In the “Dawn” operation, the Iron Dome system was once again able to successfully protect the Israeli rear against rockets from Gaza with the highest interception success rate ever, 96%. But Rafael, the main contractor of the system, is now also celebrating a victory in dealing with another threat: the abandonment of engineers in the company in favor of high-tech companies, which reached a peak in 2021, while the government defense industry had difficulty coping with the wage offers its employees received from the civilian companies, and is unable to offer them options .
This year, while the high-tech crisis is expanding, an Iron Dome manufacturer recorded a 150% jump in the number of engineers it recruited, from 129 in the first half of 2021 to 319 in the first half of 2022. In fact, the company is also recognizing the beginning of a return of employees who chose to leave it in the last year, and decided to return to it, with six of them since the beginning of the year. “The workers who started coming back to us are not the ones whose companies closed down or downsized,” says Tal Coronel, head of recruitment at Rafael. “Raphael makes an effort to improve its salary offers to employees, and at times like this the fact that it is a stable company is more appreciated.”
Avi (48), head of a department in the field of combat intelligence, returned to Rafael six months ago, to manage a team of 20 people. He left the company after 19 years, to establish an artificial intelligence department in a high-tech company. “It was an interesting opportunity to diversify and it was accompanied by better financial conditions than I had at Rafael. But in the end I felt less influential there. I paid a bit of a price in salary, but I got a job with more meaning. I may have decreased in terms, but I returned to a more senior position.”
Barfael does not point to the improved financial conditions that high-tech companies still offer their employees as a reason for leaving, but rather the working conditions. “Employee demands have changed since the corona virus and the possibility of working from home. If once engineers from the north were almost a captive audience for defense companies, today they receive from companies in the center an offer to work for them from home and come to the office once a week. This kind of hybrid work is something that challenges defense companies. But we are also changing And there is more and more work from home. Even engineers, who in those days work on the unclassified parts.”
The company has also adopted civil hi-tech recruitment methods, such as a friend bringing a friend, and 40% of the new employees who come to it come through this channel, with the member Oved Rafael receiving a bonus of NIS 7,500 up to a vacation worth NIS 20,000. The company also compared the conditions to civilian high-tech in another area: Rafael employees can now bring their dog to the office, and not just to its branch in Tel Aviv.
As a manager, my father is also involved in recruiting. “There is a change in the atmosphere after a year of many departures due to salary differences,” he says. “We are starting to receive better resumes than before. The company has improved the working conditions, with coffee machines in the kitchenette and working from home, things that people here dreamed of in the past. Security also completes the investigations of employees faster.”
Barfael now offers quarterly bonuses that can reach 25% of salary, alongside signing bonuses. “There are still pay gaps compared to the civilian companies, but there is also a continuous effort to reduce them. Despite the cooling on the other side, we have not lowered the conditions we offer, in order to be as competitive as possible.”