Unleashing the potential of our people

We take a holistic approach to learning, following the 70:20:10 model according to which 70% of learning comes from experience, 20% from interaction with others and 10% from formal training.

Achievements in 2024

• Over 8,000 staff changed jobs within the Group.
• 90% of Thales employees – 72,000 people worldwide – took part in training or other skills development activities.
• Employees received 19 hours of training on average.
• 31 in-house training programmes (academies) were available to employees.
• 91.4% of staff in the target population had at least one career development interview and 96.5% attended a performance review meeting.

Targets:

• By 2030, achieve a skills maturity index score of 70% or more, reflecting a high degree of alignment between employee skills and the Group’s business needs.
• Increase the number of in-house training programmes (academies) to 35 by the end of 2025 and 40 by 2030.

Developing and rewarding talent

Against a constantly changing economic and technological backdrop, investing in the development of talent brings major challenges in terms of employability and professional fulfilment. Giving each employee the opportunity to benefit from a constantly evolving training offer as well as rich and diversified career paths is at the heart of our commitment.

Thales also employs a global and responsible compensation policy that gives employees a stake in the Group’s results and rewards their efforts and commitment.

The Group’s employment policy has always been characterised by the desire to create long term jobs and limit the use of short-term contracts (fixed term contracts and temporary staff).

Thales, a learning company

The Group aspires to become a learning company in which skills are managed at a central level. 

We are working to develop the skills that are necessary for our growth by giving our employees opportunities for continuous learning. We apply a dynamic, forward-looking approach to skills management for the 18 identified job categories within the Group.

We employ diverse training and learning methods that align with our operational needs and imperatives, including: 

• In-house training programmes (academies) geared towards developing staff know-how and critical competencies;
• A global community of over 1,800 in-house trainers supporting performance-improvement and change-management projects as well as local technical initiatives - by tapping into in-house expertise in this way, the Group fosters a culture of peer-to-peer learning, interaction and knowledgesharing;
• Simulation and virtual reality systems;
• On-the-job learning initiatives and activities

We also run awareness campaigns on subjects such as digital transformation and diversity and inclusion as a way to foster a common, Group-wide culture.

At end-December 2024, there were 31 academies in place in the different functions and areas of expertise, and 90% of Thales employees had taken part in training or other skills development activities.

Professional support for employees

Managers sit down for “check-in” meetings with staff to discuss their career, mobility and skills-development aspirations, track their personal progression, and review their performance and career development trajectory. These meetings provide an opportunity for line managers to meet with each employee several times a year, and can be initiated by either one of them. 

In 2024, 91.4% of staff in the target population had at least one career development interview and 96.5% attended a performance review meeting.

A compensation policy that rewards performance

Thales’s compensation policy is designed to reward individual performance and share the value created by the Group, with a strong focus on employee savings and share ownership. 

We offer attractive, competitively positioned compensation: in all our countries of operation, employees receive a base salary that, in the majority of cases, is above the statutory minimum wage.

Over 60% of employees receive variable compensation contingent on the attainment of both individual objectives and the Group's financial and CSR targets (15% of this amount is contingent on meeting CSR targets).

We also operate long-term loyalty programmes for technicians, engineers, managers, senior executives and other employee populations, with payouts spread over two to four years. 

Employee savings schemes are another key enabler of staff engagement at Thales: all employees in France have the option to participate in a Group savings plan (€483 million in assets, excluding employee share ownership) and a collective retirement savings plan (€780 million in assets).

Download our latest Universal Registration Document for more information about our training and skills development policies