Ensuring workplaces offer flexible working patterns and are run with an ethical focus is key to improving diversity in the aerospace sector, according to recruitment company EVONA.

The Bristol-based space sector specialist aims to actively tackle inclusivity and skill shortages by focusing on recruiting a diverse pool of talent.

“Our senior management team has a 50/50 gender split. We realised that in order to attract female leads with experience, we needed to offer flexibility. We saw millennials wanted ethical and diverse workplaces, so we created strong CSR initiatives,” said co-founder Tom Kelly, and marketing director Adele Fox, who were at the Farnborough International Airshow to promote their vision.

“We wanted a company that reflected the ethos we were trying to bring to the space sector. The whole point of the business is to challenge the status quo and push that space is for everyone, regardless of your background.”

Inclusive organisations perform better

Within the space sector, those from more advantaged socio-economic backgrounds are over-represented. The US STEM workforce is 89 per cent white and 72 per cent male, with only one in five space industry workers identifying as female, and a mere 2 per cent having a disability.

And yet it has been statistically proven that inclusive organisations perform better and are more likely to achieve their goals.

Flexibility at its core

Crowned Lloyds Bank’s New Business of the Year 2021, EVONA says it has built its business with diversity and inclusion at its core.

In the knowledge that 69 per cent of women that changed jobs would have stayed if they had flexible hours, the company offered the entire team unlimited global remote working.

EVONA now has a staff retention rate of 94 per cent, versus the the UK recruitment industry’s rate of 57 per cent.

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