Aviation Week & Space Technology
08/20/2007, page 91
Printed headline: Side by Side
AAI Corp. broke into the top-ranked companies of the 2007 Workforce Study by assuring each employee knows he or she is serving the soldier on the ground.
“Our job is to attract the right people, the people who want to serve the soldier,” says CEO Fred Strader. “We are known as a place that is a tight-knit group of people who all have the same focus.”
Strader says AAI tailors its corporate values and strategy to local and individual levels. That’s a key element in keeping the voluntary attrition rate at 4%.
“Each department has the authority to make decisions that are best for the customers and for the employees,” he says. “We want our operations to function like small businesses.”
Despite its far-flung operations, which include serving in the field alongside the U.S. military, AAI has put employee-feedback mechanisms into place, as well as career-planning, supported by a healthy portion of education and training.
AAI Corp. was chosen among the top companies to work for in the aerospace and defense industry, in part due to low rates of voluntary attrition paired with high rates of internal promotion.Credit: AAI CORP. |
“It all starts with the fact that what you do here is important, that our products and services are important to the defense of the country, and letting people know how they can help,” Strader says. “Our career pathways make that happen.”
Strader believes that being the best among aerospace and defense companies has a benefit not available in other tech industries.
“A lot of technology companies and industries create tools,” he says. What’s different is that “here, in A&D, you manipulate their tools to do and accomplish more. It doesn’t matter where you come from—in A&D if you’ve taken the effort to get an education and you’re smart, you know how to plan time and your work, and you know how to think—I want you.”
AAI’s leaders work on communications on a continuous basis. Their strategy for doing this involves constantly changing the mix of how they share different kinds of information with employees.
“The company of the future needs an environment where an individual comes in every day and has the ability to tap in, and the minute they have a good idea or see something that needs change, they have the voice to do that,” says Strader.
He believes that this focus on instant communications and real-time decision-making is crucial to keeping the most talented people. “Every day, we have to give our people a good reason to stay with this company.”
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