Ask anyone in the business world today about their biggest obstacles to growth and most will tell you it's recruiting and hiring.
More than two years after the pandemic, worker priorities still are shifting as individuals assess where work fits into their lives and rethink the definition of job security. Those factors are leading many employees to consider and follow through on major careers changes.
Of course, there are ways to ensure employers can lure top talent as well as ensure existing workers have the incentives to not jump ship during the Great Resignation. Some of those strategies can include offering professional development opportunities, creating a great workplace culture and prioritizing diversity, equity and inclusion.
That's according to some of Orlando Inno's 2022 Fire Awards winners. These companies from metro Orlando, the Space Coast and Volusia County enjoyed banner years in 2021. For many, that meant not only creating jobs in the local market, but also finding people to fill those roles — and keeping existing top talent from jumping ship.
"Recruiting and retaining talent in a competitive job market requires a combination of finding candidates who possess a combination of a strong skill set and the right cultural fit," said Joe Moye, CEO of Orlando-based autonomous mobility service provider Beep Inc.
Joe Moye
Jim Carchidi
Click through the photo gallery below to read about how some of the honorees said they're working to attract and retain a talented and engaged workforce, listed by company in alphabetical order. (Note: Not all honorees answered the question.)
2022 Fire Awards honorees share their top strategies to recruit and/or retain talent
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This year's Fire Awards winners share their top strategies to recruit and/or retain talent, listed by company in alphabetical order. (Note: Not all honorees answered the question.)
NicoElNino
Lora Parahovnik, CEO, Accel Research Sites: "Agile recruitment strategies, focusing on the candidate experience, employee referral programs, shorter time to hire the candidate, broader job vacancy and flexibility, training and educational paths contributing to the professional roadmap and personal development of the employees."
Richard Johnson for OBJ
Amy Yoder, CEO, Anuvia Plant Nutrients Corp.: "This is a significant focus, and we work with our employees to help them remain with us, offering a competitive salary, flex time and more. But there are two other key reasons people choose to work at Anuvia. For one, people want to work for a company that is focused on sustainability, which is at the core of what we do. Secondly, there is a significant opportunity for growth here, and people looking move up quickly in a company can do that at Anuvia."
Talking Head Studio
Daniel Jaye, founder/CEO, Aqfer Inc.: "We are a remote-first organization and seek to hire talent around key hubs including Orlando (which houses our corporate headquarters), New York City, Boston, Chicago and Denver. This approach enables us to promote a hybrid work environment for in-person work, where appropriate, while also opening up to talent from across the country. We also offer an unlimited vacation policy for employees to maximize work/life balance and a generous benefits package. Finally, we foster a culture of camaraderie with weekly 'no-shop-talk socials.' "
Wes Marsh/Aqfer Inc.
Kyle Crooks, CEO, AVT Simulations: "AVT has some very nice benefits that we use to leverage the industry. We use recognition programs regularly that include on the spot bonuses and awards, we implemented some work from home flexibility, offer generous personal time off, and have career growth programs. In addition we use flexible scheduling to help with our teams work/life balance."
AVT Simulation
Joe Moye, CEO, Beep Inc.: "Recruiting and retaining talent in a competitive job market requires a combination of finding candidates who possess a combination of a strong skill set and the right cultural fit. We place a heavy emphasis on onboarding new team members with continued support beyond orientation through an open door policy encouraging all team members to ask questions."
Jim Carchidi
Kunal Patel, co-founder/chief technology officer, BrandXR Inc.: "We participate in the community by supporting with time, support and money to events like Indie Galactic Space Jam, MeGa Health Jam and Armed Forces Jam from Indienomicon Foundation, where we find the best next-generation game developers, like programmers, artists and designers. We also support Startup Weekend where we can find business, marketing and tech savvy talent, too."
Jim Carchidi
Jack McGrath, president/creative director, Digitec Interactive LLC: "We follow a 'build' versus 'buy' mentality when it comes to employees. We use internships to recruit talent who share our values and culture, then train them in-house. By continually focusing on a talent pipeline, we’re able to continually develop future leaders."
Sergie Albino, CEO/co-founder, ecoSPEARS Inc.: "As we embark on the next stage of our business, we will need folks with industry experience who think outside of the box. We will need more diversity on our team, both regionally and culturally. We want to have a well-balanced and diverse leadership team. We want more powerful women in science and tech to be part of our team. Only through diversity can ecoSPEARS serve a global market."
ecoSPEARS Inc
Waymon Armstrong, CEO, Engineering & Computer Simulations Inc.: "We embrace the ECS Family culture, and are committed to listening and taking care of our team. We are dedicated to the people we serve and are proud that the majority of our team members are veterans. In addition, we offer excellent company benefits including flexible schedules, tuition assistance, wellness reimbursement, 401(k) plan with match, generous PTO and time for community service."
Jim Carchidi
Dan Doromal, director of operations, Everest Ice & Water Systems: "Growth is a great magnet for talent. We provide an inclusive environment and a dedicated management team to provide employees with the tools they need to succeed. Everest utilizes employee referrals from our existing skilled workforce, which not only enhances the sense of community but makes for an easier and more efficient flow of operations."
Everest Ice and Water Systems
Peter Kassabov, co-founder/executive chairman, Fortress Information Securities LLC: "We strongly believe in a diverse workforce and make hiring decisions based not only on skills and culture fit, but also a candidate’s overall passion to learn and grow professionally. We primarily focus on hiring top talent in the Orlando area; however, we are in a very competitive market and have to implement recruitment strategies around business needs, which require a portion of our openings to be available in a remote capacity. We have the tools to develop and up-skill talent, and we prioritized recruiting passionate candidates who wanted to grow in their careers. Retention was a top priority over the last year, and we ensured our compensation and benefits packages aligned with the national marketplace and provided opportunities for cross-functional training and advancement, while prioritizing our purpose-driven culture."
Dynamite Studio Inc.
Chris Hurn, CEO/founder, Fountainhead: "We have a significant internship program — we actually consider it more of an apprenticeship — with a target to hire 15% to 20% of these interns as full-time workers. We recently enhanced our significant employee benefits to try to dash any musings anyone might have of leaving us. We have a great group we want to keep together, so we added many more reasons to never leave us. We also seek the best talent, regardless of where they may reside, geographically. We had a large number of team members working from home pre-Covid and it only has increased since."
Talking Head Studio
Mike Taramykin, CEO/co-founder, HypGames Inc.: "Retention is a high priority. In a startup, every single person makes a monumental difference. At HypGames, they know it. We believe that when our employees are excited about our products and our vision, it creates loyalty to the company, pride in their work and confidence that this is a great place to grow their careers and increase their personal marketability. We also strive to create a culture and environment in which employees know they are valued, respected and are treated as professionals."
HypGames Inc.
Raj Koneru, CEO/founder, Kore.ai Inc.: "We are an open opportunity company with diversely talented individuals. Since the company was founded in 2014, it has grown from 25 people to 650-plus employees in March 2022. This has been possible only because of our ability to nurture talent and maximize the human potential of our employees."
Jim Carchidi
Albert Manero, executive director, Limibitless Solutions Inc.: "Limbitless starts with the 'why.' We all are focused on driving the innovation that will provide children with opportunities for expressive, personalized prosthetics — and remembering who we are working for."
Jim Carchidi/Orlando Business Journal
Ivan Jarry, CEO, Obvio Health USA Inc.: "The industry’s transformation is driving a shift in the skillsets we need to design, recruit for and operate studies. We focus on agile thinkers and proactive doers, some of whom move across departments to bring lateral thinking that can bridge science and technology."
ObvioHealth USA Inc.
Bill Catania, CEO, OneRail: "OneRail is exploring many avenues in sourcing and attracting talent — from online presence to local recruiting firms. A big initiative in 2022 is to hire an internal recruiter. In an effort to retain top talent, one of the most notable management ideas that sets OneRail apart from the competition is the opportunity for growth available to all team members. OneRail wants to ensure team members have the ability to learn from all levels of leadership. Senior executives consistently sit among the workforce, rather than creating the impression of being over them. The overall way the leadership team presents themselves circles back to 'One Team, One Vision.' To keep employees motivated, management continuously finds ways to show employee appreciation. Weekly challenges with incentives are part of the norm — often given on the fly during companywide town halls — as a way of showing appreciation for forward-thinking. Incentives also often are given out periodically for a team member’s hard work. OneRail has gone to great lengths to even find out team members’ favorite snacks, stores, restaurants and more to personalize incentives."
OneRail
Michael Connolly, CEO, Sonobi Inc.: "Providing an opportunity to work with a team of motivated individuals working in a dynamic and innovative ecosystem combined with unparalleled office perks and culture."
Sonobi Inc
Danny Jenkins, CEO/co-founder, ThreatLocker Inc.: "The largest success in attracting and retaining talent has been through our employees and partnering with various community organizations. We’ve built a recruitment-centric culture within ThreatLocker where employees have embodied a recruiter's mentality to continue our growth. In fact, about 24% of our 'cyber heroes' are referral based. Additionally, we’ve identified and partnered with a variety of universities, technical programs and recruitment/employment agencies and organizations to find talent. Regarding retention, it’s important that you not only identify the right candidate during the recruitment process (executed through having qualified, consistent technical and cultural vetting at all levels), but also ensure our employees feel valued and empowered within their roles, have a professional development plan and foster a positive work environment."
Susan Torregrosa
Dave Scalzo, interim CEO, Violet Defense LLC: "Our mission to help create a healthier world is core to what we do and an important part of why people come to work for Violet Defense. We want to make a difference in the world. We also offer competitive salary and benefits, and continually assess what else we can do to recruit and retain talent."
Violet Defense LLC
Jordan Walker, co-founder, Yac Inc.: "One thing we do well is not making empty promises like other companies do or offering the same cookie-cutter benefits. Everyone right now is offering super competitive rates, and so to compete with massive public companies we offer what they can't: fully remote, primarily async, have a lot of fun and work from home fund (we pay for expenses that go up by proxy of our people working from home, like electric, WiFi, water, etc). On top of that, since we are a startup, folks have the opportunity to do real meaningful work, not be employee No. 10,352 at some huge company. From time to time, we also just do dope stuff that's cool." (Pictured, from left, co-founders Justin Mitchell, Hunter McKinley and Jordan Walker)
Yac Inc.
Kyle White, co-founder, Yaupon Brothers American Tea: "Our company believes in creating a culture for our employees that helps them grow into the best version of themselves by providing them with good pay and opportunity." (Pictured, from left, co-founders Kyle and Bryon White)
Yaupon Brothers American Tea
Read about this year's 25 Fire Awards honorees, what they accomplished in 2021 and the big goals they have for this year in OBJ's April 29-May 5, 2022, weekly edition. And be sure to visit online for their full individual profiles in the weeks to follow.
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