A casual dress code. Plenty of open-air work spaces. And the general ambience of a hipster entertainment complex envelopes Beeline Inc. on Jacksonville’s Southside more than it portrays an actual workplace to the uninitiated when walking through the doors of the technology firm.

Beeline is a software platform between companies and talent -- or non-fulltime employees -- that serve as contractors, consultants, contracted with staffing agencies, outsourcing firms and gig economy workers who are not beholden to a single employer.

“All these people who are not directly employed by the enterprise are connected through our platform,” said Doug Leeby, CEO of Beeline. “We don’t actually staff. We’re a technology company that connects staffing agencies to the companies.”

See the full list:Metro Jacksonville Top Workplaces 2023

He added Beeline is in a way similar to Match.com. But instead of hooking up potential romantic couples, Beeline helps arrange the relationship between non-fulltime employees and businesses.

“It’s a technology-connecting platform,” Leeby said. “Some of the biggest brands you would recognize use our platform to find people… . You go [online] to Beeline and there’ll be a job description, click a button and then [a request] will go out to different suppliers.”

Other Beeline offices located in Denver, Colo., London, U.K., Sydney, Australia and Dublin, Ireland.

The company is targeting those elements of the workforce who are independent minded. About 47% of the labor force is non-fulltime employee, according to Beeline officials.

The environment at the Beeline offices at 12735 Gran Bay Parkway off Interstate 95 in the southern reaches of Duval County is more akin to a trendy coffee shop or health food grocery store. The 35,000-square-foot complex features shared meeting areas, game rooms, open desk areas and baskets of fruit including fresh apples, oranges and bananas.

Beeline moved to its current location in April, 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was gripping the nation. They relocated a short distance from their previous location which was also in Southern Duval County literally on the same street.

But Leeby said remote working quickly set in and he acknowledged his company worked extensively with employees to accommodate their needs. Virtual work became the order of the day in the throes of

the pandemic and he said the company is still reevaluating how they’ll move forward and if they’ll remain in their current physical facility.

“We’re still considering that. We’re very employee-centric. We’re still garnering feedback from them to get a sense from them as to what ‘ideal’ looks like to them. What is clear to us is people are not coming back [to the physical office] fulltime. Remote is here to stay,” Leeby said.

Due to the leeway Beeline has given to its employees since the pandemic and the spike in remote work, Leeby acknowledged while the circumstance may not fit the traditional workplace paradigm, workers have responded.

“There are moms that have situations, there’s elderly care, all these different situations happening with different people. The remote environment has actually been quite good to them. And it’s been good to us. Our productivity has gone through the roof,” Leeby said.

Ultimately, he said a good workplace isn’t about control of employees. A good company, the way Leeby sees it, is one that responds to workers and that parallels increased work output and that’s exactly where Beeline finds itself as a company.

There are still Beeline some employees coming into the office and the company still has a few events each week that requires workers to meet physically. Leeby admitted he is not certain how the final work structure will look for Beeline employees and it may be a constant process of evolution.

“I’ve got a framework that I’m trying to get people to buy into or at least feel good about,” Leeby said. “It’s employee-centric where we listen to the folks and we are extremely transparent… .

“We need to create an environment that enables people to leave a thumbprint and feel like they’ve been able to accomplish something. Couple that with an environment that’s very family oriented and feel very safe and supported with an opportunity for growth,” Leeby said.

Beeline as a company is privately owned but not traded, Leeby said. He declined to disclose the annual revenue figure for Beeline.

“I’ll give you some guidance and say it’s close to the $200 million range,” Leeby said.

Much of that success is due to the ability to retain the clients Beeline has developed, said Jessica Ashcraft, vice president of marketing for Beeline. She said Beeline has a 99% retention rate between the companies they connect to the workforce talent they seek.

Ashcraft said that kind of retention rate for their customers is directly linked to the way the company treats its employees.

“A lot of that customer service methodology that we put forth to our clients we also put into each other as colleagues. We come from a very servant-leadership mindset… .,” Ashcraft said.

“That service that you give to each other creates that team mentality and helps people feel like they’re part of something greater than themselves. I think that’s why we have such tenure on the team,” Ashcraft said.

Ultimately, Leeby said the Beeline culture is to provide an opportunity to employees so they can feel they made a contribution and a difference with the company. It’s one thing to get a paycheck, Leeby said. It’s another to be recognized for contributions.

“No one works for me. They work for their families,” Leeby said. “… I think it’s important to recognize that in the end, recognition is fine, but it really points to the fact that you understand and you see that I am here and I am making a difference to the company and the greater goal. It doesn’t matter if it’s software or a bottle of water.”

While there is a sense of increased freedom and self-fulfillment for people working remotely in the age of emerging from a pandemic, Leeby acknowledged he is concerned about the possible diminishing sense of workplace community. Workers simply aren’t around each other as much as they used to be.

“Do I think you lose some of the culture when you’re not together the way you used to be? Yeah, I think it’s possible,” Leeby said. “For me culture is about the relationships.

“… It’s always an evolutionary process moving forward with or without the pandemic,” Leeby said.

He acknowledged the new-age mentality for many workplaces of an open-air production can seem counter-intuitive to traditional labor mentalities. And Leeby said even he doesn’t want to go too far with it. But he sees Beeline as coming very close to striking a delicate balance needed to take into account all the new demands that have emerged in the wake of the pandemic.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Beeline Inc. rated as one of the places to work in Jacksonville