icwes15 - finding, recruiting, and retaining women engineers for national security r&d...
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Presentation from ICWES 15 Conference - July 2011, AustraliaTRANSCRIPT
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Finding, recruiting, and retaining women engineers for national security
R&D positions
Presentation for ICWES 15
July 20, 2011July 20, 2011
Janet L. Williams, Manager, and Michael M. Kline, HR partner
Sandia National Laboratories
Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of
Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.
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Threats fromother nation states
Traditional strategicnuclear threats
Threats fromnon nation states
Other threats: natural disasters, climate change, energy supplyThreats of
tech surprise
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Addressing Our Evolving National Security Environment is of the Greatest Importance
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People and Budget (As of October 15, 2010)
Mechanical engineering 16%Electrical engineering 21%
Other engineering 15%
Other fields 12%
Computing 16%
Chemistry 6%Math 2%
Other science 6%Physics 6%
Nuclear Weapons
Defense Systems & AssessmentsEnergy, Climate, & Infrastructure Security
International, Homeland, and Nuclear Security
FY10 operating revenue$2.3 billion
13%13%
31%
43%
On-site workforce: 11,677 Regular employees: 8,607 Gross payroll: ~$898.7 million
Technical staff (4,277) by discipline:
(Operating Budget)
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A massive challenge:
• Recruiting, hiring, and retaining highly qualified, exceptional candidates for our national security positions– Requirements for most technical positions
• MS or higher in engineering, primarily electrical, mechanical, computer science, or computer engineering fields
• High academic achievement• US Citizenship• Able to obtain a high level security clearance
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First challenge: finding US Citizens
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*Excerpted from Engineering by the Numbers, by Michael T. Gibbons, American Society of Engineering Educators, 2010
46% of MS degrees awarded in the US went to foreign nationals
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Next challenge: finding diverse candidates
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*Excerpted from Engineering by the Numbers, by Michael T. Gibbons, American Society of Engineering Educators, 2010
Only 22% of these degrees were awarded to women
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Final challenge: finding the right disciplines
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*Excerpted from Engineering by the Numbers, by Michael T. Gibbons, American Society of Engineering Educators, 2010
Women are least represented in the disciplines we seek
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How to address these issues?Look at the numbers
• Many more graduates with Bachelor’s degrees (78K, vs 43K MS degrees)
• Much higher percentage of US citizens at BS level (94%, vs 54% of MS graduates)
• Similarly low percentages of minorities and women, but greater numbers means more candidates overall
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These numbers suggest that finding and developing BS grads would be easier than recruiting MS grads
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Master’s Fellowship ProgramCritical Skills Master’s Program
• Identify and hire outstanding BS candidates in their final year of studies
• Send them to a top rated graduate school of their choice
• Pay for tuition, books, expenses, and include a living stipend
• Upon graduation, pay them commensurate with MS new hires
• Require service to Sandia equal to the amount of time spent in graduate school
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Measures of success
• Approximately 600 participants since 1970• High percentages of females (35%) and minorities
relative to the available discipline pool• Retention rates* slightly lower than SNL at large,
BUT– Many still at Sandia, or recently retired
– Many in leadership positions, from manager to Executive VP.
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*Five-year retention rates are approx. 4 in 5 participants
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Mining talent from top schools – Science and Engineering Expo
• First deployed in 2006 to bring in top MS and PhD candidates in a variety of areas
• Candidates invited on site as a group for 2-3 days
• Introduced to Sandia at an opening function, often a social or dinner prior to interviews. – At least ½ day for round-robin interviews by multiple
managers in a central location, jokingly referred to as “speed dating”.
– Tours are conducted for at least ½ day.
– PhD candidates are usually invited to give seminars on their thesis topics.
• Can be tailored to target specific minority groups, schools, or organizations.
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Recent successes
• AISES – American Indian Science and Engineering Society– Invited 19 top recruits attending a local minority
engineering conference on site– Sandia extended ten offers and received eight
acceptances to date.
• Targeting top schools– Invited 13 top technical MS and PhD candidates from
across the nation (UT-Austin, Purdue, and the University of Florida)
– Extended twelve offers and received eleven acceptances.
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Critical success factors
• Corporate overhead funding and support• Organizing efforts provided by HR• Participation by line organization technical
managers• Leveraging of established recruiting relationships
at top schools and annual conferences
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Conclusions
• These special recruiting programs have been and continue to be key factors in our ability to recruit top talent in a competitive job market.
• Even in years of budget challenge, they have been preserved as key to our future talent pipeline.
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Questions?