Case study
Thorn SDS has a subsidiary business in Germany that provides highly technical support services into the Space sector, at both the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Meteorological Satellite Agency (EUMETSAT). Over the past decade we have successfully managed a 24×7 ground station control centre, ground station scheduling facility, voice and communications technical services, simulations activities, spacecraft operations engineering, system operations engineering and technical training programmes. This is a highly competitive space with many established companies offering services.
The key to being a success relies on our ability to recruit the best staff for the available positions and then ensuring that the culture of the wider team match the culture and aspirations of the business. Working for a small business is quite different to navigating the complex and often matrixed layer of management in a larger organisation.
We recently sourced and secured a highly specialised spacecraft operations engineer for our service team at EUMETSAT. Our knowledge of the spacecraft development programme for a particular satellite, our understanding of where elements were combined, where testing was being planned and carried out enabled us to target and identify appropriately skilled expert staff.
Once we have recruited a new team member, we fully support them with their relocation to Germany and preparatory activities for the role. In this (current) example we are managing pre-flight Covid-19 testing, flights, car hire, quarantine, provisions shopping, further testing, advance training needs and we are also supporting with local registrations and flat searches.
This is normal for Thorn – we understand that people are our main asset; we take their recruitment seriously and their well-being and retention even more seriously!