What's the Company Culture Like at Golden Pet Brands?

We believe recognition should be frequent and visible. Employees can celebrate one another through our informal Slack channels and peer-to-peer awards, and we regularly spotlight teams that have achieved great results through collaboration. When hosting our bi-weekly town hall meetings, those teams often share success stories. We also recognize outstanding performance across our creative, sales and manufacturing teams through monthly awards tied to specific preset goals. 

Name a recent decision that clearly reflected your values. What changed as a result?

Obviously, when holidays roll around we have quite a few people take time off for vacation. And something I really value and respect is making sure that when my team is offline and on vacation, they are truly offline and away from the computer. So before they are out of office, I connect with them on any outstanding projects or tickets. Recently, we had a last-minute bug right before our Fourth of July sales that needed to be fixed and the person who initially put in the ticket for the campaign was already out of office but still responding to Slack messages. I reached out and told her to get offline and I would make sure the problem got fixed. Sure enough, myself and my team were able to fix the issue before the sale went live and my employee was able to log off completely. 

She came back from her vacation and said it was the refresh she needed. For me, that is exactly the result I want from my team, to know that they can step away and take a break and work will still carry on without issues or complaints.

What habit keeps cross-team work moving — and how do you track its effect?

One thing I love to do regularly that helps keep cross-teams moving and working together is to present performance metrics to relevant departments. During company all-hands, I share brand growth, channel growth and customer growth. I try to present any downfalls without blame or pressure, but instead talk about it in a way that gives everyone a sense of ownership with items they can do or focus on — be it specific brands, landing pages or pitch ideas. People who attend these meetings often tell me the reports clearly show how every team has a part and it gives them a clear understanding of how the company is performing.

Outside of those regular performance metric reports, I encourage my team to be as clear as possible and to really think about their audience and message before sending tickets. A ticket for a video editor is likely going to be a “different language” than a ticket to a web developer or design request. When tickets are clear and understandable, it lessens the amount of time to completion and encourages trust within the different teams.

How do you make recognition fair and visible — and what metric proves it works?

I recognize my team by pushing them to apply for any companywide “Win of the Weeks,” even if it isn’t a big money-earning win. A win is still a win! I also think it's important for those wins to be presented by the individuals themselves so everyone on those larger calls can directly see who is helping to make an impact at the company (only if they feel comfortable to present of course!).

I also try to be as honest and upfront with my team as much as possible by setting realistic expectations when it comes to paths to promotion or feedback to help them grow into the next stage. Fifty percent of my direct reports have been on my team for more than two years and one-third of my department has received a promotion within the last year.

If someone on my team isn’t quite ready to lead a full team, I encourage them to mentor new employees as part of our mentorship program or to look into hiring an intern. If someone on my team is regularly making small mistakes, I encourage them to take their time and to not rush if it isn't necessary. Overall, I want to give my team the feedback they need to become the best versions of themselves because it’s what I would want!