As part of our Interconnection Between People, Process and Technology book produced in partnership with Tanium, we spoke to Dr Mark Daniell, CTO, Prototype Warfare & Disruptive Technology, Aerospace, and Simon Harwood, UK Strategy & Technology Director, at a global aerospace, defence and security company.

“It’s a loop or triangle: people, process and technology are inseparable.”

Mark and Simon work together creating new technology products and services for a global industrial group that builds technological capabilities in aerospace, defence and security. It’s a company that works beyond the frontiers of innovation so, as you might expect, Mark and Simon’s greatest aspiration is to move technologies from development to deployment where customers can experience their value. Their aim is to accelerate the implementation of these technologies and argue the need to shift from a “peacetime development mentality” towards much more urgent development.

Mark describes the synergy between people, process and technology as “all interconnected. Efficient processes, supported by technology, determine how people are utilised.”. But both agree that the most important factor is people and culture. Simon explains,

“It’s crucial to foster a mindset open to risk and fast-paced development. Process is also important to support people and ensure they’re covered by the organisation. However, large organisations like ours can become process-heavy which isn’t as much of an issue for SMEs.”

Simon also believes that modern practices are being held back by legacy processes and describes the experience of their move to the cloud to illustrate the point.

“Historically, we used traditional file shares and filing systems. However, moving to the cloud requires a completely new process especially from a security standpoint. Security remains essential but the approach has to be different. People used to older systems might not evolve as quickly to new ways of working and, in that sense, legacy processes can definitely hold back productivity.”

Mark describes the company in the past as “massively siloed”; geographically spread across the UK, with different business lines and divisions. Many parts of the company were originally separate legal entities that got merged and their IT systems had to be “cobbled together” over time. However, he explains that things are improving and the digital solutions group and IT teams are actively working to address and reduce these silos in the digital era.

As you might expect, there’s a high demand for software development and coding skills. However, traditional engineering disciplines are also still very much in demand, for example in firmware, electrical and mechanical engineering. But Simon thinks it’s important to think beyond just technical skills, and they’re placing more emphasis on aptitude over just qualifications.

“Someone might have a degree in engineering but lack communication skills, and vice versa. So we look for both technical proficiency and those softer, foundational skills like collaboration and leadership.”

Mark adds that they need to be more deliberate about not just recruiting for what the business looks like today, but for what it needs to become.

“Take AI and machine learning. We bring in graduates with those skills but then shape them into radar or systems engineers because that’s our current structure. Instead, we should let them stay as machine-learning experts and evolve our teams around that. It’s about adapting to new skill sets rather than always adapting people into old molds.”

Interestingly they make the point that although the most attention is given to the early career pipeline, the bigger issue is actually mid-career retention, with those in the 35 to 45 age range and with 10 to 15 years of experience, and it is here that they see a significant gap.

Mark and Simon agree that the organisation has worked hard to encourage more inclusive hiring, including women and ethnic minorities. However, in doing so, the organisation has sometimes overlooked the existing core demographic, which can also lead to imbalance. Mark maintains that it’s all about finding the right balance across the board and the responsibility does not sit solely with employers.

“The real change has to start in primary school, getting girls and underrepresented groups interested in STEM early. If people don’t apply to us, we can’t hire them.”

One of the major recruitment obstacles they face is the restriction on nationalities they can employ, for obvious security reasons, and they struggle to recruit for data-driven roles like data engineers, data architects and data scientists. Furthermore, an inability to compete with other sectors on salary and misconceptions or unfair associations with the oil and gas industry make it harder to attract the best talent.