best Companies said they have a strategy to recruit and retain Generation Z employees.
- Half of the Best Companies provide formal diversity and inclusion training.
- 38% of the Best Companies use personality/behavior tests for pre-employment screening or skills testing.