BAE Systems

The challenge

Despite the success of their redeployment policy, which helped successfully retain over 1200 employees since the policy was first established in 2010, BAE Systems felt there was still the opportunity to do more. Having worked with LHH for a number of years on talent development and transition programmes, BAE Systems called on LHH to work with them to further enhance the redeployment support available to employees impacted by workplace change.

The solution

LHH know that the three critical success factors for a successful redeployment programme are early access, support and organisation.  So, they focused on enhancing these three elements to ensure as many people as possible were aware of the redeployment opportunities available to them and were well placed to make the most of these services:

• An online portal was created to provide a single point of access to all online services, materials and information. This also helped BAE monitor and analyse where everybody was in the process making it easy for them to make effective recruitment, talent and development decisions.
• Face to face briefings, support workshops around CV writing and interview skills, and on-site coaches were provided as well as outplacement programmes for those leaving the business. This ensured BAE employees could be confident that they were fully supported whatever stage they were at with their transition.

The impact

Since the portal was introduced a further 200 employees have been redeployed across the UK in BAE Systems. LHH have supported over 3,000 BAE Systems employees with redeployment portal access. Successfully redeploying over 1400 of their employees has saved BAE Systems millions of pounds in redundancy payments.  Further costs have been saved as a result of reduced recruitment and outplacement costs.  

Not only is there a tangible cost saving but the process has meant the redeployed people have made conscious decisions about their careers and have become career activists in the process. With a 96% satisfaction rate and a 100% recommendation rate for the career services used, BAE Systems can be confident that those redeployed will be working in their new roles with a renewed energy and confidence that will help drive business success.

Quote from Paul Schofield, Head of Employee Relations, BAE Systems plc 

“LHH has a fantastic reputation inside BAE Systems for proving high quality support for our employees and a reputation for excellent customer service and affordability to the business. It therefore became a natural decision that we work with LHH as a single partner company to provide both Outplacement and Redeployment support. Successful redeployment makes transformation programmes easier to manage. Redeployment avoids redundancy costs and retains employee experience and capability inside the business, why wouldn’t you invest in maximising the probability of its success for our employees? “