Remember Your First Bike?

Two weeks ago, we held our annual Leadership Conference at the Arlie Center and we had almost 100 of the company’s key operational, business and support leaders together. The theme this year was “Focusing on What Matters Most” and we covered a range of topics, including core processes, forecasting, market development, etc.

On Thursday, March 18th the afternoon session took a different twist on this theme. We were challenged to think about being legendary and what it takes to attain this, as individuals and as a company. One stage of this session asked, “What is one of those key memories from our childhood?” Most said their first pet or first bike. We all started sharing on our first bikes (mine was a small, camouflage, military looking bike with a real sounding machine gun and hand grenades) and we all realized that this was a key moment in our lives – something that stays with you for the rest of your life.

At that moment we broke up into small groups of 4 people and were challenged to build a bike. At the end of this session it was revealed that we would be presenting the bikes to kids from the local Boys & Girls Club. WOW – what an exciting moment! It was great to see the smile on the little boy that received the bike my team worked on. It was a one in a million smile.

The takeaway was, that at the facilities we as a company support everyday (schools, universities, hospitals, military bases, cities, etc.) there are end users that will benefit and enjoy the work we do. Just like these kids – we make a difference every day in the communities we serve and support. It was a powerful few hours and 24 kids in the local community and another 24 elsewhere got bikes.

I wonder what their first memory of their bikes will be when they are older?

Centennial Writes Article for Commonwealth Contractor

Our very own Vice President of Human Resources, Rick Wilson wrote an article for Virginia ABC’s Commonwealth Contractor. In “Why Investing in Your Employees is a Good Business Practice…Recession or Not”, Rick provides contractors with a look at programs Centennial implemented in an effort to reduce voluntary employee turnover. The results—voluntary turnover went down 16.6% in four years.

Here are a couple of quick highlights from the article:

• The Centennial College of Excellence helps employees get career training and advance their careers at Centennial
• Managers get leadership training annually at the Leadership Conference which helps them become people managers rather than project managers
• A variety of recognition programs reward hard work and promote company initiatives, like safety and sustainability.