Pauline
Vice President Talent and Strategic Staffing
I joined Cobham at a very interesting time in our
development. From the start Cobham grew organically and
through acquisition. By 2006 it was comprised of 87 different
business units spread across the world. We were
successful at acquiring businesses that were successful in their
own right, but which were a variety of sizes and had different
levels of scalability and people capability.
What was needed was one brand and a unified structure that
leveraged the businesses while maintaining the entrepreneurial and
innovative spirit that had underpinned the company's growth. It was
a phenomenal challenge, but one that I relished - how often do you
get the opportunity to shape what a company will look like in the
future? We had to look at how we could lead those organisations and
make sure they were in a position for growth, and whether we had
people in place that could position those companies appropriately -
and that, of course, was my big focus.
Two years later there was a new company structure, which must be
one of the leanest of any FTSE 250 company. We've had to encourage
the businesses to see how they can work with HR and where HR sits
in the business. By working with the people in the business units
you end up with better products.
Ellie
HR Assistant Cobham Technical Services
I work in the Human Resources team for Cobham Technical
Services. My role is to support our 250 staff as part of a 3 person
Human Resources team. We work across three different sites
providing HR advice, assistance with recruitment, compensation and
benefits, performance management and staff development. We make
sure that, once a member of staff is successfully recruited, they
have all they need to fulfil a long and happy career with Cobham
Technical Services (which provides components and sub-systems,
technical consultancy services and electromagnetic and power system
modelling software).
Being part of the HR community means I have the opportunity to
be involved with the larger Cobham group through joint HR projects
and this gives real insight into the business as a whole. On site I
have meetings and involvement with employees across our business.
And although I'm not an engineer, having face-to-face access to our
diverse workforce makes understanding the business that little bit
easier.
Being part of Cobham Technical Services means being part of a
company with a long history of unique innovation. Cobham Technical
Services was a finalist in the prestigious 2010 MacRobert Award
from the Royal Academy of Engineering, for its innovative MINEHOUND
dual-sensor mine detector. Cobham Technical Services was presented
with a MacRobert Award Finalist Certificate at the Guildhall in
London "in recognition of a substantial contribution by way of
innovation in engineering".
MINEHOUND is a hand-held mine detector incorporating Cobham's
leading-edge ultrawideband ground penetrating radar and a
high-performance metal detector developed by Cobham's manufacturing
partner for the product, Vallon GmbH. The combination of sensors
has the potential to reduce the number of false alarms by more than
80%, as shown in trials in Cambodia, Bosnia and Angola. This
greater efficiency increases the amount of land which can be
cleared within given budgets and timeframes.
Being part of the HR community at Cobham means that in every
case there is the potential to be involved. As Cobham's scope
becomes more and more widely known this is only going to become
more pertinent to those working at the front line of high
technology and our support as an HR team is essential in enabling
this to happen.