Kevin Mako Featured in Forbes: Expert Employee Appreciation Strategies

Forbes. The name alone engenders awe and respect in aspiring entrepreneurs, business leaders, and professionals of all types. That’s because anyone who’s anyone has been featured in or has contributed to this exceptionally coveted business magazine. Kevin Mako was just invited to join this prestigious list. He’s led us to win incredible team awards and certifications, such as Great Places to Work and Growth 500.

Most recently, we’ve been listed as one of the fastest-growing companies on the Inc. 5000 Texas list! Yeah, that’s right. We know a thing or two about building a strong industrial design company culture. So who better to get insights on building a great company culture than from the boss himself?

Our President and Founder, Kevin Mako was featured in a Forbes article, in conjunction with other members of the Young Entrepreneur Council, on strategies leaders should use when praising employees for building a happier workforce.

Your team is one of the key elements that will determine the success of your business. Especially if you’re a small business or startup that, out of necessity, dishes out more responsibilities to fewer people. As you grow and scale your business, you won’t have the time or energy to address the inevitable accounting, marketing, or sales challenges on your own.

To build a team that can help you overcome these challenges, you need to have chemistry and trust in one another. More importantly, they’ll need to have trust in you – the leader of the business. So as the leader of your business, one of your core responsibilities is to build an industrial design company culture to grow and nurture a happy team.

A happy employee is a more productive employee.

Sounds easy, right? Just be specific and make sure your praise is sincere and meaningful.

Not quite.

Building a Strong Industrial Design Company Culture

When building your industrial design company culture, don’t overdo it and dish out accolades at every opportunity – these start to feel like meaningless participation awards in a hurry. On the flip side, if you start praising certain individuals over others, you run into the risk of favoritism. This also becomes more apparent, whether intentional or not, in smaller teams like startups. So a good leader should also be aware of how their other employees may feel about their coworkers receiving praise. 

So aside from the obvious salary bump, free office snacks, or pool table in the break room, what is it that really makes an employee happy? It turns out employer approval is at the top of the list when it comes to job satisfaction for millennials. And here’s a sneak peek at how TriMech Design Solutions strategizes to develop a strong industrial design company culture.

Regularly Conduct Peer-To-Peer Award Sessions

Ask our team, and they’ll tell you that our peer-to-peer award meetings are unlike any you’ve ever attended. Every Friday, near the end of the day, we all run to the fridge and grab an ice-cold beer (or non-alcoholic beverage!) because it’s time for Beer O’Clock. Yes, you read that right. During these relaxed meetings, we recognize each other for their help with projects, tasks, and everything in between.

It might seem like a small gesture at first but it’s a great way to learn from your peers. As you get to know each other, you’ll learn about your team’s different skill sets and projects that align with business objectives. 

Invite The Employee To Share Their Excellent Work

This is a great way to highlight collaboration, prove there’s no “I” in the word team, and create a more inclusive industrial design company culture. Rather than focusing on one person’s achievements, everyone gets the opportunity to brag a little.

Once a month at TriMech Design Solutions, each team of designers and engineers shares some of the projects they’ve worked on and highlights how they collaborate to solve problems together. This process is incredibly valuable for especially challenging projects that require creative solutions. Employees can share ways with the entire team to think outside the box.

Ensure Praise Is Consistent, Fair and Reliable

This one comes directly from Kevin. Give praise regularly. And make sure to give praise fairly. Acknowledge that some tasks are harder than others and place more emphasis on accomplishments that require a lot of effort. Lastly, be predictable enough, so your employees have a benchmark to know that great work will be given praise.

In the Forbes article, Kevin references our monthly project showcase mentioned above, “My development teams cumulatively design over a dozen physical consumer products every month for our clients, so I find it especially important to ensure that consistent, fair, and reliable praise is given, not just from me, but also from the managers and, even more importantly, from their peers.” 

Conclusion

As you can tell from the examples above, we’ve been able to create an industrial design company culture around peer endorsements to ensure everyone understands and appreciates their contributions. Over the years, we’ve built an environment that’s welcoming and, dare we say, fun. And we’ve been able to do it because the desire to make MAKO employees happy comes from the top down.

It’s how we’ve attracted experienced designers, engineers, and other talents from Fortune 500 companies, including Dell, Nike, Bose, and Boeing. This synchronous combination of skill and chemistry is the key to our productivity and how we create world-class products for our clients.

Check out the full list of employee recognition strategies in the Forbes article here!