the Netherlands

Marieke Bulkmans

Human Resources executive with nearly 25 years of extensive strategic, transformative, all-around, hands-on experience in Transport and Logistics companies, e-commerce, a laboratory environment and Space products. Strategic partner and coach for business leaders, leadership mentor and developer, building a stronger organisation with passion through HR, coaching and authentic leadership.

In my current role at Airbus, I am responsible for HR in the Netherlands. We work at the frontiers of technology in one of the world’s most challenging and rapidly changing industries: space. Our products and services—including Solar Arrays, Launcher Structures, Instruments & Services and Ground Stations for Satellite Communication are among the best in the world. They enable missions important for everyday Earth life, such as satellite navigation, communications, climate research and air quality monitoring.

At our state-of-the-art facilities in Leiden, Oegstgeest, Noordwijk, and Eindhoven, our dedicated professionals work on designing, developing, assembling, testing, and delivering space products and services. We do that by thinking creatively in terms of solutions and by working with like-minded business partners. Intensive collaboration in our international community is the key to success within the Airbus family we proudly represent.

Navigating Complexity, Talent, and High-Stakes Innovation

The unique challenges of the space sector require HR strategies at different levels of complexity. Like any other company, we have all the essential HR strategies in place that are needed to support the success of our people and our company in reaching their goals. We are a true innovator in the space sector niche in which we operate. Working with the best-in-class top talent that designs, creates, assembles, integrates, and tests unique products that can face all the challenges that arise during transport, launch, and in space. The focus on quality has always been extremely high: when our product is launched into space, it has to do precisely what it is made for since we cannot go there and fix it on the spot.

With the space sector growing and changing rapidly, we are transitioning from single-item production to higher-volume series production while keeping our quality standards high. This requires new ways of thinking and working, from design to delivery. And it requires different support from HR. In our industry, we sometimes laugh that it is “rocket science” what we do. Experience teaches that HR, guiding and supporting people, understanding their behaviour, leading teams and coaching leaders can be perceived as rocket science, for some people, it is more complex than actually designing a rocket. People, behaviour, people interactions and team dynamics can be very complex. Especially while working and managing through change. Providing high-level support and guidance is essential.

Leading Through Change

Since change is the only constant, everyone working for the organisation must adjust to change in all disciplines and levels. HR professionals can play a pivotal role in organisations from their position. Acting as a linking pin across all levels of the organisation and working with all disciplines. In many situations, HR can provide support with awareness sessions, team sessions, leadership coaching, development programs, change management tools, or even workshops in a box.

“Nowadays, many people are better with computers and smartphones than having a real conversation and listening to others to understand”

Still, the best intervention, in my opinion, is to be aware and listen. To help the people in the organisation to be aware and hear, listen to worries and ask for their reasons, change these worries to constructive concerns, and develop ideas for improvement. It can be beneficial to start another “change” or new project with an open team brainstorm, using the proven method of working with (digital) sticky notes, to catch all worries up front, cluster them in themes and discuss what is essential to make this change or project successful. Writing worries down on a sticky note, clustering them into topics, and seeing and discussing them together makes it easier to take the next step in a successful change process.
Not addressing worries up front, often done to “save time”, leads to people keeping all their worries to themselves, having less headspace to listen and think in constructive steps and solutions, staying longer in resistance to change, commenting every once in a while why “this is not going to work”. While taking some time at the start, you can save much time later. Worries can genuinely be a destructive kind of thinking, leading to stress or anxiety. It matters and makes a big difference if worries can be shared, heard, addressed and changed into more constructive thinking concerns. Knowing that others are aware of your worries already makes them lighter.

People often assume that others don’t recognize the potential problems they think of, and talking about them openly creates an understanding that can lead to solutions. It opens up constructive discussions to overcome the challenges ahead.

Embracing Interconnectedness and AI-Driven Transformation

The most significant shift I expect is that HR will focus even more on interactions in a more holistic approach – or, as Thich Nhat Hanh introduced, the term “interbeing”: that all things exist in a state of interconnected being, a state of being interwoven and mutually dependent. When we look at people working in organisations from this perspective and combine it with the tools, AI, and robotics they work with, a new level of different interactions will become active in organisations.

Embracing new technologies that AI brings to the HR discipline can lead to faster delivery of HR data and analytics, and AI can become a companion or assistant supporting dayto-day HR tasks. Since it is new and a change, worries and new questions might arise: Is it safe to use? Do we trust AI over our analysis or that of our colleagues? And also, as is the use of AI aligned with company policies and guidelines?

So, let’s start by changing our worries to constructive concerns by voicing our worries and learning the new possibilities of AI and robotics in our domain because the fear of the unknown can keep us in a familiar situation even if something better awaits us just one decision away.

Balancing Technology with Human Connection

Keep on learning and developing. Use the tools that are available nowadays. Personally, I am a big fan of microlearning and audiobooks, which are easy to fit into a busy schedule while commuting.

Don’t be afraid of new tools powered by AI just because you have not learned how to use them yet. Never forget the importance of personal connection. Nowadays, many people are better with computers and smartphones than having a real conversation and listening to others to understand. Highlight the importance of the human aspect, honest discussions, and people connections, which are becoming even more critical now that it is so easy to escape into the digital world.