Software giant seeking to hire 500 people dangles perk: Fridays off

Avanade, a technology solutions company jointly owned by Accenture and Microsoft, recently announced it would open an engineering hub in the Tampa Bay region — its first in the United States — and hire a whopping 500 software engineers, over the next three years, to staff it.

That’s a tall order. But Josh Fink, Avanade’s director of North American engineering hubs, believes the firm’s hybrid work environment and alternative work week will prove to be difference-makers.

“We have the office space, and if you want to come in, you certainly can, but there's no requirement to,” Fink tells Coffee Talk, adding Avanade will utilize Accenture office space in northern St. Petersburg until a permanent location can be found. “As we grow and scale, of course, we will probably outgrow that, and we'll need to figure something else out.”

Although new hires will have the option to work remotely full time if they choose, Fink says they’ll need to be based within 100 miles of Tampa.

“I want to have the opportunity to be able to collaborate. … We’re trying to build a local talent pool, because we don't know where the world is going,” he says. “I'm not going to begin to tell you what's going to happen next, in terms of remote work, but ultimately I’d like to have events where we all come into the office.”

Another carrot to dangle in front of potential recruits: a four-day work week.

“I can work 40 hours in four days,” Fink says, “and then have Friday off.”

Founded in 2000, Avanade has grown to have more than 56,000 employees across 26 countries. It combines the business consulting expertise of Accenture with the software and cloud services of the Microsoft ecosystem, powering the Accenture Microsoft Business Group.

Joining Avanade in June 2021 was a homecoming, in more than one way, for Fink, a University of South Florida graduate whose family moved to Tampa when he was four years old. Earlier in his career, he spent more than a decade working for Accenture. In 2019, he moved to the Fort Lauderdale area for a job with Seminole Hard Rock Support Services, the backbone of the Seminole Tribe of Florida’s casinos and resorts.

“I’ve spent all but two years of my career in Tampa,” Fink says, “so to be able to have this opportunity to come to Avanade has been amazing.”