Charles River is made up of thousands of difference makers across the globe, inspired by our purpose, always curious, learning and growing and dedicated to delivering the highest quality outcomes to our colleagues, communities, clients, and the animals and patients we work to help each day. Together, we create healthier lives.

Seizing Opportunities for Learning & Development

Charles River is a place where you can learn something new every day and where you will be energized by working with the collective brainpower to create a better way. You will share your ideas and knowledge, feel heard, and valued.

Your journey begins with an impactful cultural (purpose, values) and foundational (systems, tools, processes) onboarding program. You will explore and develop your potential through on-the-job projects and experience a range of formal and informal learning opportunities, offered in multiple languages that span technical training, personal, and professional development.

We also build strong partnerships with schools—from high school to graduate-level university programs—to provide access to internships, apprenticeships, and tuition reimbursement. You can also take a sabbatical to further your career development by giving back to a community or acquiring a new skill.

We continuously develop our People Leaders through local and global learning opportunities:   

  • People Leader Power Hours
  • growing online resource portal
  •  expanded projects and assignments
  • mentoring and coaching
  • catalogue of professional development courses

 

Leaders are expected to build a culture of coaching and feedback as well as an inclusive workplace that leverages diverse perspectives, fosters inclusion, and creates belonging.

Always curious, always learning; at Charles River we are better because we grow together. 

Talent Reviews, Development Planning and Performance Feedback

To attract and retain talent, we know that providing continuous feedback and opportunities for skill-building and career advancement are critical to our employees and our company’s success.  Our Talent Management approach is highly collaborative, encourages ownership, and provides the opportunity for everyone to contribute and develop through regular performance conversations and feedback, annual goal setting, and development planning.

Additionally, we conduct regular talent reviews to identify and develop diverse leadership and key talent pipelines to deliver on short and long-term business strategy.

Employee Engagement

Charles River is a place where we can learn something new every day. A large part of learning comes from effective listening. As an organization, we evolved our Engagement Surveys to more frequent, shorter Engagement Pulse Surveys. These Engagement Pulse Surveys serve as a foundation for more meaningful conversations and actions between our people and people leaders to continue making Charles River a best place to work, learn and grow.

By making our voices heard, we collectively focus on what matters most—and by collaborating on driving meaningful positive change we become better together.

Employee Wellbeing

At Charles River our employees’ wellbeing is critical to our success. We seek to create a culture of wellbeing through our Emotional Health and Wellbeing Employee Resource Group, our internal Yammer channel to share tips and engage in meaningful discussion about wellbeing, and through our monthly Mindful Monday wellbeing newsletter.

Our employee wellbeing strategy focuses on five key pillars:

  • Career
    • Having a fulfilling career built on strengths, supported by Charles River through our annual goal setting, assessment and development plans, continuous learning, mentoring, sabbaticals.
  • Emotional
    • Nurturing a healthy mind through meaningful work, comprehensive employee assistant support, leaves, and flexibility.
  • Physical
    • Supporting a healthy body through movement (virtual and site-based fitness programs) and a healthy work environment.
  • Financial
    • Achieving your financial goals through financial literacy and building wealth inclusive of a comprehensive compensation package; retirement savings and tuition reimbursement (US); recognition and employee relief awards.
  • Social
    • Supporting one another and the communities where we live and work through volunteering, global giving programs, acts of caregiving, employee resource groups, and many engagement activities.