HR Vision: You are a keynote speaker at our HR Vision conference and your keynote is entitled “Building a Culture of Innovation: It’s Not Rocket Science”. How do you hire for NASA’s Culture of Innovation? What do you look for in candidates?
Brady Pyle: Our hiring strategy is focused on the future. 60% of our hires are recent college graduates, who bring creativity, innovation, and the latest technologies to our work. The next 20% are what we call “forward fills” based on the skills NASA needs to support our Journey to Mars over the next 10+ years. We do reserve 20% of our hiring for critical skill losses and replacements.
In our candidates, we look for people who demonstrate a unique combination of effective teamwork, leadership, interpersonal skills, and analytical skills.
NASA is a unique organisation. Consistently ranked among the top 5 best places to work in Government and heralded as a “dream employer for engineering students”, ranked number 1 “most attractive” employer for engineering students, in a Universum study. How do you compete with the private sector, when it comes to finding and attracting the best talent?
NASA has a unique out-of-this-world mission, as we reach for new heights and reveal the unknown for the benefit of humankind. At NASA, we are proud of the fact that we have stimulated private sector interest in human space exploration, launching a new industry in developing spacecraft and capabilities to fly humans in space. It’s exciting to see new companies—like SpaceX, Orbital Sciences, and Sierra Nevada—along with long-standing aerospace partners—like Lockheed-Martin and Boeing—with bold visions for the future.
At the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, we have a world-class Cooperative Education program for university students (pathways.jsc.nasa.gov). Generally starting as Sophomores or Juniors, students complete two or three different work tours prior to graduation and transition into entry-level positions across the Center. Our program features cohort learning, strong mentoring, and unique assignments. We have a track record of success for more than 50 years, and word of mouth remains our best advertising for to attract the best students from across the country.
Download your free e-book ‘The Rise of The Machines’: HR, Technology and Change
How are you addressing the shortage of technical skills in the marketplace? Specifically, there is a lack of STEM students in the US. Do you work with educational bodies to help develop specialised talents from a young age?
NASA inspires people like few other organizations. Since its creation in 1958, NASA has built upon that inspiration to drive innovation in STEM education. Part of NASA’s mission is to increase access to and interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. Our education programs and initiatives help contribute to a future NASA workforce capable of taking the world’s preeminent aerospace and aeronautics organization to new heights, helping it reveal the unknown, and benefiting all humankind.
NASA remains committed to advancing and promoting science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in several capacities: concepts, careers, and awareness for learners, educators and institutions. NASA immerses learners in content and activities, providing a critical bridge to gain exposure to and pursue STEM careers. Additionally, NASA seeks to attract and retain diverse students in STEM career fields and build the domestic capacity of organizations to advance STEM research and programming by providing access to world-class research and technology facilities, mission data, and technical experts.
Our STEM Engagement activities provide opportunities for special participatory and experiential learning activities that connect learners to NASA-unique resources.
We recently celebrated International Women’s Day all over the world. Whilst we celebrate women’s achievements, global organisations are still falling short to get women into top leadership positions. And there is a stereotype that your industry is a white, male-dominated arena despite the lesser known fact that minority women were the brains behind the race to the moon. How are you managing diversity both in terms of gender & ethnicity? How do you deal with these perceptions when attracting talent?
At the Johnson Space Center, we have a number of visible women leaders, starting with our Center Director (the highest ranking Executive in Houston, Texas), Dr. Ellen Ochoa—the first Hispanic woman who flew in space. Her bio can be found at https://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/ochoa.pdf:
Other key women technical Executives include: our Director of Engineering (Lauri Hansen); our Chief Scientist (Dr. Eileen Stansbery); our Director of Safety & Mission Assurance (Patricia Petete); and our Director of Exploration Integration & Science (Vanessa Wyche—an African American woman).
We recognize that many girls, in particular, turn away from the STEM field in elementary and middle school years. NASA started Women@NASA (women.nasa.gov) to celebrate women from across the agency who contribute to NASA’s mission in many ways. We are especially excited about the recent success of the blockbuster movie Hidden Figures, which highlighted the contributions of African American women who worked behind-the-scenes to ensure success of NASA’s Apollo moon missions in the 1960’s. Then, Lego announced they will sell a set, featuring women heroes of NASA!
What are the key measures that NASA uses to ensure innovation is happening as defined?
Several years ago, the Partnership for Public Service (ourpublicservice.org) started publishing the “Innovation Index” based on results from the Annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. These three questions comprise the index:
-
I am constantly looking for ways to do my job better.
-
I feel encouraged to come up with new and better ways of doing things.
-
Creativity and innovation are rewarded.
The first question is very individually-focused, and the vast majority of NASA employees answer that question positively. The second and third questions really focus on the environment that leaders are creating.
Recently, Max Stier, the President of the Partnership for Public Service, testified in front of the U.S. House Government Oversight Committee. One of the committee members argued that the NASA mission certainly drives our success on the survey. Stier responded that employees across the Federal Government are very supportive and aligned with their Agency missions. The difference between the highest and lowest performing Agencies, he noted, is largely attributed to leadership—and especially leadership on the front lines.
NASA has to be highly regulated. Like the oil and gas industry, your organisation needs to have precision rigour and process in everything you do. How do you nurture a true culture of innovation and creativity, whilst maintaining the high standards and regulations that you need to abide by? Does bureaucracy stifle innovation?
We encourage our leaders to push their team members to come up with new and better ways of doing things. One of the leadership principles we like to emphasize is “Ask Questions…Don’t Give Answers.” The notion of Humble Inquiry—as described by Dr. Ed Schein in his book with that title—enhances engagement, creativity, and innovation. Leaders who have all the answers tend to stifle innovation; and for a technical organization like ours, that’s a particularly difficult transition since leaders are often selected for their own technical excellence. Helping them to shift gears from the “expert” role to “leader” is a big focus of our training and development efforts.
At the Johnson Space Center, Dr. Ochoa (our Center Director) initiated an effort she branded JSC 2.0 and asked all employees to consider how to make improvements and changes that are necessary changes for the future. Like any software release, she urged us to keep the best of what’s working and fine-tune our processes and everything we’re doing to improve.
NASA has had a number of “failed” missions, including the 1998 Mars Polar Lander which was set up to study the surface and climate of Mars but never connected with NASA upon landing and the tragic 2003 Shuttle Columbia accident. What HR programmes or initiatives have you tried to implement which have “failed” and why?
Five years ago, we initiated a new Mentoring Program and secured LucasFilms approval to brand it Yoda—“Your Opportunity to Develop Another.” The program was met with initial excitement, as we marketed it to our workforce. However, we learned that millennials did not readily relate to the image of a “Yoda” mentoring relationship.
Meanwhile, mentoring research revealed that synergistic relationships—marked by two-way knowledge sharing—were more effective than traditional mentoring relationships. As a result, we soon modified our program and offered a variety of options, including the traditional mentoring relationship. However, we added a new element to the program, featuring “reverse mentoring” from new employees to seasoned executives. This element ensured Executives learned from a cross-generational perspective while simultaneously providing an outlet for millennials who were interested in serving as a mentor on topics like cross-generational communications and technology (including the use of social media).
We ultimately rebranded the program from “Yoda” to the “JSC Formal Mentoring Program”—not as fun but also not using imagery that turned off part of our workforce!
And lastly, global mobility and the movement of talent into key locations, often remote or underdeveloped, is still a challenge for employers. How do you intend to encourage movement of top talent from Earth, to a new life on Mars?
We are currently screening Astronaut Candidates who applied late last year. We had overwhelming interest—partly due to Matt Damon’s blockbuster hit The Martian and partly due to NASA’s outreach through social media. We had a record-breaking 18,000 applicants this year—80% more than any previous class ever! There is certainly no lack of interest in the exploration of space, and we’re excited to continue to push for the Journey to Mars!
