Every October, The ESOP Association and its member companies celebrate Employee-Ownership Month. This is a celebration of the spirit of employee-ownership. It is an invaluable opportunity for Technomics to further educate its employee-owners about the benefits of having equity (a stake) in the company.

It’s also a great time to reflect on our accomplishments, the impact they have had had on our company, and what continues to be possible in the future for all of us.

EO Month Breakfast Meet & Greet

Employee-Ownership month kicked off on Friday, October 1^st with a delicious, catered breakfast for the entire office. Food options included Chef-prepared omelets, bacon & turkey sausage, fruit, and drinks including juices and coffee. With Technomics rapidly growing and always attracting new talent, the event served as a great opportunity to make new connections. A Q&A panel discussion followed which detailed upcoming events during the month and answered questions Technomicians had about the company’s Employee Stock Ownership program: one of the highlights of being an Employee-Owner.

Fall Picnic

On October 2^nd, Technomics held its annual Fall Picnic that included good food, yard games, and many dogs! Fort Hunt Park in Alexandria was a perfect location for this family-friendly event, and the weather turned out to be beautiful. Employees, friends, and family celebrated the start of employee-ownership month with activities like corn hole, Frisbee, face painting, and caricature artists.

Technomics served a delicious barbeque buffet and cake to fuel the attendees throughout the games and gathering. This year, coming off a year and a half of no large group gatherings due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Technomics wanted to do things a little different this year, and include a Technomics first, a Cigar Bar.  

In addition to the good food, friends, and family, Technomics also took the time to recognize Jim York for his accomplishments during his employment at Technomics. A big congratulations and thank you to Jim on his retirement! 

Top Golf

This year both the Arlington and Detroit offices celebrated Employee-Ownership month with a company outing to Top Golf! Technomics reserved the rooftop, including the second story driving range. The event included an extensive buffet of snacks and Mexican classics, complimentary drinks, and unlimited golfing for the duration of the event. For a fun and friendly competitive aspect of the event, Technomicians were able to play a variety of games for points, where the top scorer earned this year’s title Top Golf Champion!  Congratulations to Thomas Briggs who claimed this year’s Top Golf Champion title. He even took home a first place trophy!

EO Month Presentations

In addition to the company outings, Technomics hosted presentations designed to explain the ins and outs of employee-ownership as well as facilitate discussions related to company culture, engagement, and success strategies for both employees and the company as a whole.

The first presentation, an “ESOP Overview” featured a discussion of Technomics’ brand of employee-ownership. Our hallmark is Technomics’ unique effort-reward (motivation) system that enables us to attract and retain talented people, foster engagement among employee-owners, enable employee-owners to take on greater responsibilities and benefit from the time and energy they’ve invested, and create a “win-win-win-win” among clients, colleagues, self, and company. Through employee-ownership, we collectively benefit from the individual actions of our co-workers.

During the second week of EO month, we reviewed the results of an extensive survey that was sent out to each Employee-Owner. The purpose of the survey was to assess what elements of our EO culture were most important in terms of individuals’ job satisfaction and how Technomics was doing in these areas. Though the survey results were good, in typical Technomics fashion, volunteers stepped up to further explore how we can do even better. Findings and recommendations were presented. Some have already been incorporated into new policies and processes.

The third presentation of the month focused on career progression, which is what many Technomicians consider a necessary ingredient of purposeful work and why they are at Technomics.  The presentation kicked off with a discussion about how the key to great career progression is opportunities or, more specifically, an abundance of opportunities.  Additionally, colleagues also shared their own experiences spotting, creating and exploiting opportunities and how Technomics’ culture and fellow employee-owners were critical enablement.

The final presentation of the month announced the Employee-Owners of the Year. There are four categories: Junior, Mid-level, Senior, and Business-Development. These EOs were recognized for taking full advantage of the opportunities offered at Technomics and going above and beyond in both their client work and their corporate initiatives. A HUGE congratulations to Christina Kosmakos, Jack Titus, Victoria Dinh, and Thomas Harless who earned this year’s title of Employee-Owners of the Year!

A second highlight of the final presentation was the reveal of the winners of the Annual Technomics Research Competition, which challenges teams of EOs to produce new tools and methods to advance the fields of cost estimating and data science. Based on the number of project submissions this year, three teams were selected as the winners of the Technomics Research Competition. Congratulations to the following winning teams:

• Will Gellaty, Chris Seat, Lindsey Jones, Peter Braxton, Alex Wekluk & Dave Brown​ (Software Effort Estimating Relationship Tool)
• Emily Hagerty, Un Callner, Breanne Mabe, Michelle Petre, Lindsey Jones & Jordan Schnurman (NAVSEA Financial Management and Cost Toolkit)
• Dave Santez, Ben Truskin & Alex Wekluk (Space Parametric Cost Estimating Framework–SPACE-FRAME)

EO Closeout Happy Hour 

To close out a month packed with fun events, Technomics reserved the rooftop at TTT Clarendon for a happy hour and special celebration. TTT Clarendon (Tacos, Tortas, and Tequila) is restaurant, bar known for their Mexican inspired street food, and handcrafted drinks. The event wrapped up another wonderful Employee-Ownership month. Technomics strives to make Employee-Ownership month an educational and exciting month to celebrate the employees that continue to exceed expectations in growing the success of themselves, their clients, and the company. We look forward to another successful year at Technomics, followed by new activities in the next Employee-Ownership month!