Inside Kforce’s new innovative hybrid HQ hub

While stepping inside Kforce’s new headquarters at the evolving Midtown Tampa campus, you will never see a traditional cubicle of employees working the typical 9-to-5 work schedule.

Kforce Inc. (Nasdaq: KFRC), one of the area’s largest tech employers that provides staffing solutions to companies, is one of the first to design an entirely new space fully dedicated to a hybrid workforce model. 

Inside Kforce’s new headquarters in Midtown. Photo by Veronica Brezina.

A year into the Covid-19 pandemic, the company sold its 130,000-square-foot office space in Ybor City. Fast forward five months later, Kforce inked a lease for the new 22,232-square-foot Midtown office space, which is a fifth of the square footage of the Ybor office. 

“We realized on Day 1, we were never going back to where we came from. We put a team in place and reimaged how and where we work,” Kforce CEO and President Joe Liberatore said at Tuesday’s unveiling of the new HQ, recalling when he joined 35 years ago, Kforce embraced an open environment, although those workspaces were created with filing cabinets during those days. 

“We’ve gone full circle. It’s a collaborative open environment to allow organic interaction versus forced interaction,” Liberatore said. 

Kforce executives alongside Tampa Mayor Jane Castor (pictured in the center) celebrate the opening of the new HQ. Photo by Veronica Brezina.

The company has 600 Tampa-based employees and over 2,000 nationwide – and not a single one is required to physically work in the office. 

The workforce model Kforce calls “office occasional” allows people to work remotely and not abide by a set schedule, as many companies have enforced in the post-Covid era. 

The “connection zone” where large video conferences are hosted inside Kforce’s HQ. Image provided.

However, employees can come into the office to work collaboratively with teams, or meet clients and take them to a restaurant or coffee shop just steps away from the office building at 1150 Assembly Dr. 

The layout of Kforce’s fifth-floor space is divided into four different zones, including a quiet zone, and is outfitted with 28 workstations. 

“We had looked at 100 different locations when we first started, and narrowed it down to 11 and then three. I wanted Midtown from the start,” Liberatore said.  

The meeting and training space inside Kforce’s HQ. Photo by Veronica Brezina.

The office is outfitted with technology such as Microsoft Surface hubs, Poly Studio conferencing tech, scheduling software to book rooms, upgraded Wi-Fi and acoustical soundproof pods used for privacy. 

The private pods in Kforce’s Midtown HQ. Photo by Veronica Brezina.

The hybrid headquarters is a model for the company’s 30-plus reimaged offices nationwide. 

Inside Kforce’s new headquarters in Midtown. Photo by Veronica Brezina.

Kforce said its decision to embark on designing such a space was reaffirmed in October when Kforce surveyed 2,500 jobseekers about their preferred work environment. The result: 93% favored hybrid remote setting and two-thirds of respondents said they do not want set schedules.  

“I know without a doubt that other companies are going to be looking at Kforce because you have the answers for the future where individuals can come to work when necessary and through the advancement of digital connectivity, they can be able to get work done remotely,” Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said during the event. 

During the pandemic, the office market spiraled when many companies pivoted to a full remote workforce model, exiting leases and selling spaces as employers realized productively increased and employees were able to embrace a healthier work-life balance. 

The impact on the office market is still evident – for example, Tampa’s Central Business District has a vacancy rate of 15.2% and a non-CBD vacancy rate of 23%, according to Cushman and Wakefield’s third-quarter report. 

Kforce’s sign when entering Midtown Tampa. Photo by Veronica Brezina.

In addition to the unveiling of the new HQ, Kforce also reported its third quarter results: A revenue of $437.6 million. 

In the quarterly report, CFO David Kelly said, “During our Q4 [fourth quarter] 2021 earnings release, we indicated that we expected that 2022 revenues would be at least $1.7 billion and that earnings per share would be at least $4.20. Our guidance for the fourth quarter, at the midpoint, indicates that we would expect to slightly exceed those levels for the full year.”