Your Place in Aerospace

by Terry DealThe aerospace industry is on the upswing and talented engineers and computer scientists are being sought after to fill thousands of positions. In today’s global business climate where a diverse workforce is imperative for success, what are aerospace firms doing to attract and retain minority technical professionals?

Mauricio Velásquez, president of the Diversity Training Group (DTG) in Columbia, Md., says aerospace is ahead of other industries in terms of attracting and retaining a diverse workforce. DTG has trained over 15,000 employees, managers and executives from more than 575 different companies in the areas of diversity, gender equity, mentoring and multicultural marketing and selling, and counts NASA and AlliedSignal Aerospace among its clientele. Of the utmost importance to DTG is how well a client’s workforce mirrors the market that it serves. “If they don’t, they’re not going to have a clue to what the customers need in the years to come,” asserts Velásquez.

“NASA in particular resembles the community that it serves. It’s the United Nations, especially in regard to its multinational projects,” says Velásquez.

One effort underway to ensure that NASA remains ethnically rich is the Hispanic Employment Program. It was created as a response to a White House mandate that requires agencies to be actively involved in helping advance educational, business and community groups serving Hispanic Americans.

Among the goals of the program is to determine occupational under-representation, identify recruitment sources and monitor the progress of the efforts. Debbie Martínez, electronics engineer at NASA’s Langley Research Center (LaRC), says, “I assist our Hispanic Employee Program manager in organizing events particularly during Hispanic Heritage Month, representing NASA at conferences, proposing budgets for Hispanic events and developing and maintaining our Hispanic Employment Program web site.”

LaRC also has a Multicultural Leadership Team that serves as an advisory body to Langley’s senior staff members. The team makes recommendations for activities and initiatives that demonstrate a commitment to multicultural values. One of the major goals of the team is to “continually assess LaRC’s processes and systems to identify and eliminate barriers to working together effectively as a culturally diverse group,” according to its home page.

Efforts at some private companies focus on the employees’ desire to impact the community. “We’re making a concerted, deliberate effort to work on programs, such as our Discover Engineering program, at the high school level,” says William Izabal, vice president of human resources at the Boeing Company’s Reusable Space Systems division in Downey, Calif. Engineers go into schools and work with students to ignite an interest in careers in engineering. Another Boeing initiative is called “Parents, Kids and Computers.” The program, organized by Latino, Hispanic and African-American engineers at Boeing, brings at-risk students at the middle school and early high school level and at least one of their parents to the Boeing facility twice a week where they work together with an engineer to learn how to use a computer. “They learn the computer skills, but it also forces communication between the student and the parent. That element has reaped unbelievable successes,” says Izabal.

These programs are attracting job seekers, too. One University of Southern California student accepted a job with Reusable Space Systems not solely based on the technical opportunities offered, but on the fact that he would have opportunities to volunteer in the community.

Izabal attributes the success of these programs to the strong network that has been fostered among the employees. “Some companies think one program is going to solve their problems,” he says. “I think smart companies want to give their employees who want to reach out to their communities the opportunity to do so. Our programs have brought people out of the woodwork to work together to help their communities.”

Employees of Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space in Sunnyvale, Calif., have taken it upon themselves to foster career development and upward mobility for those in minority groups. Two such groups are the African-American Mentoring & Information Network (AAMIN) and the Lockheed Martin Latino Mentoring Network (LM2N). Both groups provide networking opportunities and are engaged in community activities like AAMIN’s outreach programs geared toward young African-American males and LM2N’s efforts that have raised thousands of dollars for the National Hispanic Scholarship Fund.

Identifying those employers who embrace and promote a diverse workforce should be a part of every job search endeavor. Employers committed to workforce diversity and retention have extensive programs in place to hire, develop and retain their employees, and high-tech industries like aerospace are no exception. “The term diversity program is typically related to training itself. Retention efforts complement diversity training and will address issues that diversity training uncovers,” Velásquez explains.

He has seen more diversity in high-tech environments than non-high-tech environments because, he says, there are many engineers-aerospace, electrical, computer science, mechanical-who are non-traditional employees, i.e., non-white. “They’re Hispanic, Asian, Indian,” he says. Velásquez theorizes that high-tech companies may be more accepting of non-white workers because in the technical fields, intelligence and technical ability are looked upon above all else. “You may look different, but in a scientific environment, your brain is all that really matters. High-tech companies may be less biased because they are ultimately only interested in getting out the best product in the least amount of time.”

Still, bias persists in the work world and worthwhile programs to combat this are needed. Velásquez has witnessed a growth in interest in minority retention programs on the part of companies in the last three to five years. He says the most successful programs are driven by an employee council or employee committee. “The programs are successful when they are driven from the inside,” he says. “They are not successful when feedback from employees is disregarded.”

He goes on to say that recruitment and retention issues are not always addressed simply through hiring a diversity trainer. Companies consider a host of factors when instituting such programs, including: how to identify high potential candidates, how to structure interviews, how much focus should be put on skills and abilities and training staff to effectively interview a more diverse interview pool. Employers look at turnover rates and more specifically, who is leaving and who is staying. Exit interview data can determine employee needs and identify areas in the company benefits, retention and diversity programs that need to be strengthened.

GAUGE THE COMMITMENT

But why wait until you are in the working environment to learn about an employer’s retention efforts? The interview is an opportune time to evaluate a prospective employer’s pledge as a firm that is committed to retaining its employees. Velásquez points out a few questions one should pose:

* Does the company have a retention program?
* How many languages are spoken here?
* How many nationalities are represented here?
* Is the company willing to support my membership in professional organizations or associations (such as NSBE, MAES, SHPE and AISES)?
* What can I do to be considered for a management position in three years?
* Who held this position before me? How long did they stay and why did they leave?

The person or persons answering those questions can be as great a sign of the company’s commitment to retention as the answers themselves. “It is immensely important that the company present a diverse interview team,” says Velásquez.

“We use our diverse engineering population to show people that are interviewed that there’s more than just one person. And because our number [of minority employees] has grown, it isn’t a big challenge,” says Boeing’s Izabal. The division’s engineering population is 37% Hispanic, Latino, African American and Asian. Commenting on recruitment strategies that do not consider the diverse ethnicity of the applicants, Velásquez says, “It would be very hard for a white representative to recruit at an Historically Black College. I see that happening and I ask myself, ‘What are they thinking?’”

The fact is, the proteges of today don’t look anything like the proteges of a few years ago. That makes a formal mentoring program (which includes formal training) all the more necessary. As the incoming workforce becomes less white-dominated, the pool of potential mentors becomes more diverse and better able to serve the new employees as mentors, says Velásquez. He suggests asking about this type of program during the interview and inquiring about the mentors’ training as well as the success rate of the program. Velásquez favors mentoring programs that include all employees, not just minorities and women. “If you exclude the white male, some call it reverse discrimination, some call it affirmative action backlash. You’re giving fuel to that fire,” he says.

Finally, find out why and how the company formed its retention programs. “If these types of programs are not formal, well-defined and communicated, the only people who will climb to the top at that company are the ‘people in the know.’ And the people in the know are not typically an inclusive, diverse group,” Velásquez concludes.

Source : Graduating Engineer

One Response to “Your Place in Aerospace”

1. Aerospace » Blog Archive » Your Place in Aerospace Says:
   August 14th, 2007 at 4:12 am

   […] The aerospace industry is on the upswing and talented engineers and computer scientists are being sought after to fill thousands of positions. In today’s global business climate where a diverse workforce is imperative for success, … …more […]

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