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Product cover image for OneTen at Delta Air Lines: Catalyzing Family-Sustaining Careers for Black Talent (B)

OneTen at Delta Air Lines: Catalyzing Family-Sustaining Careers for Black Talent (B)

Hill, Linda A.; Begag, Lydia

Product #:423073
Supplier:Harvard Business School
Discipline:Organizational Behaviour/Leadership
Setting:United States, 2020
Details:Supplemental Case (PDF) • 32 pages • 2023-03-21 (Rev: 2023-05-01)

Subjects:

Organizational behaviorOrganizational cultureOrganizational cultureOrganizational behavior

Industries:

Transportation and distribution

Geography:

United StatesNorth America
Your Price:$7.50

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In January 2023, Delta Air Lines (Delta) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ed Bastian and his team had just launched the third iteration of an internal skills-first apprenticeship program, designed to move frontline employees into "merit" positions in four job categories. The move to implement an apprenticeship program further advanced Delta's commitment to OneTen's "skills-first" strategy for Black talent. The DE&I and Talent teams launched the pilot program in March 2022 and the second iteration in July 2022. The program grew with each iteration, but the post-mortem of the third program revealed that Delta did not yet have the "bandwidth" to grow the program, and the program would require more leadership development and support for the managers and mentors of the apprentices. The team recognized that they had to figure out how to scale the program with some speed, but knew that change management would take a couple of years. Despite the challenges ahead, the skills-first apprenticeship program had only affirmed for Bastian that Delta was headed in the right direction, as they were better as a company when frontline employees graduated into different skills and opportunities and brought their knowledge of the business into corporate functions of the company. What, if anything, could they do to scale the program faster without sacrificing quality?

Learning Objectives

This case offers multiple teaching objectives. First, it allows readers to explore the choices leaders must make when continuing to embed diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) into the business strategy and culture of a company, told from the perspective of a company's CEO. Students will be able to see what it takes to build out a robust talent architecture required for a skills-first DE&I approach to talent. They also will see the choices a company makes to successfully launch a skills-first apprenticeship program to advance their internal talent. In addition, the case will permit readers to confront the many challenges and opportunities that arise when implementing a "skills-first" path forward for Black talent, and how to manage differing views on skills-first implementation and OneTen's framework. Finally, the case prompts readers to consider the action steps it will take to scale a program like this with speed, while maintaining program quality and key learnings.
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Supplemental Case Study: OneTen at Delta Air Lines: Catalyzing Family-Sustaining Careers for Black Talent (B) (English version) | Ivey Publishing