Case Study: Strengthening Career Development to Accelerate Growth and Opportunity at Charles River

Key Takeaways

• Charles River has taken a deliberate, long-term approach to career development, positioning it as a core element of its broader people and culture strategy.
• Strong alignment across Global Talent Management and Development, HR, and leadership has enabled consistent messaging and integration across the employee experience.
• A clear strategic foundation has allowed tools and priorities to evolve without losing direction.
• Shared frameworks, common language, and visible leadership advocacy have supported a shift towards greater career ownership and equity.
• Partnership with The Career Innovation Company has provided continuity, focus, and external perspective.
• A sustained focus on practicality and usability acknowledges that building career capability takes time in a complex, global organisation.

Context and Challenge

Operating across multiple geographies and disciplines, Charles River recognised career development as both a significant opportunity and a complex challenge. While leadership commitment to employee growth was clear, employee feedback highlighted persistent gaps:

• Career resources existed but felt fragmented and difficult to navigate.
• Employees had limited visibility into opportunities beyond their immediate teams or function.
• Managers and HR partners sought clearer guidance to support career conversations.
• Development offerings were valued yet underutilised.
• The company was sometimes perceived as a stepping stone rather than a long-term career destination.

Geographic inconsistencies in awareness and access further reinforced the need for a more equitable and connected approach. At the same time, evolving business needs, budget considerations, and upcoming technology changes required a strategy that could adapt without losing momentum.

Addressing these challenges also surfaced broader needs around role clarity, skills visibility, and internal mobility requiring a sustained, capability-building approach rather than relying on short-term solutions.

Action Taken

Beginning in 2021–2022, Charles River partnered with The Career Innovation Company to design and embed a sustainable, scalable career strategy aligned to organisational values and business priorities.

Rather than launching stand-alone initiatives, career development was positioned as an ongoing, integrated journey, embedded within existing talent practices and focused on enabling meaningful career conversations and confident decision making.

Establishing Strong Strategic Foundations

Career development was anchored to company values of Care, Lead, Own and Collaborate, and framed as a shared responsibility across Talent Development, HR, managers, and employees.

Early stakeholder engagement and a “test and learn” approach helped shape a strategy that could evolve over time while maintaining a clear and consistent direction.

The early investment continues to serve as a steady reference point, supporting learning, refinement and adaptation as organisational needs and capabilities develop over time.

Creating Clarity and Visibility

A centralized career development site and toolkit brought resources together in one accessible place, reducing fragmentation and improving navigation, with a strong emphasis on simplicity and usability. These resources support exploration and informed conversations rather than defining fixed pathways.

A Career Navigator was piloted with a priority talent segment as part of a talent strategy initiative, illustrating career streams and functions, supported by role snapshots and brought to life with example career stories.

Additional tools included:

• Defined career scenarios and pathways
• Practical suggestions for development planning
• Clear articulation of career types and journeys

Enabling Career Ownership

The Career Innovation Company’s 7 Career Skills were incorporated across the career development resources, framed internally around the employer brand message: “This is your moment.” This reinforced that career growth applies to all employees, regardless of role or career path.

Internal career stories, now also leveraged externally, helped normalise diverse career journeys and challenge traditional notions of linear progression.

Driving Engagement at Scale

To build momentum and awareness:

• Career Months were delivered over three consecutive years, including multilingual webinars and curated learning resources.
• A dedicated e-learning programme, Own Your Career, supported skill-building.
• Employee Resource Groups, with more than 4,000 members, played an active role in fostering development and connection.

Career development was also intentionally linked to wellbeing, performance and purpose, reinforcing its role as a core organisational priority.

At the same time, emphasis was placed on improving the consistency and quality of career conversations between managers and employees, particularly during key performance moments, helping shift toward a more growth-oriented, continuous dialogue.

Aligning with Business Strategy

Career development has increasingly acted as a gateway to broader workforce and talent priorities, supporting improved role clarity, skills alignment, and organisational agility.

Outcomes

• Greater coherence and alignment: Career development is now more embedded across HR and talent practices, with clearer and more consistent messaging.
• Improved visibility and equity: Employees have greater access to transparent career pathways across functions and geographies, helping broaden awareness of opportunities and support more equitable access to development.
• Stronger culture of career ownership: Shared language and leadership advocacy are driving a shift toward proactive career management.
• Sustained strategic focus: The early investment in a well-defined career strategy has provided enduring clarity and alignment, acting as a compass, as tools, priorities, and technologies continue to evolve.
• Foundations established: A consistent focus on clarity and usability has laid the groundwork for stronger development plans, better career conversations, and future talent and capability initiatives, with early signs of more consistent conversations across the organisation.
• Platform for future scale: As opportunities continue to emerge to integrate technology, strengthen the internal coaching network, and further enable managers, Charles River is well positioned to build on its progress and scale impact over time.

Shaping What Comes Next

Looking ahead, Charles River will continue strengthening career development, ensuring employees can clearly see future possibilities and feel empowered to pursue them, while exploring AI-enabled tools to enhance career support at scale.

By fostering clarity, confidence, and curiosity, the organisation is creating the conditions for meaningful growth while enhancing its ability to adapt and evolve. Technologies and workforce needs continue to evolve, Charles River will continue building on this foundation to expand opportunity, strengthen capability, and support long-term success for both employees and the business.