Talent & Capability Building

Helping A&D organizations create the right culture for their people, design the right structure, and attract and retain the right talent

As the pandemic transforms how businesses operate, aerospace and defense (A&D) companies must rethink ways of working and reimagine organizational structures as rapidly as possible or risk being left behind. For example, as they develop new strategies, talent retention and recruitment may become one of their greatest challenges, due to fierce competition for employees with top skills from tech players and others.

We help companies refresh their talent strategy by evaluating whether their top employees are appropriately assigned to critical roles, reskilling current staff to meet future needs, working to increase diversity, and directly involving company leadership in talent management. We work with clients to develop a targeted sourcing strategy informed and supported by data and analytics. These efforts—combined with a better plan to show potential employees how exciting A&D tech projects can be—will create a workforce that is ready and able to lead even the most complex initiatives.

What we do

Workplace reinvention

Businesses are evolving rapidly as they incorporate new technologies into their traditional processes, and COVID-19 is accelerating the pace of change. We help A&D companies reimagine the workplace and develop innovative new processes, always considering the challenges unique to their industry, including the need for complete security.

Talent strategy

Only about 30 to 43 percent of A&D employees have digital and analytics skills, compared with 62 percent at tech companies. With the race for top digital talent intensifying every year, A&D companies need a new approach to recruitment and retention. By applying advanced analytics, we can help them identify the best sources of talented employees, as well as the career paths and benefits that will convince them to stay.

Creation of a strong workplace culture

A&D companies that want to retain employees must have a strong culture that encourages collaboration, leadership, innovation, and personal growth. McKinsey’s Organizational Health Index (OHI) can help them determine how they score on nine dimensions that contribute to a strong company culture, such as leadership, capabilities, accountability, and innovation and learning. After benchmarking themselves against their peers, A&D companies can design interventions that will improve their organizational health and make them more attractive to employees.

Organizational speed

We help A&D companies deploy fast, agile, cross-functional teams that work toward common objectives. The teams are each charged with a specific mission and are empowered to create their own approach. Employees that want freedom to innovate and develop their own solutions thrive on such teams. Once A&D companies have multiple agile teams, their entire organization will become more efficient.