In an era defined by persistent labor shortages, generational change and heightened employee expectations, employee engagement has quietly become one of the most powerful drivers of retention, recruitment and long-term firm stability. In this edition of The Friedman File, we explore how some AEC firms are moving beyond generic engagement strategies and instead building distinctive, firm-specific programs that give employees a voice, reinforce shared values and create real emotional connection to the organization.
Recognition as Culture: Bergmeyer’s Unicorn Awards
At Bergmeyer, employee engagement is centered on the idea that everyone has something special to contribute and that they should be recognized publicly and meaningfully for it. This is embodied in its Unicorn Award, which, in the words of President and CEO Rachel Zsembery, “honors our fiercely focused, highly motivated creative thinkers.”
Nicknamed the “Golden Horn,” the award is a monthly peer-nominated recognition program that honors individuals across every discipline, department and position level in the 90-person, Boston-based design collaborative. Rather than being manager-driven or reserved for top performers, the award is open to everyone, both as nominators and nominees.
“Every one of us is a unicorn in our own way,” says Human Resources Manager Rachael Hoyland. “We wanted to create something that reflects the idea that people are unique, creative and valuable, and that those qualities show up differently in different roles.”
The idea is based on the Purple Squirrel Award, a similar concept that Chief Strategy Officer Christian Davies encountered while working at Verizon. Each month, nominations are collected via SurveyMonkey, reviewed by Zsembery and Executive Assistant Melissa Forman, and then celebrated during the firm’s monthly all-hands gathering.
The physical awards themselves are unique: custom-made felt unicorns created by local artist The Felted Bee. Each one has a different theme and color scheme, and is delivered in a personalized bag. Recipients also receive a gift card (“Lunch on the Berg”) and recognition on the company intranet where a growing “stable of unicorns” documents over two years of honorees. You won’t find many mentions of the Unicorn Award outside the firm; it isn’t a marketing device or branding exercise, but a purposefully internal recognition that is special precisely because it belongs to the people inside Bergmeyer.
Forman notes that the program’s success lies in its inclusiveness. “This isn’t leadership picking one person and saying, ‘You did a good job,’” she says. “It’s about giving everyone a voice and letting teams recognize the people who truly made a difference for them.”
Bergmeyer’s Unicorn Award is embedded within a broader culture of intentional optimism. At the monthly all-hands meeting, referred to as, “Tell Me Something Good,” Bergmeyer encourages the sharing of positive news from projects, teams or personal milestones. The award presentation then caps the event, reinforcing a consistent message: contribution matters, effort is seen, and culture is something the firm actively practices, not just describes.
Zsembery notes that the program has deepened connection across teams. “One of the great things about this is how deep and personal the nominations are,” she says. “Teams will write about someone going above and beyond under difficult circumstances. This kind of recognition lasts and it carries real weight.”
While playful on the surface, the Unicorn Award serves a serious purpose: reinforcing firm principles, strengthening peer-to-peer appreciation and creating a shared ritual that employees genuinely value.
Engagement Through Structure: MKSK’s Staff Council and Feedback Loop
Where Bergmeyer leans into symbolism and celebration, Ohio-based MKSK Studios has taken a more structural, but equally intentional approach to engagement. Its model is rooted in governance, transparency and sustained dialogue.
Following its transition from an LLC to a 100% ESOP in 2019, MKSK leadership recognized a gap: while ownership was now vastly broadened across the firm, day-to-day decision-making still lived almost exclusively at the leadership levels. “The principals group really wanted to empower all employee groups to have a voice and influence decisions,” says Eric Lucas, CEO of the Ohio-based landscape architecture and urban design firm.
The result was the Staff Council.
Comprised of representatives from each of the 150-person firm’s 12 offices and ranging from entry-level staff to senior associates, the council meets at least monthly to discuss issues that impact the studios, offices, people and project teams. Council members host regular “coffee chats” to meet with all employees in their offices to solicit ideas and issues to bring to the full council. Frequent topics include wellness, studio layout, performance evaluations, benefits and holiday policies.
Lucas attends meetings as the principals’ liaison, offering context when needed but deliberately avoiding steering the conversation. “I tell them to ignore me unless they need clarification,” he says. “The point is to elevate studio voices and create a direct conduit to decision-making.”
The council’s influence is tangible. Its feedback has helped refine MKSK’s evaluation process, shape benefits offerings, and expand flexibility around holidays for employees who observe nontraditional celebrations. Leadership roles within the council rotate on two-year terms, ensuring fresh perspectives and broad participation.
A somewhat unexpected benefit of the council is that it has become a form of leadership training, as well as a proving ground for future leaders. For younger and mid-level staff, participation offers a rare window into how decisions are actually made: what’s possible, what isn’t and why.
“It gives people insight into the realities of leadership,” Lucas says. “They see the tradeoffs, the constraints, and the responsibility that come with making firmwide decisions.”
Importantly, the council is not a rubber stamp; leadership is clear when ideas can’t be implemented and transparent about the reasons. This exposure to real dialogue, limits included, has made council service a meaningful step toward leadership. This may partly explain why roughly 60% of MKSK’s non-leadership staff have expressed interest in participating.
The firm also prioritizes communication and recognition of the council’s accomplishments. “I make it a point to tell the entire firm what the staff council influenced,” Lucas says. “Council members need to know that their time and energy matter, and that things actually change as a result of the work they put in.”
Complementing the Staff Council is MKSK’s annual employee engagement survey, a detailed, anonymous questionnaire that probes areas such as colleague culture, career development and trust in leadership. Participation has been consistently 100%, driven less by the incentives offered (e.g., pizza parties for full participation) than by the opportunity to provide valuable feedback.
“People respond because they know it’s not performative,” Lucas explains. “The results go through the staff council. I don’t see the raw data; I only see themes and recommendations.”
These results often guide follow-up actions, from focus groups in specific offices to new initiatives introduced at firmwide meetings. The survey isn’t treated as a scorecard; it’s a diagnostic tool.
Stepping Away to Reconnect: The MKSK Design Summit
Perhaps MKSK’s most visible engagement initiative is its annual Design Summit, a two-day, firmwide event that brings employees from every office together in its Columbus headquarters.
The summit is deliberately immersive. Day one offers concurrent sessions, including project tours, internal culture discussions and “Create Your Experience” sessions such as mentorship meet-ups and storytelling initiatives. The schedule allows attendees to choose their experience. Day two brings everyone together for shared programming featuring outside speakers, designers, artists and thinkers well outside MKSK’s daily practice.
“There’s a substantial cost to doing this,” Lucas acknowledges. “There’s travel, two days of non-billable time, a lot of preparation and investment. But it’s definitely worth it.”
The summit serves multiple purposes: reconnecting a geographically dispersed workforce, reinforcing design identity and creating space for informal relationships that don’t emerge on project calls. It has become an event that employees actively anticipate.
“It feels like a conference, but it’s ours,” Lucas says. “And that distinction matters.”
A Different Path, Same Outcome: Lessons from KEG
These engagement strategies may look very different from those at Kaskaskia Engineering Group (KEG), a Midwestern firm profiled in the November 2025 edition of The Friedman File, but they achieve a similar goal. KEG’s approach leans heavily on trust-based policies such as banking time over 40 hours, generous flexibility and small but meaningful rituals like its “4-3-2-1 Policy,” which encourages employees to connect informally after work.
What unites KEG, Bergmeyer and MKSK isn’t a specific program or aesthetic; it’s their intentionality. Each firm has designed engagement mechanisms that fit its own unique culture, leadership style and workforce. They invest the time, money and thought to support these mechanisms with consistency and follow-through.
Engagement as a Strategy, Not an Ornament
One of the most telling commonalities across these firms is that engagement isn’t outsourced to HR or treated as an add-on. It is embedded in how decisions are made, how recognition is given and how leaders show up.
There are no off-the-shelf solutions here, which is precisely the point. Effective employee engagement in an AEC firm isn’t about copying someone else’s program. It’s about understanding what your people value, creating structures that allow them to be heard and appreciated, and reinforcing those choices over time.
In a market where exceptional talent remains scarce and expectations continue to rise, firms that invest thoughtfully in employee engagement are building durable, resilient organizations that attract people who are a good fit and entice them to stay for the long run.
What unique employee engagement techniques does your firm employ? I’d love to hear about it and potentially share it in a future edition. Write me at rich@friedmanpartners.com or call 508-397-9213.
