PEOPLE & CULTURE PULSE · ISSUE 9 · SEPTEMBER 2026
A monthly benchmark for People & Culture teams: the talking points that matter and how your people and culture compare, built on Deltabase culture, workforce and talent data covering 5,500+ companies and 11M employee reviews.
Talent strategy split two ways in September. Airbus reached a preliminary deal to keep 40% telework in Spain and extend it to new hires, while Disney told remote product and technology staff to come in four days a week or risk their jobs. UK vacancies fell to their lowest since early 2021. Reading both halves of our name for Aerospace & Defence, the People data shows employers hiring for AI and digital skills; the Culture data shows them getting worse at giving people somewhere to go.
Leroy Hall, Deltabase
What happened: Remote Work Europe reported on 4 September that a 35-day strike at Airbus Spain had ended with a preliminary agreement, mediated by the Ministry of Industry, that keeps remote working at 40% of working time and extends the arrangement to new hires. The workforce still has to ratify it.
The Deltabase lens: Culture: Airbus has the strongest culture score in our Aerospace & Defence set, at +21.4% in 2025, and a Learning & Development NSS of +60.0%, against +20.5% at Boeing. People: Its recent hires look different from the workforce they join: 9.9% of staff with less than a year's tenure list AI skills and 25.7% list Python, against 2.5% and 6.6% across the whole workforce.
So what: Flexibility written into new-hire terms is a recruitment offer, and the joiners bringing new skills are the people rivals most want.
What happened: Disney is extending office attendance to its product and technology teams, with many remote employees expected in at least four days a week; the company said those who do not comply could face termination.
The Deltabase lens: People: The teams Disney is targeting are a big slice of aerospace workforces too: Tech roles make up 28.2% of Boeing's workforce, 18.6% of Airbus's and 18.5% of Rolls-Royce's. Culture: In Aerospace & Defence, Work-Life Balance is a relative strength: the sector median rose from +44.0% to +46.5% in 2025, with seven of ten companies improving.
So what: If you tighten attendance, measure Work-Life Balance before and after, starting with your largest desk-based functions.
What happened: ONS estimated 702,000 vacancies in June to August 2026, down 1.1% on the quarter and 4.9% on the year, the lowest level since February to April 2021, with 2.5 unemployed people per vacancy.
The Deltabase lens: People: Fewer options mean fewer leavers. Average monthly turnover in January–August 2026 was 0.40% at Boeing (0.79% a year earlier), 0.56% at Airbus (0.75%) and 0.42% at Rolls-Royce (0.54%). Culture: A cooler market helps retention but not progression. Median Career Progression NSS across Aerospace & Defence fell from −40.9% to −49.0% in 2025, with only Lockheed Martin, Thales and Leonardo improving.
So what: Use the breathing space to fix internal mobility before the market turns.
15.8%: share of Boeing staff with under a year's tenure who list AI skills, more than six times the 2.5% across its whole workforce, while its Career Progression NSS fell to −62.7% in 2025.
| Company | Culture: overall NSS, 2025 | Culture: Career Progression NSS, 2025 | People: AI skills, joiners under 1 year | People: AI skills, whole workforce |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airbus | +21.4% | −48.2% | 9.9% | 2.5% |
| Rolls-Royce | +5.1% | −33.3% | 6.8% | 1.7% |
| Boeing | +3.7% | −62.7% | 15.8% | 2.5% |
Source: Deltabase Culture data, Employee Net Sentiment Score (−100% to +100%), 2025 (Airbus 983, Rolls-Royce 249, Boeing 1,328 reviews). Deltabase Talent data, share of staff listing Artificial Intelligence skills, for staff with less than one year's tenure and for the whole workforce; skills overlap, so shares are not additive.
Europe's and America's airframe leaders are pulling apart on Culture. Airbus rose from +13.0% to +21.4% in 2025 (983 reviews), while Boeing slipped from +5.7% to +3.7% (1,328 reviews), with Career Progression down from −38.5% to −62.7% and Supportive Leadership at −42.0% against −20.3% at Airbus. On People, Boeing looks stronger on paper: 28.2% of its workforce is in Tech roles and 7.8% in Engineering & Maintenance, against 18.6% and 4.6% at Airbus, and its monthly turnover averaged 0.40% in 2026 against 0.56%. Boeing's gap is leadership and progression, not skills or retention.
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Sources: Remote Work Europe (4 September 2026); Allwork.Space (16 September 2026); ONS, Vacancies and jobs in the UK (15 September 2026); Deltabase Culture data; Deltabase Workforce data; Deltabase Talent data; Deltabase Employee Turnover data.