40

PEOPLE

From co-pilot

No 78

to pilot
Mobility doesnt only mean
crossing international borders
or changing Divisions. For
Sandra Koch, transferring jobs
within the same business line
at Cassidian also broadened
her perspective.

obility begins in the mind,

says Sandra Koch, who, one year
ago, was inspired to seek a change
from her position as a commercial
project manager within Cassidian
to a project manager responsible
for the companys self-protection
systems for the NH90 and Tiger
programmes.
At the time, commercial project
managers were regarded as the
co-pilots who supported the
technical project managers, or
pilots, during the project phase,
she says.
In her former role, Sandra
dealt with the commercial part of
proposals: calculations and pricing, contract negotiations, project
execution and project controlling the financial information that
made projects fly. Even as a copilot, I wanted to broaden my understanding of the technical side,
says Sandra, so I started learning
more about our products within
self-protection.
Sandras manager recognised
her enthusiasm, and encouraged

Mobility moments
Water for Tea?, it was so weak.
I thought I could improve it, but
Lots of work! I dont know what my second attempt was: Call a
colour my desk is! [laughs] As a Doctor! it was terribly strong!
project manager, where Im organ- No one asks me to make coffee
ised is on the server here I have anymore.
my structure, and I want to stop
printing things out so much. I also Whats been your best experience
have a little talisman for my desk in the new role?
a small sheep who watches over
You can learn a lot working with a
everything.
multinational team I have a Polish
colleague, an Italian and Germans
A funny story from your first days
you see the different cultures and
on the job?
temperaments. The Bavarians also
I thought Id make coffee for the speak really fast its difficult to
team but I dont drink coffee. So, understand them sometimes, and
the first pot was called Is This Im German!
Whats on your new desk?

her to begin attending the technical meetings to gain a full picture

of what project management entails. Sandra also worked closely
with the project managers and
often had the opportunity to break
through the silo mentality.
For example, I worked with international self-protection customers when I was on the commercial
side, but I was able to prepare
the proposal with a project manager on the technical side, going
through the whole document together and learning how one side
impacts the other.
When Sandra made the decision to change her job, she was
transparent about her intentions,
speaking to her line manager, her
future boss and to HR, all of whom
supported her in her mobility
goals. She says her main motivations were to develop herself and
expand her knowledge, steering
projects from their inception as a
project manager.
When she transferred into the
new department, she received a
warm welcome from her new team
and received clear responsibility
and support in her new functions.
Its so beneficial to my current
job that I learned the technical part
during my commercial phase, and
that I come to the technical side
knowing key operating figures
of the business. This knowledge
combines to help me execute the
project in the frame of the magic
triangle: on time, cost and quality.
Sandra says the benefits of mobility are clear: you can grow, experience new cultures, exchange
know-how and best practices and
expand your network. Even if it is
only within the same business line,
its mobility its not only changing
Divisions or countries and everyone benefits.

Jess Holl

Thanks to everyone who commented on the recent Toms Blog entry on mobility.
The HR teams are analysing your comments to look at future process improvements.
Links
If you are interested in mobility, please feel free to contact your HR Business Partner. Questions? Check out the Mobility web page on myEADS
for the EADS Job Mobility Golden Rules and Policy.
Tips
Inform your manager and HRBP about your wish for mobility take the
opportunity of your annual interview to do it.

F
 ind out what jobs are out there in the job market create a Job Agent
alert in the EADS Jobs & Mobility tool.
M
 ake yourself visible to all EADS recruiters update your profile in the
Jobs & Mobility tool and release it if you would like your details and CV to
be seen by all EADS recruiters for current open positions.
Log on to
myHR > About Me > Jobs & Mobility

Thinkstock

For a video on diversity as a

success factor, just go to this
page in the online version of
forum: myEADS > News &
Features > forum magazine

Part of the
G

DNA

uido Locatelli was an executive in charge of detailed parts and

aluminium for Procurement in Airbus when he decided to take extended paternity leave. My managers were very surprised but, once
they recovered from the shock,
they were supportive, he explains.
Like Guido, Claas Carsten Kohl,
Head of Middle Office at EADS/
Airbus Corporate Finance, opted
to go for two months part-time to
take care of his daughter and encouraged two of his team members to do the same. I wanted
her to be able to recognise that
there is a father taking care of her
as well and I think that was an important foundation of our relationship, says Claas. Two employees
that embody the new inclusive approach the company is embracing.
Launched in 2011, the Diversity at EADS initiative has been

rechristened Diversity and inclusion to underline the fact that this

topic isnt just about having a diverse workforce and broader horizons, but also about how they are
managed. We are not just looking at targets but also developing
and driving a real culture change
around a need to understand and
manage diversity effectively. So for
me it is everybodys responsibility,
says Suzanne Lewis, Head of Diversity & Inclusion at EADS.
Maturity phase
To enhance existing structures
and see where to improve further,
the company uses external benchmarks and continually reviews its
processes and policies to see how
to better support its employees:
stress prevention initiatives, child
care services, mentoring, parental

With women making up 17.3% of staff, 130 different

nationalities and four generations working side by
side, EADS can rightly claim to have diversity in its
DNA. As the Group celebrated the International Day
of Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development
on 21 May, forum took the opportunity to investigate
the changing approach EADS has adopted to create
an even more diverse environment and sustain its
competitive advantage.

leaves or work from home pilots

are just some of the many ongoing
actions. The greatest challenge
for the company is allowing the
working model to be flexible. We
have to break with the idea that
a leader has to spend 70 hours a
week in the office to be efficient,
says Martina Zintel, Head of Procurement, MTO & Supply Chain,
and Centre of Competence leader
for IM logistics functions at Cassidian in Ulm. Flexibility is also a
must in Tony Howsons life: As
a divorced father, I want to make
more time for my two children. I
work a nine-day fortnight, so every
second Friday I pick them up from
school and spend time with them,
points out this Chief Engineer,
Head of Communications Infra
Services at Cassidian, just one of
the 23% of male employees working part time at EADS.

The Group has taken a large step

forward in terms of understanding
diversity and what it can bring to
the business since 2011. A strong
diversity network has been set up
with focal points in the core countries that support cross-cultural and
transnational ways of working. Furthermore, diversity is monitored at
the highest levels of the company,
and each Group Executive Committee member has diversity objectives.
One concrete action were particularly proud of is the womens networks that have been established
in all Divisions, and the EADS-wide
conference in April where we held a
debate on how gender balance can
contribute to business advantages,
increase performance and innovation, explains Suzanne.
Gender diversity is one area that
has seen many actions. We have
put in place explicit activities to pre-

No 78

PEOPLE

42

Tony Howson, Cassidian Head of

Communications Infra Services

Claas Kohl, Head of Middle Office at

EADS/Airbus Corporate Finance

Martina Zintel, Centre of Competence

leader, IM logistics functions at Cassidian

Guido Locatelli of Procurement at

Airbus

Jerome Javelle, Airbus head of engineering

strategy, processes, methods and tools

Suzanne Lewis, Head of Diversity &

Inclusion at EADS

Participants at an EADS-wide conference in April which

covered topics like how gender balance can contribute to
business advantages, increase performance and innovation

pare and promote women though

mentoring, coaching and specific
training courses like GROW. Women at senior management level is
still a weak point and we also monitor the number of women in succession plans. We have made some
progress, but we are not yet where
we need to be, says Suzanne. The
Diversity and Inclusion network also
works on retaining and developing
both senior employees and newcomers to allow the ongoing transfer of know-how and skills. We are
committed to ensuring theres no
age discrimination when a position
opens up, and we use buddying
programmes and work with HR on
policies and processes to make
sure senior employees have the opportunity to designate a successor
and that knowledge transfer can
happen, she adds.
New recruitment approaches
developed by the EADS Recruitment Center (ERC) are providing
good results for people with disabilities and from disadvantaged
social backgrounds. One of them
is People Centric Recruitment.
Instead of starting with the job description and then looking for the
right candidate, we start by proactively checking applications from
diverse candidates to see if there is
a suitable position for them. It goes
without saying that they are in competition with other candidates and
the best qualified are selected we
dont work with quotas, explains
Lisa Ferrant, Diversity Project Manager for France in the ERC, where
this pilot approach has been running for several months. People
Centric Recruitment offers a solution tailored to the candidate; for
instance it includes a review of their
workstation or meetings with the
doctor to understand what adaptations need to take place before
the person starts. It also values
people who have atypical profiles
and skills the recruiters are less
used to seeing but who are equally
interesting. Last November we
went to an event organised by
Mozak RH, a recruiting firm specialising in diversity. We met talented people from underprivileged
Parisian neighbourhoods who
were looking for an internship but
didnt even dare to apply to EADS.
They were intimidated, even if their

backgrounds and skills really corresponded to what we usually

look for, says Lisa, highlighting a
problem that she hopes this new
approach will mitigate.
One size wont fit all
Jerome Javelle, head of engineering
strategy, processes, methods and
tools at Airbus, excels in managing
diversity. Leading a team which is
32% female and attracts 33% of its
recruits to French and German sites
from other countries, he comments
that he couldnt do his job effectively if his team were entirely French,
male and educated at more traditional engineering schools. Diversity generates a far richer analysis of
an issue and offers a broader range
of ideas that could be the way forward. Better still, diversity forces
managers to think of employees as
individuals. One size clearly wont fit
all, and that can make a huge difference to capitalising on each individuals potential. Looking more
generally, changing demographics
and a negative growth rate of the
European population in the future
will have a clear long-term effect on
EADS candidate pool. Our focus
is on creating a more diverse workforce to increase and sustain our
competitive advantage, Suzanne
sums up.
However, not all mangers share
their opinions and feel that diversity
carries a risk, bringing changes to
the status quo. Intercultural awareness training, diversity in the workplace training and making diversity
part of leadership programmes are
some of the systemic actions in
progress to reduce this reluctance.
We want to improve in equipping
our managers on how to use individual differences. I think there
is a certain unawareness of the
strengths that diverse, multicultural
teams can bring. We need to move
away from our own stereotypes
and wanting to recruit in our own
image, says Suzanne. We will
continue to work hand in hand with
both HR and the business to reach
a diverse talent pool and also manage diversity within EADS.

Marta Flores de la Viuda
For more info, go to myEADS >
Our Company > Diversity at EADS

Propulsion with a

To find out more about the

AirMiniEs project, just go to
this page in the online version
of forum: myEADS > News &
Features > forum magazine

blow-up balloon

The AirMiniEs (Airbus supports Mini Engineers) project brings together enterprising
Airbus colleagues, the Airbus Corporate Foundation and the staff and children of
the Spielhaus Horner Rennbahn education and play centre in Hamburg. Set up
three years ago, its first activity week in March mixed floating fish, Beluga planes
and flight diplomas.

orothee Lang and Alex Bustamante, engineers in the Oxygen

Systems and A380 Cabin Structural Mechanics departments at
Airbus Hamburg site, turned up
at the Spielhaus Horner Rennbahn
laden with cabin parts: lining elements, oxygen masks, a cabin
attendants seat and triple seats.
There they recreated an Airbus
cabin, where the children participating in the activity week in the
March school holidays were greeted every morning with a familiar announcement: Welcome on board
the SPIEL280. Please sit back
and enjoy the flight. Afterwards
they were asked to draw their own
dream cabins with pictures of
imaginary A380s filled with football
pitches and catwalks pinned up all
over the walls of the rather more
modest education and play centre,
located in a socially disadvantaged
area in central Hamburg.
The AirMiniEs initiative was
kicked off in 2010 by Michael Augello, then an Airbus design engineer in Hamburg and now assistant to the EADS CEO in Toulouse,
and Vivian Ebinger, director of
the centre, which provides afterschool and holiday programmes
to local children. Says Dorothee,
one of Michaels colleagues who
have taken over his organiser role:
Michael and Vivian invested plenty
of work and motivation and were
continuing this, bringing in new aspects and the kids are still getting
lots out of it. Aside from the holiday activities, Airbus staff support
a weekly science and engineering
class at the centre and take the
kids on trips to museums. Im

proud the project is still up and

running, says Michael. It comes
down to many engaged people
and Airbus being willing to sponsor
it. I saw it as a huge chance to get
young kids interested and it turned
out that the experiments, workshops and activities motivated
them to easily deal with natural sciences and aerospace in particular.

like Airbus is socially responsible

and has an external presence, so
that both sides can gain from this,
explains Alex, who used to run a
childrens group where he grew
up in Berlin. One of the strongest
memories he will take away is the
childrens questions as to how they

could start working for the company. And Michael is convinced that
this will happen one day: From my
experience with the kids, I wouldnt
be at all surprised if our HR colleagues see some of them for an
interview in 10 years or so!

Joanne Foster

Bright sparks
The cabin replica was one of many
activities that took place during the
holiday week. In all, 17 experiments
were set up, including navigation
using GPS devices, learning about
propulsion with balloons, measuring
a chalk outline of an aircraft and calculating the size of a real plane, and
steering large inflatable fish around
an indoor course. I see how the
kids are motivated, and they come
away with dreams, a fascination
for flight, and that gives them some
kind of perspective, says Dorothee,
who was inspired to enter the aeronautics world after a friend took her
to a glider airfield when she was 12.
Later in the week, trips to the
Hamburg Planetarium and Universum museum in Bremen were
organised before a ceremony to
hand over certificates to the participants. Tuesday saw them visit the
Airbus site. Here, they were shown
round the workshops by trainees
and introduced to the role of an
aircraft engineering technician, as
well as touring the A320 Family and
A380 structural assembly halls and
watching a Beluga land. The kids
get an insight that not many can get.
I think its important that a company

Michael Augello,
assistant to the
EADS CEO

Alex Bustamante,
A380 Cabin Structural
Mechanics at Airbus

Dorothee Lang,
Oxygen Systems
at Airbus

Above: guiding
inflatable
fish, one of
the activities
organised at the
education and
play centre
Left: trainee
at Airbus in
Hamburg
showing the
children round
the workshops