Cygnal is proud to be a 2021 Reed Award Winner. This year, we took home the award for “Best Employer Professional Development Initiative.”
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the economy (read “fundraising”) slowed, many of our clients put their projects on hold. We knew Election Day was still approaching and that the “dam” would eventually break, flooding our team with work. Still, the idle time was an unexpected detour during a presidential election year.
Instead of sitting on our hands, our company leadership decided to redeem the unfilled hours with an unprecedented professional development program.
We invited friends, partners, and clients from across the political campaign industry to virtually meet with our entire team and talk about their role in the campaign process. One-hour sessions were held 2-3 each week over the course of two months.
From direct mail to field operations to opposition research to fundraising and more, this innovative professional development program provided clarity for our team on each component of the campaign process that fits into the bigger picture and allowed us to deepen our working relationship with many of our partners and clients. One of the most unique sessions featured one of our peers(another polling firm) from across the partisan divide to help our team understand how experts on their side of the aisle think about polling and data.
All training sessions were recorded and made available for future team members and periodic refreshers.
Congratulations to all of the 2021 Reed Award Winners.