August 2024 | Issue #31
Happy birthday to CONSTANT! Born on August 24, 2004, our company’s journey has been decorated with groundbreaking work, mission-focused team members, and a track record of hard-earned success. I couldn’t be more proud of the work that we have accomplished and – especially on the heels of CONSTANT Summit Summit – I am invigorated about what the next 20 years hold for us.
This month we are celebrating, and there is a lot to raise a glass to. We have a decorated list of repeat clients (including our first client from 20 years ago!); we have work across State, Local, and Federal government; we are an award-winning, published organization; and the list continues. To top it off, this month CONSTANT has made the highly coveted Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies list for the second straight year! This wonderful news is based on our performance in 2023 and CONSTANT’s year-over-year growth in the years leading up to it.
Cheers to a phenomenal 20-year tenure, and to the impact, innovation, and industry-leading service that is in store for our next 20!
In Service,
-Michelle Constant
Pic: Me in 2004
CONSTANT's August Birthdays
Happy Birthday to our August crew!
- August 1st – Alison Brown
- August 7th – Carmen Khouri
- August 16th – Nathan Carpenter
- August 21st – Nate Hayes
- August 22nd – Nicole Christensen
- August 26th – Shante King
CONSTANT's Work Anniversaries
Happy Anniversary, and cheers to many more years!
- August 1st – Manny Rodriguez – 2 years
- August 15th – Nora Caplan-Baylis – 5 years
- August 16th – Alex Meyer – 2 years
- August 24th – Michelle Constant – 20 years!
- August 28th – Charlene Tovornik – 1 year
Celebrating 20 Years: How CONSTANT's Proposal Win Themes are Shaped by the Past and Present
Business Development by Jeff Philippart, Business Development Director
At the Summer Summit earlier this week, the BD Team introduced the concept of “win themes,” or concise statements that tell the prospective client exactly why they should choose CONSTANT – what makes us stand out from other companies. A win theme outlines the benefits, features, and experience that CONSTANT brings to the prospective client and is supported by direct proof points tied to past performance, industry knowledge, familiarity with the client, and more.
As CONSTANT approaches our upcoming 20-year anniversary, we have compiled extensive qualifications and experience that set our firm apart and can be leveraged to explain “why CONSTANT.”
CONSTANT celebrates three (3) proposal wins in July, where we applied win themes within our response to result in a strong evaluation by the selection committee and successful award. These include:
- FEMA Curriculum Management: Building from more than two (2) years of performance over five (5) existing contracts, CONSTANT will now be supporting a sixth contract for FEMA’s Workforce Development Division to develop 10 new Incident Workforce training courses.
- Sample win theme: WDD will benefit from a contractor with a deep understanding of the historical challenges of FQS course development and proven performance solving these challenges and innovating new solutions for flexible, efficient curriculum development, Quality Assurance (QA), psychometric involvement, and communication with the cadres.
- Beach Cities Health District (BCHD) Local Hazard Mitigation Plan (LHMP) Development: CONSTANT will develop a new LHMP for the BCHD (Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, and Redondo Beach). The LHMP will identify the BCHD’s disaster risks and vulnerabilities, contain thoughtfully crafted long-term strategies to protect people, property, and the environment from these risks, and enable BCHD and its partners to strategically invest resources toward implementing activities to mitigate hazard-related losses.
- Sample win theme: BCHD gains a partner who ensures federal and California-specific regulatory compliance from the start, expediting plan approval. BCHD also gets a contractor with direct experience producing approved plans for two (2) BCHD neighbors, meaning we understand the hazards, vulnerabilities, and communities that BCHD serves.
- City of Torrance Earthquake Tabletop Exercise: CONSTANT will continue support to our “hometown,” the City of Torrance, following an LHMP update in 2023. We will design, facilitate, and evaluate a Tabletop Exercise featuring an earthquake scenario and provide technical support to developing an Earthquake Response Playbook.
- Sample win theme: CONSTANT understands that the City seeks to craft an exercise featuring an earthquake scenario. CONSTANT has developed earthquake plans and conducted several earthquake exercises in the Los Angeles region and beyond, bringing our West Coast roots and direct experience with earthquakes as community members and responders to scenario development.
As demonstrated above, our team’s expertise, past and current performance, and client connections are key sources for win themes. Everyone at CONSTANT has a direct impact on our ability to form a proposal solution that aligns with our clients’ needs and requirements. Keep up the great work, and we look forward to what is to come as we await evaluation of several proposals submitted in July.
The Critical "20 Percent"
Operations by Jayson Kratoville
Mentorship is the glue that holds professional development together.
There’s an adage in the professional development field that growth comes 70% from experiences, 20% from mentorship, and 10% from formal training. Our instructional system designers would be quick to tell you that experiential learning upends this equation; however, as we celebrate CONSTANT’s 20th Anniversary, we thought we’d take this adage at face value and spend a little time talking about the 20 percent.
Done properly, mentoring is a heroic act. Mentors are a bridge connecting lessons learned from experience to the foundational concepts and new ideas that can come out of formal training. For example, CONSTANT is launching new Practice Area-specific course paths in iSolved to help team members align training with their growth goals. These courses contain a wealth of knowledge derived from the lived experience of experts in the field. Mentors (e.g., managers, SMEs, fellow team members) can help connect that knowledge to the projects we’re supporting.
Here are some ways you can leverage the 20% to maximize your professional development experience:
- Align your goals. Work with your manager on what direction want to grow, what knowledge you’ll need, and the training in the course paths. Remember—we also do our best to connect project assignments with your growth goals.
- Confront the problem. Connect with a manager or more experienced/specialized team member to apply the training to the needs and challenges of the communities we serve.
- Luck Favors the Prepared. Project managers can also take an active role in team member development by including training time in project plans. They should also set aside time to connect key concepts from the training to the needs of the project / client.
Immanuel Kant put it best: “practice without theory is blind, but theory without practice is mere intellectual play.” Build your skills faster by taking active steps to connect your formal training to the work you and your teams are doing.
Someone said "20 years ago," and our mind went "Ah yes! The 1980's," but they meant 2004, and now we need to go lie down
People and Culture by Maggie Peters, Director of People and Culture & Alyssa De La Cruz Sr. HR Business Partner
Two decades strong, a shining star,
CONSTANT’s journey, we’ve come so far.
Through thick and thin, we’ve stood the test,
Delivering service, always our best.
With gratitude and pride, we raise a cheer,
For twenty years of growth, it’s crystal clear.
So let’s celebrate this special day,
As we continue to light the way!
Summer Summit was a huge success! Please take a moment to complete the Summer Summit survey by EOD tomorrow, August 2nd. Here’s the link for your convenience. We’ll share the results during the next All Staff meeting, on August 26th.
Quarterly Bonus Updates: We’re reviewing folks’ utilization and have a meeting on the books for early August to make decisions. We appreciate everyone’s patience as we make sure we’re putting more thought into this first go-around and balancing some PTO among those making the decision.
401(k) Plan Update: Celebrate a huge Benefit at CONSTANT! Our 401(k) Plan just passed the $1M mark in assets! In only three years, this plan went from $90,000 to over $1M! Congratulations to all team members participating in this important retirement savings plan! If you are eligible but not participating, contact a member of your P&C Team to learn how to enroll today!
Important August Dates:
- August 1: Great Place to Work Survey Opens
- August 5: Payday $$
- August 9: Expense Reports Due
- August 15: Timesheets Due and Great Place to Work Survey Closes
- August 20: Payday $$
- August 21: Expense Reports Due
- August 24: CONSTANT 20th Anniversary
- August 26: All Staff meeting
- August 30: Timesheets Due
Professional Development/Training: Let’s grow together! We are excited to share some awesome learning opportunities coming up:
- Survey Development & Data Analysis: Want to boost your skills in creating surveys and understanding the data? Join Sarah Novak and Dylan Yates on August 23, 2024 at 2pm ET for a 90-minute workshop (optional). Don’t worry if you can’t make it live, we’ll record it and we’ll post on CONSTANT University (isolved). Plus, a Process Guide will be included for reference.
- CONSTANT Core Paths: The Portfolio Managers and Derek Morrison have curated a bunch of courses to help you dive deeper into our core service areas. From Beginner/Introductory to Advanced, there’s something for everyone. We will post these in CONSTANT University (isolved University) on or before August 9.
- Health Preparedness and Security
- Emerging Threats
- Emergency Management
Now that we’re talking about your Professional Development, check your isolved Training record is up-to-date. If you take a course in isolved University, it automatically flows over to your isolved Training and Development page. However, if you take a webinar/training outside of isolved/CONSTANT University, be sure to capture that by adding it to your file. Please keep your Degrees and Certifications up-to-date as well!
Timesheet Guidance: Hey team! There are a couple of things we want to share with you:
- Minimum Hours in a Pay Period [Full-Time]: Carmen posts these in every timesheet reminder. On the P&C SharePoint site, we have a quick link showing all 2024 pay period hours here. Please be sure that your timesheet meets or exceeds these figures. We’ve seen where a timesheet has no hours for a particular workday and the total doesn’t add up to the minimum hours. We don’t know if that person worked or not that day. We then have to reach out to get that information.
- Swapping Holidays: Within the calendar year, should you want to exchange a CONSTANT Holiday for any other day, please request it from your Manager. This provides you with the flexibility to celebrate, observe other days based on your personal, cultural, and/or religious beliefs or conflicts with a client’s schedule. Write a note in the comment section for the day you are exchanging for in both the holiday and the day you will be off. Be sure to delete the hours in the Holiday box since our timesheet automatically populates that based on our holiday schedule.
- Exceed Hours in a Pay Period with PTO: If you’ve worked more than the minimum hours needed for a full paycheck and you have PTO time, you can use some of your PTO to lower your hours to the minimum. But this only works for each pay period. Any extra hours you don’t use can’t be saved or carried-over for the next paycheck.
Who to Contact for Which Systems:
- iSolved: Maggie Peters or Alyssa De La Cruz
- Unanet and Payroll: Carmen Khouri
- SharePoint and PC Issues: Morgan Forrest
Great Place To Work Annual Survey: At CONSTANT, we truly believe in the power of our people. You are the driving force behind our culture, and your feedback is essential in helping us become an even greater place to work. Your voice matters, and it shapes our journey towards excellence.
That’s why we’re excited to launch our annual Great Place To Work® survey! This confidential and anonymous survey allows you to share your honest thoughts on your experience at CONSTANT, from job satisfaction to your relationships with colleagues and leaders. The survey will be open from Thursday, August 1st to Thursday, August 15th, and should take about 30 minutes to complete.
Should we recertify, this will be our fifth consecutive year of being a Great Place To Work certified organization! Together, we can make CONSTANT an even more outstanding workplace. Thank you for your time and commitment!
Action: Please send P&C pictures of you and the team in action! We want to use up to seven (7) on the Great Place To Work site. Please let us know where you are and what client or conference so we can add some context. Thanks!
Help Us Attract Talent – GlassDoor Reviews: Studies show a significant portion of job seekers consult Glassdoor reviews to learn about company culture, compensation, and work-life balance before applying or making a final decision about an offer. Please post a positive review on GlassDoor when you have a moment. This platform is so important for us to continue to attract quality candidates like YOU!
Equity Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)
EDI by Co-Leads Manny Rodriguez, Maggie Peters, and Alyssa De La Cruz
For August, Lee Williams-Nagy wrote an amazing article on Women’s Equality Day. Women’s Equality Day is August 26. You can find it here. Sincere thanks to Lee for a very insightful article! And thanks to all the volunteers for writing these important articles so we can continue to learn together!
Reach out to Manny, Alyssa and Maggie, EDI Co-Leads, if you need to assist a client with their EDI efforts or how to incorporate EDI into our engagement.
Next Meeting: Our next EDI Committee Meetings will be September 25 and November 20. The meeting is linked on the Staff Calendar. All meeting presentations and educational articles can be found on the P&C SharePoint site under the EDI Committee tile.
10+10 is 20 and 11+11 is 20 too...
Finance By Carmen Khouri, Controller
Did you know that 59% of accounts make typographical errors every month. By utilizing tools in automation, we can drop the manual data entry error by 90%. This year our goal in Finance and Accounting is to leverage Unanet’s features in automation to reduce the amount of manual work needed to input data into the system. By utilizing options like the recurring entries feature as well as uploading attachments in the system we can streamline the day-to-day processes and significantly reduce the number of errors. Through the proper utilization of Unanet we can create a searchable database that will allow for clearer accounting and reporting.
Other projects in the pipeline are an updated Time and Expense policy to accurately reflect the changes in DCAA and DTA regulations as well as accommodate for changes that are occurring in the travel industry.
We are so excited to celebrate the 20-year anniversary of CONSTANT and can’t wait to see what the next 20 years will bring!
20 years down, let's stay "Intune" with the future!
Information Technology By Morgan Forrest, IT Manager
As we get into the heat of the summer, let us discuss Intune and what it does. Intune is a cloud-based system to organize remote and hybrid workspaces. In some work environments, you would have a file server that organized the network, data permissions, and access to different applications. The other thing those networks do is provide group policies to all the digital assets in that network. These policies govern what a computer can and cannot do and automate some mundane activities.
Intune will allow us to do the following:
- Set up Group Policies to allow us to be compliant with NIST and CMMC frameworks
- Automate Windows Operating System Updates
- Automate Antivirus and network security settings
- Automate Security settings and configurations
- Monitor and resolve issues with the operating system remotely without disrupting team members.
As we begin to roll out Intune fully, I will update everyone during our team meetings and discuss the rollout plan. This will be a phased approach as we incrementally add features. Right now, I am adding everyone to our domain and after that we will begin to implement the policies.
If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to me.
Thank you all!!!
Congratulations to last month’s brain games winner, Pattijean, who sent me her photo and an awesome blurb about herself and where she was in 2004 before our Summit.
In the 2004 Athens, Greece Olympics The United States won the most gold medals (36), the most silver medals (40), and the most medals overall (101).
How many medals do you think Team USA will take home at the end of this year’s Olympics? Email Brea your guesses! The closest guess without going over, wins!
Our mission is to make the world a safer place.
It’s that simple, and that’s why we are here. We have a strategic plan for the next three years, called CONSTANT Strategy, which outlines what our biggest priorities are:
- Take care of our people
- Forward our mission
- Respond to our clients’ most pressing needs
- Expand strategically across markets
- Build infrastructure for the future
To help us execute on our mission, we have developed the CONSTANT Credo and our aligned core values (see the graphic below). We live by these.