Running head: CHANGING THE COMPOSITION OF THE WORKPLACE
Lockheed Martin: Changing the Composition of the Workplace
Brooke A. Thomas
McDaniel College
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Lockheed Martin was formed in March 1995, following the merger of the Lockheed
Corporation and Martin Marietta Corporation. Since the merger of these two world premier
technology companies, Lockheed Martin has become one of the leading defense contractors. In
2011 Lockheed Martin estimated revenue was approximately 47 billion, 74 percent of which was
from military sales. The company’s core business areas are aeronautics, electronic systems,
information systems, global solutions and space systems.
In order to maintain stability and remain competitive Lockheed Martin depends on its
over 140,000 employees and leadership team to thrive. The leadership team has adopted the Full
Spectrum Leadership model, which emphasizes the development of leaders through five
imperative qualities. These qualities include shaping the future, building effective relationships,
energizing the team, delivering results and modeling personal excellence, integrity and
accountability. The entire senior leadership team is measured, promoted and evaluated on these
qualities through annual 360-degree performance assessments. By setting a high standard for the
leadership team of Lockheed Martin, the company has been able to build a corporate culture that
inspires a sense of mission, purpose and value.
The foundation of Lockheed Martin’s corporate culture is built on traditional values and
ethics. The company values statement requires employees to do what is right, respect others, and
perform with excellence. Lockheed Martin offers ethical hotlines, surveys, partnerships, business
conduct compliance, diversity trainings and other resources to ensure that employees will abide
by the values as well as report any misconduct to protect the security of the company. Leo
MacKay, Vice President of Ethics and Business Conduct believes that little ethical lapses destroy
trust and weakens the culture of any business (“Polishing,” n.d.).
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Lockheed Martin has started a new campaign to align its benefits with its corporate
values. This campaign mission is to change the composition of the workforce by meeting the
needs of all employees, new college graduates, veterans, experienced and retirement eligible
professionals. Each year the company hires about 13,000 people and each year the new talent
becomes more multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-gender, and multi-generational (Stevens, 2010).
To meet the work-life considerations of these targeted groups, Lockheed Martin has decided to
implement corporate wide programs to address the needs indicated and foster leaders from every
level to embrace cultural vision.
The first step to implementing the company’s new plan was to identify the needs of each
group. In a 2010 speech to University of Maryland, Robert H. Smith School of Business,
Lockheed Martin’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Robert Stevens discussed the
company’s competitive leadership development program that recruits the top recent college
graduates. The program provides online learning, special job assignments, on-the-job-training
and participation on special task forces for the new graduates to experience the depth and breadth
of the Lockheed Martin. Stevens noticed that the new recruits were less concerned with salary
and more concerned with vacation time, flexible work schedules, professional development, and
affiliations with community groups. These arguments were very compelling to Lockheed Martin
and laid the foundation for the changes to the company’s work-life programs.
Lockheed Martin has developed an impressive military relations department that works to
recruit veterans and transition them into careers in the company. According to Meuser (2011),
employers need education on the benefits of hiring a veteran, and how to recruit and retain these
disciplined, diverse potential employees. Lockheed Martin has found success in this area through
its use of Military Relations Managers, who all had military careers, allowing them to relate to
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the needs of their recruits. During the recruitment period, the manager’s host job fairs,
conferences, live chats and partnerships for veterans, wounded warriors and their spouses.
Lockheed Martin offers careers directly aligned with positions and skill sets sampled from
military experience. When the recruits have decided to pursue a career at Lockheed Martin, the
transition assistance programs allows veterans to take courses at the transition assistance office,
network with internal employees, research career interests, define choices and goals with
managers and apply directly for positions. Based on the testimony from transitioning military,
the program provides the necessary support and develops a system for them to transfer their
skills from the military to a civilian career.
Lockheed Martin seeks to meet the needs of experienced professionals through career
training and development. If not properly nurtured experienced professionals may find work
pointless and unfulfilling; resulting in low productivity, low morale and high turnover (Irvine,
2010). To maintain the attention of this group, Lockheed Martin has adopted the following
programs: brown bag lunches with management, mentoring and coaching, internal and external
educational opportunities and informal and formal career building. One initiative that has proven
to be successful is the Institute for Leadership Excellence. This program provides experienced
professionals with a five level curriculum in the core foundations of business management,
capturing new business, customer relations, effective coaching and program management.
Experienced professionals are involved in many programs that require communication
and the use of knowledge management among all levels of the organization. They are charged
with leading the mentoring program for recent college graduates. This program focuses on
developing the skills and abilities of graduates through sharing of experiences, best practices,
resolving internal and external issues and helping to cultivate new ideas.
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The last group of employees to address at Lockheed Martin is the retirement eligible
employees or baby boomers. At the company retirement eligible employees make up 60 percent
of the workforce. They have served as the cornerstones of the organization and hold the majority
of knowledge and experiences. Lockheed Martin has noticed that the retirement eligible
employees have decided to either retire or remain on-board for personal or financial reasons. For
those who have chosen to retire, Lockheed Martin has provided retirement planning to assist
with any financial, medical and lifestyle changes. For the employees who have chosen to stay on,
the company is using them to transfer knowledge to the experienced professionals so they can
prepare for business succession.
Mitchell (2006) encourages companies to recognize employees, who have exceeded
retirement age in order to maintain their productivity. He suggests the following steps:

Identify and reduce risk factors within the older workforce through risk
management.

Develop and apply corporate policies that invite flexibility and accessibility.

Reward employees for accepting responsibility for their personal well-being and
protecting their work capacity.

Provide incentives for continued productivity by supporting services that reduce
the impact of complex family obstacles on staying productive.

Apply corporate resources to measure the impact of productive-aging problems
and their subsequent return on investment.

Offer programs within the organization that promote generational equity in
protecting productivity.
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Lockheed Martin has implemented many of Mitchell’s suggestions and they have used them
across the board to assist new graduates, veterans, experienced and retirement ready
professionals.
To enhance the work experience of the Lockheed Martin’s targeted employees they have
launched LM People, LM HealthWorks, and improved work-life programs. These total rewards
programs were created to help shape the company, support business goals, attract and retain
employees and build a high performance work culture. LM People is an integrated software
system for personal and professional data. The system allows all employees to monitor HR
transactions such as benefit selections, payroll and salary information. The system also has
standardized career planning and professional training available to employees, which includes
mentoring, performance management, leadership and resource programs. Employees can track
career paths and manage their trainings to ensure that they are on the right track and progressing
according to their goals and interests.
The LM HealthWorks provides employees with protection, support and information
through wellness and preventative care programs. The LM HealthWorks site is divided into three
sections, which are health plans, the mission and take action. The health plan provides a
summary of medical benefit plans and other benefits such as flexible spending accounts, vision,
dental and accident insurance. Employees can choose their providers from a list of in network
and out of network doctors. The site is very user friendly and offers tutorials for employees’
needs. LM HealthWorks’ major aim is to protect against the high cost of healthcare and provide
resources for employees to become and stay healthy.
The mission outlines a list of preventative programs to help employees reach their
personal best. The employees can take personal health assessments, schedule an appointment at
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on-site clinics and join substance/mental health programs, tobacco cessation and fitness center
reimbursement programs. Employees can even access online health libraries to research health
conditions in preparation of doctor’s appointments and gain tips and ideas regarding health goals.
Take action allows the employees to create action plans according to their health goals.
Goals can be tracked according to employees designated time frames and spouses or friends can
be incorporated into the plan. Take action encourages employees to know more, stay well, find
the right care, and follow through.
Another major improvement implemented to connect the changing workforce and remain
inclusive was the alternative work schedules. Lockheed Martin now allows employees to
telecommute, work flexible schedules and permits longer weekends. This allows the employees
to balance their time and duties without losing valuable leave or paid time off. It addresses the
needs of new graduates, allows veterans and experienced professionals the time to care for
children and aging parents, and the retirement ready employees has the option to use the
alternative work schedules for family or medical reasons.
At Lockheed Martin one in three of the current employees are over the age of 50. This
means that the company will need to hire more than 14,000 new people each year over the next
decade to replace the retirement eligible employees (Stevens, 2007). Lockheed Martin is taking
the initiative to meet the needs of its changing demographics by implementing work-life
programs and learning opportunities to develop leaders who will instill the values of the
company.
Based on the 2011/2012 Talent Management and Rewards Study (2012), organizations
with reward and talent management programs that support their business goals are more than
twice as likely to report being high performing companies. These companies like Lockheed
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Martin have gained success with recruiting and retaining employees by focusing on the talent
management principles of integration, segmentation and agility. Integration allows aligning
reward and talent management programs with each other and within the larger framework of the
business’ strategy and objectives. Segmentation delivers a different experience to employee
segments to meet their needs cost effectively. The last principle, agility requires the company to
adopt programs to change the business or economic conditions in order to more effectively
manage risks and improve performance.
Lockheed Martin has reexamined its resources to allocate more money to creating a
workforce that supports all its employees. They are dedicated to creating managers who are able
to deal with complexities and promote order and stability in the company. They want these same
managers and all employees to be leaders who can stimulate change and drive the company into
new directions, building coalitions and motivating people to act (Stevens 2007). Lockheed
Martin is investing and changing the composition of the workforce to provide a nurturing culture
where new graduates, veterans, experienced professional and retirement eligible employees feel
the continued support of their employer in every aspect of their life, whether personal or
professional.
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References
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Stevens, R. (2010). Opening of the center for leadership, innovation and change.
College Park, Md. Retrieved from
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