BAE Systems – Land Systems

In recent years, BAE Land Systems has emerged from a number of corporate acquisitions, bringing together defence businesses from Rolls Royce, Vickers plc and Alvis. A key part of integrating these businesses was alignment of the Performance Development Review (PDR) processes.Thinkfreer was engaged to facilitate this process across 4 separate sites in the UK.

We led an initial consultation exercise with all the key stakeholder groups, including senior managers, key staff groups and trade union bodies. Our focus groups informed the re-design of the PDR process which we then tested out with appraisers and appraisees in a company wide appraisal skills training programme. Our workshops were highly interactive, designed to create space for practical skills development as well as familiarisation with processes and core theories.

Following our work, the company reported a significant increase in staff participation in PDRs that led to better tailored performance and development planning across the business and closer alignment of staff development to operational plans.