Customer success story

MBDA case study: supporting women into the defence industry

Recognising the lack of female talent and representation within defence, Guidant Global partnered with MBDA, an integrated defence company, to support more women into the industry.

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Impact at a glance

Guidant Global partnered with MBDA to support more women into the defence industry. The results speak for themselves.

54%

Increase in female hires in 2023

21%

New hires were female in 2023

42%

New female hires in manufacturing roles

19%

New starters female in 2024

14%

Total female workforce increase since March 2023

Programme impact: In 2023, 21% new hires were female, a 54% increase against the female new starters recorded in 2022.

£23 billion

Company revenue

15,000+

Employees

UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain and the US

Region supported

Defence

Industry

The Situation

Supporting women into defence

Recognising the lack of female talent and representation within defence, Guidant Global partnered with MBDA, an integrated defence company, to support more women into the industry.

Company profile

£23 billion

Company revenue.

Workforce

15,000+

Employees across the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain and the US.

The Challenge

Female talent representation

With women being severely underrepresented within the defence industry, we understood there was work to be done around breaking gender and employer brand misconceptions amongst this talent workforce, especially within manufacturing and engineering roles.

Underrepresentation

Women being severely underrepresented within the defence industry.

Misconceptions

Breaking gender and employer brand misconceptions amongst this talent workforce.

Manufacturing and engineering roles

Especially within manufacturing and engineering roles.

There was work to be done around breaking gender and employer brand misconceptions amongst this talent workforce.

The Solution

Reshaping talent thinking

Reshaping the way we think about talent:

The role criteria for the General Operator role was re-adjusted to accommodate talent that had transferrable skills, rather than looking for like-for-like experience.

The solution reshaped the way we think about talent, breaking down specific experience barriers and supporting women from application stage through to day-to-day work experience.

01 Role criteria +

The role criteria for the General Operator role was re-adjusted to accommodate talent that had transferrable skills (rather than looking for like-for-like experience).

02 Career change and entry routes +

Appealed to women who may be looking for a career change or to those simply looking to break into the defence sector.

Re-designed role requirements, breaking down specific experience barriers.

03 Female-focused campaign +

Ran a multichannel digital campaign featuring female-led imagery of real women working at MBDA.

Adjusted language of all campaign assets and job ads to be more female-focused.

04 Application support +

Embedded a chatbot to streamline the application process and optimise user experience.

Put in place a support system to guide and support from application stage through to day-to-day work experience.

Results

Supporting female hires

In 2023, 21% new hires were female, a 54% increase against the female new starters recorded in 2022.

Sectors where new female starters entered, with 42% of new female hires in manufacturing roles:

Air Dominance, Business & Performance, Electronic Engineering, Engineering & Seeker, Finance, HR, Human Resources, Procurement, Security, Health & Safety, Manufacturing, Mechanical Engineering, Missile Architecture & Equipment, Quality, Safety & Reliability, Strike Missile, Weapon System & Architecture.

54%

Increase in female hires in 2023

21%

New hires were female in 2023

42%

New female hires in manufacturing roles

19%

New starters female in 2024

14%

Total female workforce increased since March 2023

Female hires in 2023

54% increase in female hires in 2023.

New hires

In 2023, 21% new hires were female, a 54% increase against the female new starters recorded in 2022.

Manufacturing roles

42% of new female hires in manufacturing roles.

2024 update: New starters: 19% female. Since March 2023, total female workforce increased to 14%.

Project impact

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