Holding on to Good Employees
 “I come in. I stay very focused. I do what I need to do, and I get my list checked off every day,” says Melissa Brannon on how she manages to be the top-producing employee at Hire Methods while working only 32 hours a week from home. “My children take precedent, and they give me that much more of a reason to work as hard as I can for this company that’s allowed me so much flexibility.” [Photo: Kelly LaDuke] |
The top-producing employee at Hire Methods (No. 13 Small) recruiting agency in Jacksonville doesn’t come in the earliest, stay the latest or sit hunched over her laptop all day.
In fact, Melissa Brannon spends more time with her daughters, Payton, 5, and Paige, 2, than she does at the office.
After Payton was born, the “major factor” in Brannon’s decision to take her position at Hire Methods was a flexible work schedule. She works 32 hours a week, “pretty much whenever it’s convenient for her life,” says company co-owner Clint Drawdy, “and she is our top earner.”
Such flexibility is still the exception rather than the rule, however. “Most companies in my field don’t consider you a good recruiter unless you work from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.,” says Brannon. But of all the family-friendly policies and perks companies can offer, flexibility is the most important, say managers and employees at Florida’s best places to work.
At CH2M HILL (No. 10 Large), a global engineering firm with 26,000 employees, improvements in online timekeeping practices have greatly increased the use of flextime, which allows flexible starting and stopping times during the regular workweek. CH2M HILL, whose Florida headquarters is in Orlando, also offers compressed workweeks that can be scheduled as four, 10-hour days each week or eight, nine-hour days and one eight-hour day every two weeks, as well as telecommuting for some employees who work all or part of their scheduled hours away from the office.
Telecommuting work arrangements also help firms keep productive employees who have to move because of a spouse’s job or other issue, says Ben Doerr Jr., managing partner at Gainesville-based James Moore & Co. CPA firm (No. 32 Midsized). Several accountants who left Gainesville years ago still work full-time for the company thanks to investments in technology that make it an entirely virtual office whose products are available to its accountants and their clients via remote access.
With more than 70% of America’s children being raised by two working parents or a single working parent, “flexibility and freedom is one of the most important things you can give employees who are parents,” says David Miller, CEO of Brightway Insurance in Jacksonville (No. 7 Small). “The school play or the children’s doctor appointments shouldn’t become a source of stress.”
The payoff for Miller? “We don’t lose people,” he says. “And it’s a whole lot easier when you’re growing a business to not have to replace good people.”
Communication
CH2M HILL
(No. 10 Large)
Lee McIntire, the new CEO of engineering giant CH2M HILL, has launched the firm’s first companywide employee blog, the Ops Blog. The social medium gives employees an open forum with McIntire and other executives, who share thoughts in an ongoing, casual dialogue with employees.
Info Tech
(No. 49 Midsized)
Gainesville-based software development company Info Tech creates programs that help state transportation departments with construction and management. It was conceived in the 1970s by two University of Florida professors, who were helping transportation departments detect collusion by running statistical analysis on contract data.
Just as taxpayers and government officials deserve transparency, says co-founder James McClave, so, too, do employees. Like several other companies on our Best Companies To Work For list, Info Tech uses “Open Book Management,” popularized by Jack Stack, CEO of Springfield Remanufacturing of Missouri, in the 1980s. The idea is to share financial information openly with all employees.
McClave says that when Info Tech had to lay off 10 of its 200 employees earlier this year because the economic downturn had hit government so hard, OBM meant the news didn’t come as a surprise. “Our employees know exactly where we are financially,” he says.
Transparency helps in good times and bad, agrees Clint Drawdy, co-owner of Hire Methods (No. 13 Small), a Jacksonville healthcare and IT recruiting agency that also uses OBM. “When the business has a hiccup, everyone sees it,” Drawdy says. “Everyone knows what to expect.”
Pro Bono Work
Ron Sachs Communications
(No. 21 Small)
Employees at Ron Sachs Communications in Tallahassee say one of the perks of the job is tackling pro-bono community projects — and handling them just as they would any paying client. One example: In 2002, Leon County’s schools faced a $130-million shortfall to pay for much-needed repairs and renovations to facilities. The Leon County Commission voted to put a half-penny sales tax for schools on the ballot, with the support of the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce. But a similar referendum had been voted down, and the measure faced an uphill battle to win public support.
Ron Sachs employees worked to build a communitywide coalition called the Alliance for Better County Schools (ABCs) to raise public awareness about the need for repairs and renovations. They invited the media along on a tour of schools to document the needs, along with local business people and experts in construction, engineering and other disciplines. They kept the issue in the news, gained credibility with voters and landed the support of business and civic leaders. The referendum passed overwhelmingly.
The staff also has taken on as pro bono a prisoner who served 24 years for a crime he did not commit, and a U.S. citizen who was falsely deported. “It makes the people who work here feel, at the end of the day and the end of the year, that they made a difference in the world,” says COO Michelle Ubben. “And they did it all on company time.”
Personal Touches
Hire Methods
(No. 13 Small)
At Hire Methods of Jacksonville, a small healthcare and IT recruiting agency, Kim Cannon helped all employees identify their personal and professional dreams and create a book to map out short, medium and long-term goals and how to reach them. Cannon also works to make the dreams come true. For example, she noticed three employees had the same dream — learning to play the guitar. So she hired an instructor — on the company’s dime — who taught weekly guitar lessons in the office.
Herbie Wiles Insurance
(No. 22 Small)
At Herbie Wiles insurance in St. Augustine, 86-year-old founder and CEO Herbie Wiles still shows up almost every day. He’s known for asking great questions at meetings and remembering the names of everyone’s children.
Air-Transport IT Services
(No. 24 Small)
Air-Transport IT Services in Orlando sends flowers to employees’ families when they have to work on holidays. It stocks the headquarters kitchen with free beverages and snacks and has employee birthday party lunches, holiday parties and picnics. A wagon of toys is delivered to the homes of employees with a newborn. Flowers are sent for weddings and other occasions. “I’m always sending flowers,” says HR manager Lisa Samuels. The company gives $240 a year for each employee to devote to wellness, whether gym equipment or an exercise class. It offers up to $5,250 a year in tuition reimbursement.
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Florida's Best Companies to Work For 2009 |
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| Best Large Companies • (250 or more employees) |
Hiring • Hire Calling |
Benefits • Benefits of Being Small |
| Best Midsized Companies • (50 to 249 employees) |
Training • Teach Your Employees Well |
Generation Gap • Learning Curve |
| Best Small Companies • (15 to 49 employees) |
Wellness • Waist Not Want Not |
Workplace • Touches of Home |
| Top Performing Companies • (Ranked by category) |
Pay • Pay Priorities |
Best Practices • Holding on to Good Employees |