What It Does: Thales Group specialises in designing, developing, and manufacturing remote-controlled weapon stations, infantry mobility vehicles, tactical radios, radars, and aerospace electronics.
Mission: Thales' mission statement is to deliver very reliable and competitive electronic products and systems that meet their clients' needs.
Size and Presence: Thales Group has a workforce comprising more than 7,000 employees across 9 locations in the UK.
Best Known For: Thales is widely regarded as one of the best companies in the UK Maritime sector and has been named a finalist in the 2019 edition of the UK Maritime awards. Last year, Thales GTS was named the winner of the Big Data Innovation award. The company also won Innovation of the Year in the 2020 edition of the Rail Business awards.
The Good Bits: The work at Thales is meaningful and exciting. There are unlimited opportunities for learning and career advancement. The company offers very attractive compensation and employment incentives. Thales has a very inclusive work environment.
The Not-So-Good Bits: N/A.
The origin of this firm began with the establishment of Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston in 1893. In 1968, Thomson-CSF came into existence when Compagnie générale de la télégraphie sans fil (CSF) merged with the electronics division of Thomson-Brandt. In late 1999, Thomson-CSF agreed to a joint venture with Samsung Electronics, with both parties pulling equal weight in their shareholdings. It was a mutually beneficial business relationship that gave Thomson-CSF technological access to Samsung’s defence products and gave Samsung access to Thomson CSF's foreign exports.
In mid-2001, Thales agreed to a joint venture with Raytheon to merge their communications and radar systems. The firm agreed to a joint venture with DCN to form Armaris in 2002. Four years later, Thales purchased Australian Defence Industries. In 2008, Thales acquired nCipher, a British Hardware Security Module firm. In 2014, the company purchased the cybersecurity operations of Alcatel-Lucent. Two years later, the firm acquired Vormetric, a data security firm. In 2017, the firm purchased Guavus.
Thales' corporate culture is established on certain core values that it upholds in its day-to-day operations and treatment of employees. Its values include Customer Focus (the firm is customer-oriented and always seeks to please its clientele), Innovation & Agility (Thales is powered and driven by innovation, it’s the core reason for the company’s successes), Continuous Improvement & Integrity (the firm seeks to always improve and grow, it also believes in honesty and transparency).
Thales consciously creates an inclusive environment to make every employee feel like a part of the community. The company champions diversity by embracing different cultures, religions, lifestyles, political affiliations, socioeconomic backgrounds, sexuality, gender, etc. and ensuring its hiring process reflects this policy. The company believes that diversity and inclusion are the foundations for a highly innovative workforce. The employees are friendly with each other, and they frequently collaborate on projects together. New intakes are gladly welcomed and introduced to life at the firm.
Thales has something for its fresh graduates and interns. Its graduate programme is subdivided into business graduate programmes and engineering graduate programmes. The former seeks to equip the freshers with insights into how the industry operates and a deep understanding of the company’s finances. The engineering graduate programme is a 4-year rotational programme that sharpens the inquisitive minds of its freshers and instils a problem-solving ability in them. The company offers internship programmes to undergraduate students, which offers them an immersive learning experience. Thales also has an apprenticeship programme that gives school leavers a chance to gain practical work experience and earn a living while studying for relevant qualifications.
Thales pays its freshers an average annual salary of £29,000.
Thales aims to reduce its carbon emissions by 50% by 2030. The company is also an active supporter of waste reduction, recycling, and reuse.
There’s no widely published controversy in the UK.