Two homegrown Clearwater companies earn top-20 rankings on job site Glassdoor’s annual list of the 100 Best Places to Work.
IT security firm KnowBe4 is 16 in the large company category and print and digital marketing firm PostcardMania is 13 among small and medium companies.
The rankings are determined by the reviews of current and former employees posted on Glassdoor.
PostcardMania launched in a 600-square-foot cottage in 1998. Today, the company occupies a 69,800 facility on Sunnydale Boulevard, with a staff of nearly 300 employees and more than 96,000 small business customers nationwide. Founder and CEO Joy Gendusa says employee perks include yoga, an on-site cafe, and a slew of fun workplace events and activities. But Gendusa attributes the positive work environment to a unique rule she put in place.
“We have a zero-tolerance policy for office politics and negative chatter and that is a very rare thing to have in place,” she says. “And it is zero tolerance. I have had to put a head on a pike in the past, although it has been many years. But you do not talk badly about anyone who works here and you do not talk badly about the customers, because negative chatter creates negative chatter.”
The company also offers significant opportunities for career development and leadership that takes an interest in individual staff members and works to help them thrive, Gendusa says.
“I’m a mom so I have that mom thing going on,” she says.
Located in downtown Clearwater, KnowBe4 formed in 2010 as a “new school” IT security firm with a focus on cutting-edge security awareness training and simulated phishing to test a company’s security.
In addition to multiple appearances on the annual Glassdoor rankings, KnowBe4 has earned recognition for its workplace and work culture from publications such as Fortune and Entrepreneur. The Tampa Bay Times named it the top workplace in the region in 2019 and 2020. In an industry that attracts and relies on a significant amount of young talent, KnowBe4 has also been named among the best places to work for millennials.
“We know people work eight hours a day and it has to be fun for them,” says Senior Vice President for People Operations Erika Lance.
Some unique job titles focused on creating that atmosphere include a developer of fun and shenanigans and an artisan of culture and geekery.
Since moving to a remote workforce in the midst of COVID, the company has kept employees engaged with care packages, a Halloween drive-through event, and online activities such as dance and yoga classes, cookie-baking contests, and themed trivia contests that include dressing as characters from movies such as Hunger Games and Mean Girls.
A series of employee groups promote diversity in the workforce and choose the causes and charities KnowBe4 supports through volunteer work and donations.
“We want to support the things in the Tampa Bay area that our employees support because they are part of this community,” Lance says.
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