Aviation Week & Space Technology
08/20/2007, page 90
Printed headline: Parachute Player
Unlike other companies selected as leaders in Aviation Week’s Workforce Study, Airborne Systems is a select niche player, providing a specialized subsystem for the industry. The company designs and manufactures parachute products.
“We, in essence, are a people-dependent business,” says CEO Elek Puskas. “We are labor-intensive, rather than capital-intensive, in a narrow field. The collective know-how and experience of our people is our asset.”
With a workforce that is 67% minorities and 25% engineering professionals, Airborne Systems makes an effort to ensure that its workforce remains in place. Voluntary attrition averages less than 2% each year.
“We are not yet seeing a surge in retirements,” Puskas observes. “We do have key individuals who are on the verge of retiring, so we are working to pair up older and younger workers so that experience and expertise are exchanged.”
Puskas says the unique work environment comprises highly skilled engineers, who understand what is required to develop and assure workable parachuting systems, and fabric sewers who assemble parachutes. “We avoid a punch-the-clock mentality,” he says. “We offer work that is challenging and that is valuable.”
To ensure Airborne Systems is able to attract the right talent necessary to its operations, the company seeks to remain slightly above industry standards on compensation and benefits. “We are a victim of our specialization,” Puskas says. “We’re not looking for a generic aerospace engineer. We need one with a background in parachuting. That’s a challenge. The most important thing we need to do in the near term is improve our succession-planning program.”
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