Pivotal role: The region’s

Pivotal role:

The region’s professional services were vital in ushering companies and individuals through the pandemic

The Tampa Bay region’s professional services sector has been growing and diversifying at a strong pace, bolstered by the pandemic that saw the sector play a pivotal role in helping individuals and companies weather the storm. From leading efforts to secure PPP loans, and later forgiveness, to navigating the shifting rules and protocols related to the government’s stimulus programs, these services — accounting, legal, financial among them — have been more necessary than ever in the past year.

Forced to contend with the health crises that also sparked an economic crisis, many individuals and small businesses looked to the professional services to help them not only through the ins and outs of the stimulus options, but also with needs closer to home, including estate planning, moving to a remote working environment and all that entailed, dealing with labor challenges amid furloughs and other actions, and handling payment deferrals and in some cases, bankruptcy.

With the unexpected emergence of the pandemic, however, challenges also heightened alongside the opportunities. Chief among these is the relative dearth of skilled labor in the region. While this talent pool is growing by the year, it remains an issue that must be addressed in order for Tampa Bay and its professional services companies to take advantage of the area’s inherent potential.

The pandemic has also pushed many firms to visualize what the post-pandemic future will look like, including the use of digital technologies, the increasing cybersecurity threat as more people work from home and with that, training new recruits not only in the requirements of the job but in the culture of the company.

With Democrat Joe Biden now in the Oval Office, the industry is also eyeing a regulatory shift and potential rollbacks of Trump-era policies that could impact businesses of all sizes. “Among his first actions, the president terminated the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board and the deputy general counsel, which has never happened before. From our perspective as a management-side labor and employment firm, some administrations have traditionally been more employer-friendly. As that pendulum swings, we are poised as a firm to react to local, state changes and federal changes that we see on the horizon. It is something that we, as a firm, are ( )