Electronics company unites its workforce with Oracle Cloud

Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions (CAES) designs and manufactures antennas, transmitter/receiver modules, switch matrices, radio frequency converters, cables, and other crucial electronics for the defense, space, security, industrial, and medical sectors. CAES’s products can be found in the Mars Rover 2020, satellites, fighter jets, US Navy ship radar, and US Marines backpacks. Its main mission is to keep US military personnel and Americans safe.

Having acquired five different businesses in 12 years, each with its own HR system and processes, CAES looked to standardize as it sought to unify the company and culture. At the time, executives lacked consistent data on CAES employees across business units and locations, limiting their ability to assess and manage talent. For the most part, employees’ career advancement was limited to the location where they worked, and managers often needed several levels of approval to do something as simple as granting a low single-digit merit raise that had already been budgeted.

With its deployment of the Oracle Cloud HCM modules, CAES now has a single source of HR data across all of its business units and locations. Executives can understand the skill sets they have, the gaps that need to be filled, and where specialized talent is needed most.

The platform’s self-service capabilities let line managers take control of functions such as promotions and transfers and allow employees to update their own records. For example, for the first time employees can populate their own talent profiles to add the latest degrees and certifications they’ve completed along with honors and other accomplishments. That information is available to hiring managers across business units and locations. Employees can also tap into information on the specific criteria for career advancement, and get the training they need to move forward.

Meanwhile, managers are empowered to act instead of being encumbered by archaic, sometimes paper-based systems and unnecessary, bureaucratic approval processes. Now, for example, a manager can get a simple report on full-time and part-time employees and contractors in about 10 minutes, when previously the task took days.

Having a single HR system has improved overall data quality as well, helping managers make more informed and accurate workforce decisions.