Loading
Silicon Valley is known for its cool offices filled with pingpong tables, snack stations and employees sporting jeans.
Is some of that vibe wearing off on Florida businesses? Maybe a little: A dozen companies in Florida and four on the state's west coast made Inc. Magazine's Best Workplaces 2017 list. To develop the list, the magazine's second annual Best Workplaces survey, Inc. editors asked thousands of employees about their workplaces, in a variety of metrics.
The four area companies on the list are digital media services company Digital Media Solutions in Clearwater; electrical contracting and engineering services company Power Design in St. Petersburg; S-One Holdings Corp. in Sarasota, parent of inkjet printing supplies firm LexJet; and travel insurance products company Squaremouth Inc. in St. Petersburg.
A press release announcing Squaremouth's placement on the list says its “penthouse office, with glass walls and sweeping views of Tampa Bay, is stocked with arcade games, a beer fridge and napping couches.” It also lists employee perks, such as unlimited paid vacation with a 10-day minimum and a birthday beer bonus, as keys to the company's culture. And then there's what the company calls its “strangest” feature — employees know each other's salaries and decisions on new hires and employee raises are made through majority votes.
S-One Chief Cultural Officer Angie Gruss-Lane says in a statement that company culture is instilled in employees their first day on the job. In the early days of the company, Gruss-Lane says, it established an open, collaborative and empowering culture.
All four west Florida companies on the Inc. Magazine Best Workplaces list are also on the 2016 Gulf Coast 500, the Business Observer's ranking of the top 500 companies from Polk through Collier counties by revenue. Power Design is No. 61 at $266 million; S-One Holdings is No. 93 at $143.3 million; Digital Media Solutions ranked No. 143 at $54.19 million; and Squaremouth ranked No. 452 at $4.90 million.
Your free article limit has been reached this month.
Subscribe now for unlimited digital access to our award-winning business news.
Join thousands of executives who rely on us for insights spanning Tampa Bay to Naples.
