Red Gaters joining our team possess one of the traits we look for as we recruit for new talent – the desire to perfecting their capabilities and skills every day. Ongoing learning plays a critical role in personal and professional development – particularly with remote working and the desire for personal fulfillment. We must engage in continuous personal learning to be adaptable and flexible to stay competitive and relevant.
 
In fact, executive coach Monique Valcour highlights why being a good leader requires a continuous personal development journey in a recent Harvard Business Review article. She also brings up the need to encourage proactivity, develop learning agility, and facilitate learning to encourage proactive problem-solving in a team.
 
Aligned to our corporate values, self-growth is key to living a fulfilling life and having a successful career. We develop and grow thanks to our ability to learn. Continuous learning is essential to continue strengthening our corporate culture to improve performance and innovation and accomplish employee satisfaction and retention. 
 
The capability of lifelong learning recognizes that humans have an innate drive to explore, learn and grow. It encourages us to improve our quality of life and sense of self-worth by paying attention to the ideas and goals that inspire us.
 
One of the Financial Times’ latest polls among chief learning officers (CLOs) stated that 82 percent of respondents considered leadership the top learning priority identified for executive education, followed by change management at 57 percent. Other priorities included digital transformation, strategy, and innovation brought up by more than two-fifths of respondents.
 
How Red Gate Supports Employee Self-Growth
 
Udemy
Udemy is an online resource Red Gate offers for free to all our employees immediately upon joining the team. It has a wealth of information to further boost their career from a strategic management and technical perspective, including courses about software development, program management, among many others. Our leadership team carefully selected the most applicable topics aligned to the nature of Red Gate’s business.
 
One of our team members recently used Udemy to build from scratch a data-driven business tool to generate a recruiting dashboard that will help further enhance the company’s recruiting efforts, analyze its progress, and consequently enable improved performance decision-making tools for the leadership team.
 
Vistage Executive Training
The leadership team also participates in the company’s self-growth efforts. Every month, they attend remote meetings with Vistage, a senior executive peer mentoring membership group, learn about the latest leadership and management industry trends, and find creative ways to solve business challenges. Red Gate’s CEO has applied some of the concepts he has learned during Vistage conversations, including how personnel decisions are made, strengthening our business strategy, integrating quality management, and boosting our company’s differentiators.
 
Most recently, Red Gate president T.J. Iak was recognized with Vistage’s Impact Award for being a member who asks deep questions and provides the most valuable feedback.
 
Quarterly Business Development Virtual Training
Employees have access to learning the latest insights and trends on doing business with the U.S. federal government. With primer sessions and tips shared by chief growth officer Rob Cordray, Red Gaters have access to learning how to participate in the company’s business development efforts.
 
Professional Development Tuition Assistance
Red Gate offers undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate tuition assistance to full-time employees looking to learn new skills or perfect their current skills. This program is done in partnership with accredited universities, such as George Mason University. Courses that are part of the program are relevant to employees’ positions at Red Gate.
 
Also, Red Gaters benefit from industry-recognized certification reimbursement benefits providing them with additional resources not available at the company. These qualified certifications allow Red Gaters to enhance their professional skills or get the training required for a specific position.
 
Tips When Looking to Join Red Gate
 
As candidates are looking to join our team, Red Gate president T.J. Iak shares, “Staying current in the trends and advances of your profession and making a list of goals of what you would like to learn or be able to do next is greatly beneficial as you aim to perfect or learn new skills.”
 
Thanks to the fast pace of today’s knowledge economy, organizations are seeing lifelong learning as a core component in employee development. At Red Gate, we are committed to encouraging and supporting our team in maximizing their management and technical skills and boost their performance which in turn become vital elements that greatly complement the ongoing growth and success of our organization.

As our business continues to grow, our team is also expanding its roster of veterans, civilians, and friends and family of our veteran community. A common factor among our existing employees – and a trait we are always looking for among candidates interested in joining our team - is their character of service to community and country with a lasting, positive impact on society at large.
 
Whether inspired to continue their passion for service to others after leaving the uniform or their desire to make a lasting, positive impact on their communities, churches, and causes they are passionate about, we encourage our team to participate in community service activities as part of their ongoing journey of personal and professional growth.
 
Bringing DOD, Civilian Agencies Closer
With more than 27 years of paramedic experience, one of our Red Gaters is a dedicated volunteer serving as an intermittent government employee when the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) is activated during natural disasters, public health crises, or man-made incidents.
 
Following last year’s Category 4 Hurricane Laura, our team member was deployed to Louisiana to support a civilian mass unit installed next to a local hospital. Joined by trauma doctors and nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, EMTs, paramedics, and ancillary services (administrative, logistics, communications), they were able to support the restoration of local medical infrastructure and save the lives of many local citizens.
 
The work at Red Gate and the knowledge of how the DOD operates played a critical part in setting up a framework for success when DOD and civilian agencies needed to join efforts during NDMS deployments. “I can make a seamless transition and help them navigate through any potential challenges much easier and quicker,” our team member shared. “It became a way to utilize my unique skillsets for the better of the country and make a measurable impact in other people’s lives.”

​Repurposing Military Skills for Helping Those in Need
A former member of the U.S. Army Reserve, another Red Gater often serves as a volunteer at Team Rubicon, a national disaster relief non-profit comprised of veterans, first responders, and civilians. Serving as incident commander leading a team of 25 volunteers, they sheltered at a local high school in Dover, Delaware provided by local authorities in response to Hurricane Isaias. For the following seven days, they helped cut and move fallen trees resulting from the strong wind gusts and picked up limbs brought down by a tornado.
 
“We can repurpose the skills we learned from when we served in uniform and help those in need. In many ways, when we are out on an operation following a disaster, it is the closest I can get to the feeling of unity and family since 9/12/2001.”
 
The team’s efforts didn’t go unnoticed by the local news. Check out how their story was featured in the Delaware State News and the Dover Post.

​As we start a new year, we reflect on what has enabled us to be where we are today, and what the next months will bring. Last year hasn’t been easy for anyone – our clients, our business, our employees, our families, and our communities. Our focus on positive client outcomes, hiring employees that align with our culture, continuous improvement and added value in our business operations, and support to our communities became critical elements of our business model that enabled us to accomplish sustained performance despite the challenging times.
 
In 2020, we were able to win relevant new contracts and recompetes with existing clients, which speaks to the tremendous work our team is providing across our customer base. We continued to re-invest in our business processes that will continue to position us to evolve the company capabilities, a transition that earned us global recognition. And our duty to service continued particularly at a time when our communities needed us the most.
 
As our government customers faced an overnight change in the way they do business resulting from the global pandemic, our agile business model allowed us to quickly adapt and respond to their new remote work and collaboration initiatives focused on service delivery and were noticed by our clients.
 
Our corporate core values, MAGIC (mission-driven, agility, grit, initiative and collaboration), carried us through the year with outstanding accomplishments among our clients – from seamless transitions and continued delivery of value-added services during times of transition on the client side, to the successful implementation of new reporting structures exceeding national standards with the potential to serve as a model to replace legacy ones.
 
WHAT TO EXPECT IN 2021 AND BEYOND
 
The focus of 2021 will be driven by continued distributed operations due to the pandemic, and capability advancement due to growing operational needs and the rapid acceleration of technology development. As Red Gate continues delivering quality professional solutions, it is critical for our team to remain focused on their continuous learning, our agility to address evolving mission requirements, and keep focusing on client outcomes.
 
“As we approach our 15th anniversary since the founding of our company, we are very proud of our Red Gate family’s contributions and commitment to having a client outcomes-focused mindset, and the great opportunities that our 2020 achievements will bring upon us in the coming months,” said Red Gate CEO Ernie Benner.