The 2023 Best Small Firms to Work For: Mission Critical Partners

Consulting Service Lines: Assessments, Strategy, Procurement, Operations, Management

CMAG: How would you say you've managed to stay among the industry's Best Firms to Work For amid these unprecedented times?

Our firm lives by the mantra that our people are our greatest asset. At Mission Critical Partners, we embrace our core values – persistence, integrity, trust, accountability, and prudence – to guide our culture and decision-making every day. Within the last several years, we have launched a variety of staff member investments, including the following:

• Staff member annual incentive program
• Competitive salary and benefits
• 401k with company match
• Flexible paid-time-off policy
• Significant investments in staff member development
• Opportunity for career development and growth

CMAG: Were there any specific programs or initiatives (internal or external) that contributed to you being a Best Firm to Work For?

At MCP, we embrace the Rockefeller Habits, which emphasizes the importance of alignment every day – through daily rhythms calls and strategic planning – to keep our organization focused on common goals and a clear vision. As part of the Rockefeller Habits, we defined a "big, hairy audacious goal," or BHAG, several years ago. Our BHAG is to "be the place where industry leaders want to work." To help us meet this BHAG, we have invested heavily in our staff members to ensure we're attracting the best and brightest in the industry.

CMAG: What's unique about your firm? What sets it apart?

We stand behind the importance and nobility of our work. Many of our clients come to Mission Critical Partners as former practitioners in public safety and justice. Because of this, they are passionate about our clients' missions and acting as their partner and advocate as they look to improve public safety and justice in the communities they serve and solve problems. Helping our clients implement the best possible solution is our ultimate goal.

CMAG: What's the top priority over the next 6 to 12 months?

As an organization, we have made significant investments in our support services and technology so that our staff members can have the best experience possible working for our firm. These investments have been primarily in support staff and infrastructure and include:

• Partnering with a professional employment organization (PEO) that enables us to deliver best-in-class benefits
• An automated talent management system for annual and bonus incentive reviews
• Investments in information technology
• Investments in support staff so that our staff members' needs are met quickly and efficiently
• Implementation of a best-in-class customer relationship management system

CMAG: When you look at the remainder of this year and 2024, what excites you? What opportunities do you see in your markets?

We serve public safety and justice clients, and there has never been a more exciting time to work in this industry because of the large amount of federal funding being ingested into the public sector. This funding will create more opportunities for our services and more complexity for our clients, creating more exciting projects and more significant problems for our staff members to solve.

CMAG: What impact do you think being a Best Firm to Work For has on the firm? Employees? Clients?

Being a Best Firm to Work will strengthen our recruiting capabilities, help us bring in the strongest talent available, and send a strong message to our staff. For our clients, it will increase their confidence that they've partnered with the best in the industry to help them achieve their goals.