Turning Goober Moments into Priceless Wisdom

The first time I met Nancy “Nan” Walsh, president of Informa Markets’ North American business, which MD+DI is part of, I made a complete goober of myself.

I'd been looking forward to telling her why I love being part of Informa. But I was nervous, and my words came at a clip – not at all the poised and polished impression I’d been going for. Fortunately, Walsh didn’t hold the moment against me. I don’t think.

“It’s important to create an environment that people love being a part of,” Walsh said later. “If you build a culture that is supportive, collaborative, and celebratory, you will have team members who are motivated and excited about what they do, who jump out of bed in the morning, who go the extra mile because they really believe in what they are doing and who they are doing it with. That is priceless.”

I was reminded of this sentiment recently as I scrolled through my LinkedIn feed and landed on a post from Velentium, an engineering firm specializing in the design and manufacturing of medical devices. In the post, the company explains that every quarter it celebrates its staff’s tenure with the company. This quarter Velentium is celebrating 27 anniversaries.

What stuck out to me, as I read the names in the accompanying graphic, listed in order from shortest tenure to longest, is that they weren’t just the typical milestone anniversaries. Five are celebrating their one-year anniversary, 14 are celebrating their two years, five are celebrating three years, one is celebrating four years, one is celebrating seven years, and another is celebrating nine years at Velentium.

This is likely due, in part, to the age of the firm, which began in 2012 as a two-person operation. But I suspect it’s also due to Velentium’s forward-thinking culture that values human connection.

I’ve interviewed several people from the firm in recent years and their enthusiasm for what they do always shines through, whether they’re talking about Velentiums’s role in a COVID-19 ventilator project known as Project V, or about cybersecurity in medtech.

Employee tenure trends are changing, largely driven by a younger workforce that’s more prone to job hopping, and the gig economy. As the workforce evolves, so too should the concept of years of service recognition.

As the American celebration of Labor Day approaches, it seems like a good time for medtech companies to consider new ways to make their employees feel seen. Velentium gets it. By recognizing employees on a regular basis – even if it’s just an email or social media post – the engineering firm is showing it understands the value of an engaged workforce.

And that, as Walsh says, is priceless.