Purpose, Connection and Innovation: Spirit’s DE&I Journey

Regardless of what our job responsibilities are, we want to feel connected at work. We want to feel like we have a place and a purpose within our company and feel connected to the people we’re working with.

That’s the backbone of Spirit’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) work.

It’s our goal to create a workplace where people from all different walks of life feel valued, have a sense of belonging and are engaged to contribute as their fullest selves. To get there, we’re taking a comprehensive approach, infusing it into many aspects of the business and work we do.

Through different perspectives, experiences and backgrounds, we’re able to capture a broader perspective, uncover new solutions, support innovative work, and advance aerospace forward.

Building a strong DE&I foundation

We started our DE&I journey by focusing on the foundational work of building our business case and ensuring our teams had a shared mindset around the value of this work for Spirit. A core piece of that included creating a greater awareness and aligning the organization to what we mean by DE&I and serving grassroots efforts across the company.

We have taken steps forward in our DE&I journey with the unwavering commitment of our leaders. And today our comprehensive strategy is based on three core areas: our leadership, our talent and our workplace. Each are essential as we continue to push forward on this journey.

We also made strides by identifying our opportunities and establishing goals to improve the representation of Spirit’s minority populations. As mentioned in our 2021 Sustainability Report, Spirit is working to achieve the following two goals:

1. Reach 30% female representation in leadership (senior manager and above) globally
2. Reach 20% ethnic minority representation in leadership (senior manager and above) across the US

Both serve more like milestones for the organization – ones that we’re well on our way to reach – and, of course, our DE&I journey does not end once they’re fulfilled. We’ll establish new goals that reflect where we are and where we’re going. We know representation is only part of the equation. It can be indicative of whether we have an inclusive environment, but to make a lasting difference, we must also tandemly do the work to create an engaging and inclusive workplace for all employees.

Employing DE&I initiatives for everyday life

Taking action to create effective, lasting change requires the commitment and collaboration of many people across the organization and its partners.

Globally, we partner with strategic DE&I organizations that enhance our work in this space. This includes external organizations like the Society for Women Engineers, Black Engineer of the Year Awards, and the Manufacturing Institute’s Women Make America Awards.

Internally, we offer a growing number of opportunities for people to get involved. Here are a few ways.

Global DE&I councils

Our global councils enable DE&I work across the company. They support the strategic overarching, enterprise-wide DE&I priorities by aligning them to what is relevant locally, advancing the work in their footprint.

Each site has its own council that operationalizes the strategy in a localized, relevant way to meet its unique needs and opportunities.

Employee business resource groups

Our employee-led employee business resource groups (EBRGs) give their members an opportunity to come together, network, give back to their communities and develop professionally. They’re business-oriented, each with their own objectives to actively deliver value to the business. They go beyond the walls of the company, extending into the community to create an impact bigger than Spirit.

EBRGs are voluntary and open to all employees. Currently, we have the following four:

• SWEPT: Spirit Women in Engineering Professions and Technology is focused on attracting, engaging, developing, and supporting women. While most members are women in engineering and technology positions, they’re actively working to expand their efforts to include women from manufacturing and other parts of the business.
   
• SERVE: Spirit Employees, Reservists and Veterans is our group that supports the unique needs of those who are serving or who have served in the military.
   
• RISE: Retain and Inspire Spirit Employees is focused on DE&I holistically, working to help all employees feel valued and included.
   
• ALAS: The newest of the four, this group is meant to support Hispanic and Latinx employees, getting its name from the word for wings in Spanish.

Each group works to build an inclusive culture, coming together to create awareness, celebrate identities, and provide development and engagement opportunities.

Taking Flight

Taking Flight is Spirit’s signature diversity leadership program. Each class has the opportunity to live out the business case of DE&I by pulling cross-functional teams together to work on solving complex projects that support the business.

Supplier diversity

One way our DE&I efforts go beyond the walls of the company is by encompassing our strategic partners that are closely tied to the company’s overall success. Our supplier diversity initiative focuses on providing real business opportunities to suppliers that are small, minority-owned, women-owned, veteran-owned, service-disabled veteran-owned and/or Historically Underutilized Zone companies.

Continuing the DE&I journey

Diversity, equity and inclusion at Spirit is more than just one goal or one initiative. It’s a collective, continuous effort that benefits all of us. We’re proud of how far we’ve come and invigorated by the exciting journey ahead! We are thankful for the team’s commitment and together we will build a stronger community that moves aerospace forward. If you’re interested in learning more, visit our DE&I page.