Mike Thornhill: “We need to inspire future generations to want to work within renewable energy and cleantech.”

February 19th, 2017 by The Beam

The Beam interview series, edition 25: Mike Thornhill

CleanTechnica keeps on publishing some of The Beam interviews twice a week. The Beam magazine takes a modern perspective on the energy transition, interviewing inspirational people from around the world that shape our sustainable energy future.

This week, Anne-Sophie Garrigou, journalist at The Beam, interviewed Mike Thornhill, founder of Rebalance, a renewable energy recruitment company. Mike talks about the shift to renewables in a large article released in The Beam #2.

“When I arrived in Berlin, I was surprised by the attitude of people here, by the energy industry. Everything was focused towards renewable. The people I met here were very passionate about renewable energy. I quickly realised that the market here was all about renewable energy. So I went back to my superiors in London and told them that we should make the shift. So the first reason why I got into renewables was from a business point of view. I needed to make our office work. However, very quickly I became very passionate about renewables, about the environment. Since January 2016, I now have my own company Rebalance Recruitment GmbH.”

For Mike, “one of the main problems for companies that work in renewables today is the amount of time it takes to hire the right staff, to find an ‘off-the-shelf’ perfect candidate with an adequate amount of experience and expertise for a particular project. It would normally take them four to six months and we are bringing that down to one to three months.”

“We are strategic partners with every company that we work with,” Mike specifies. “We look at the issues they are having to find people, and together, we are providing them with innovative solutions on how they can attract the right amount of people, to assure that they always have the right person on the projects, on time and on budget. If you don’t have the right people on board for an offshore wind farm construction it can cost you a lot of money. We are here to make sure everything runs smoothly from a personnel perspective.”

Some profiles are more difficult to find than others. “The area which is the most difficult to find candidates is where there is a skill-gap, and where there is more demand for a certain skill-set than there is a supply for it. When there is a lot of projects being designed, then going through to construction and then going through to operation and maintenance, we help clients plan for the future by looking at strategic and proactive resource planning for all stages of the project life-cycle. Wetrack when projects are finishing, who is becoming available for work, when new projects are starting and create a smooth transition from project to project for both candidates and clients alike.”

“We are educating companies on the way they can attract people and how they can take people from other industries. For instance, if they receive an application from someone with 15 years of experience in oil and gas, they might not even look at his résumé. However, this person is probably going to be more technically experienced than someone with five years of experience in the wind industry. If you give them three to six months working with you, one could argue that they are going to be a better investment in long term due to their transferable experience.”

“We need to be rebalancing the educational system in showing that this needs to be the way forward,” explains Mike. He continues, with an emphasis on a sense of urgency: “we need to inspire future generations to want to work within renewable energy and cleantech. This needs to combine the excitement that companies like Tesla are bringing to the market and also offer well paid, secure and infinitely interesting careers for the future. Through inspiration, education and career opportunities in renewable energy we can offer current and future generations the chance to make and be a part of the real change the world needs to see.”

Read the entire interview here.

Subscribe to The Beam here.











Appreciate CleanTechnica’s originality? Consider becoming a CleanTechnica member, supporter, or ambassador — or a patron on Patreon.

Sign up for our free daily newsletter or weekly newsletter to never miss a story.

Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.

Latest Cleantech Talk Episode