2017 Human Capital Trends

A call to action for A&D Companies

In an age of disruption, business and HR leaders are being pressed to rewrite the rules for how they organise, recruit, develop, manage, and engage the 21st-century workforce. Whilst A&D companies have been at the forefront of applying new technologies in their products and services they have been slower to harness these themselves or to reshape their workforce in response.

Key themes for A&D include:

• Accelerate readiness for the digital age
  The advancement of technology at an unprecedented rate creates opportunities to optimise operational effectiveness and accelerate innovation, two key strategic drivers for A&D. Focus on re-design of jobs, re-organisation of work and enabling of digital leadership to accelerate the transition.
• Focus on the employee ecosystem
  A&D is on a growth trajectory, which requires workforce productivity, efficiency and creativity. As companies become networks and the employee base becomes both older and younger, the employee experience requires a transformation which integrates engagement, development and retention and leverages design-thinking to create a differentiated employee brand. Off-balance sheet talent sources are increasingly important to access specialist skillsets and increase flexibility
• Increase reliance on analytics
  The increasing use of digitally-powered solutions in A&D enables access to real-time data. Business and HR have an opportunity to apply predictive analytics across both operations and workforce management to efficiently mobilise, deploy and re-direct resources. Grow capabilities to use data for efficient use of in-demand talent or skills.