This article is part of in the January issue (No. 169) of Human Resources, within the Employer Branding Conference 2025, promoted by Talent Portugal.
The plane symbolizes the Airbus GBS and building it while backfilling means create and implement the areas of the organization when its operation is already underway. In the start-up phase, everything was new, including those responsible for implementing the area. Employer Branding, who had joined the team shortly before.
The initial phase required a lot of study and research into our own organization, what we were allowed or not to do according to the global guidelines of Airbus.
Juliana Souza – Head of Recruitment
Na Airbus GBS, the area of Employer Branding is managed by the recruitment and communications teams, both part of the People & Culture department. The Employer Branding was created in the first few months of its existence in Portugal, with the aim of publicizing the company's presence in the country, promoting through different means that they were recruiting for hundreds of positions in different areas of activity and positioning its value proposition as an employer brand.
«Have the theme of Employer Branding transversal to the areas of recruitment and communication allows us to always be aligned with the message we want to convey to candidates and employees. The Employer Branding communicates the company’s values and culture, while People & Culture ensures that the internal experience reflects these promises. Articulation occurs through creating consistent messages e alignment in recruitment, feedback collection e development of internal retention and talent management programso”, says Juliana Souza.
"At Airbus, we feel, act and behave as a team – We are one – and we have created an inviting workplace that fosters well-being, creativity and trust to drive teamwork. Diversity e inclusion are in our DNA. In Portugal we are more than 50 different nationalities, we are proud of our multiculturality e gender balance in teams. In addition to an attractive salary package, we offer additional benefits that focus on people’s well-being, which is our top priority. We promote a culture of “work-life balance” with a hybrid working regime and flexible hours for the ideal work-life balance,” continues the head of Recruitment. Airbus It also offers countless opportunities for personal development, through a structured career plan, where the employee is the main agent of their professional growth.
Reaching the target audience
The main channel of communication of the company's value proposition as an employer is the LinkedIn, where it not only publishes its job offers, but also projects, events and content that generally reflects its EVP (Employee Value Proposition). It is also on LinkedIn that some of its employees act as ambassadors and organically share their experience of working at Airbus.
Sometimes plans change: the company exceeded the target of 1000 hires in 2024, when the target was 800 by 2025. The change in the hiring target was due to gained the trust of internal customers, in terms of service absorption capacity and quality of delivery. This has led to the company growing faster than expected. “Among the main strategies adopted to achieve the new hiring target, we can highlight the considerable expansion of the recruitment team, as well as the collaboration with external recruitment partners. We have established partnerships with universities whose students are or will be our target audience and we have been present at career events at universities and associations, strengthening ties with the academic community and promoting our employer brand. We have created a trainee program to train talent and ensure future hiring needs”, explains the head of Recruitment.
Accelerated growth required greater agility and structuring of the department. This led to the need to expand the People & Culture structure: expertise centers were created within the team, with solid sub-teams. There was also a need to have people focused on topics such as health and safety at work, training and development, and automation/process improvement. The team began to focus more on employee journey, ensuring that each stage – from attraction to retention – is consistent and aligned with the company’s values.
An evolutionary process
There was growth in all areas of the organization, and there was a need to increase the structure of business analytics, with profiles such as data scientist, data analysts and data officers. A fundamental role in knowledge management has been played by technologies, with collaborative tools assuming a fundamental role, as they benefit the sharing of information in real time and facilitate its organization/storage. In Airbus Various software and dashboards are used for human resources management, which integrate all information relating to the organization's structure, allowing for a quick connection with candidates and employees.
For the year 2025, the Airbus remains committed to attracting talent that aims to grow and develop skills within the organization. The head of Recruitment says that one of their priorities is to inclusive recruitment, "where we seek to enhance the hiring of people with disabilities or impairments. We are already an inclusive company, so we believe that including people with disabilities is a way to add value to the company culture, diversify skills and perspectives, while providing equal access to job opportunities and inclusion in a welcoming environment."
