Corporate Social Responsibility

Talent

Talent

At Thermo Fisher, we want all colleagues to achieve their full potential and career aspirations. We are committed to the development of our diverse, global workforce, enhancing their skills and knowledge to achieve current and future business objectives. Talent is the differentiator to a successful future, and we’ve instituted a range of tools, technologies, processes and programs to ensure we are attracting, cultivating and retaining our talent.

 

From our colleague referral program to our Graduate Leadership Development Program, we continue to build strong internal and external sourcing. Talent Development at Thermo Fisher is an organizational capability; that is, we actively manage our talent through deliberate, intentional rotations. Our executives and leaders participate in frequent discussions around organizational talent, leveraging workforce data and predictive analytics to better anticipate the needs of our business based on growth and market demand.

Talent attraction and acquisition

Welcoming new colleagues

First impressions count. Thermo Fisher actively evolves our onboarding approach as we strive to continuously elevate each new colleague’s experience. The New Colleague Onboarding program is designed to create a sense of belonging, instill both confidence and competence in our new colleagues as they move into their new roles, and align them with our Mission. This begins with a series of easy to-navigate tasks and checklists during our candidate pre-hire experience that seamlessly transition into an interactive and engaging onboarding journey spanning their first 90 days. 
 

Managers are critical to this new colleague experience and are supported with a series of resources and action items, including the development of customized 90-day onboarding plans and an automated process for assigning new colleague ambassadors, which help create a sense of belonging from day one. By equipping our new colleagues with the tools they need to be successful in their roles and connecting them to our values and Mission, we create the environment for them to begin building their Thermo Fisher careers.

Our colleagues are our first source for talent, and we work to ensure we maximize their growth potential. Employees are encouraged to develop their careers through various programs and learning and development curricula. This focus on development provides the opportunity for colleagues to advance internally to the next phase of a career or chart a new career path. Knowing our employees are ambassadors of our company, we look to them to refer great talent since they are familiar with our culture and drive to achieve. Our colleagues are rewarded for a successful referral and placement lasting at least six months.

To ensure we are attracting talent from diverse candidate pools, we partner with organizations representing various heritage and identity groups to source candidates, and work with our D&I team to ensure our colleagues are set up for success once they join. We know our employees’ overall and familial wellbeing is a key attractor, and our investment in them is reflected, in part, in our Total Rewards offerings. 

Attracting diverse talent

Our inclusive culture values the power of diverse talent, backgrounds and experiences. We embrace the unique qualities of each of our colleagues, providing them with the freedom and support to enable cutting-edge thinking that results in successful business outcomes for our customers.

 

To ensure we are attracting talent from diverse candidate pools, we have a dedicated team that specializes in diverse recruiting, verifying that our job advertising is inclusive and removes unconscious bias. We also have partnered with organizations that represent various heritage and identity groups to streamline our diverse recruiting strategy. Our partners include renowned organizations such as the National Society for Black Engineers (NSBE) as a Board of Corporate Affiliates (BCA) partner, Society of Women Engineers (SWE), Society of Hispanic Engineers (SHPE), Out in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (oSTEM), and National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) at the national and local levels.

 

Our talent acquisition leaders ensure we focus on building deeper relationships with diversity-focused organizations to foster understanding and sustained relationships that maximize results over time. In recruiting top talent from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, we actively target a broad range of experience levels, including recent graduates, mid-level managers and senior executives. Once onboarded, our new colleagues are supported by resources and long-term networks that ensure they are set up for success.

The Just Project

The Just Project was conceived as a humanitarian response to a public health crisis, but it was built with a holistic approach that has strengthened our HBCU partnerships and will create long-lasting impact for the communities they serve. While enabling students to safely return to normal campus life, our newly established labs can also support future research programs, provide training to develop more scientists of color, and enable work to address health disparities in the Black community. This has allowed us to newly align our talent pipeline strategies such that Thermo Fisher will hire at least 500 alumni from these institutions through 2023. Supporting HBCUs is part of our commitment to address inequalities through our business, community outreach and hiring practices.

 

Quotation marks
"A successful organization is diverse. HBCUs play an important role in closing the achievement gap and in consistently training talented professionals who are invaluable to companies like ours seeking to attract top talent and build a more inclusive workplace.”
Fred Lowery
Senior Vice President and President, Customer Channels at Thermo Fisher Scientific

HBCU partnerships

The Just Project has a long-term strategic goal of building lasting relationships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), establishing Thermo Fisher Scientific as an employer of choice among HBCU graduates.  Our team manages a calendar of in person and virtual events aimed at connecting with HBCU graduates and helping them navigate the breadth of opportunities at Thermo Fisher to grow their careers and make an impact in the world.   

 

Our team regularly attends events sponsored by national and international organizations like, the National Society of Black Engineers and the National Black MBA Association along with many others. We also sponsor events on campus at member HBCUs.

 

Find an event near you >

Learn more about job opportunities >

Learn more about the impact of the Just Project here >

Our talent is a key differentiator. Thermo Fisher is dedicated to retaining and growing our talent to meet our business needs of the future and to provide our colleagues with the opportunity to have a long and successful career here. Every employee is driven to achieve, and it’s our responsibility to invest in their potential. We consider a multi-tactic approach to development, including formal and self-paced training, networking opportunities, on-the-job stretch learning, strategic and data-driven talent management, coaching, mentoring, and manager development.

New hire onboarding

The first major task for our new hires is to complete the onboarding process, which can be daunting to navigate as they learn Thermo Fisher’s terminology, organizational structure and information systems. Through our newly deployed Colleagues Service Center, our new colleagues are provided visibility to the end-to- end onboarding process to track progress, with automated tasks and checklists, centralized information storage and a user-friendly single sign-on process.

Performance management

Collaboration between an employee and their manager is the best formula for ensuring strong performance and development growth. To equip our managers and employees with the tools for success, we support an annual performance management development (PMD) process with checkpoints throughout the year and encourage ongoing dialogue between checkpoints. The PMD process is available to all employees and ensures employee and manager alignment on measurable targets, resulting in tangible progress that can be reviewed at year-end, providing information for rewards such as compensation and long-term incentive decisions. Regular discussions throughout the year ensures our colleagues are clear on their priorities and provides more opportunities for individual development to help them reach their full potential and achieve their career aspirations.

Career development tools

Ongoing employee development is critical to our success as a company. We ensure that our colleagues can develop their skills and achieve career objectives through a variety of tactics, including on-the-job and formal learning.

 

Whether improving a specific professional skill such as influence or negotiation, or honing a management or leadership skill necessary to guide a team and enable their development, we offer a mix of self-service and on-demand programming in partnership with formal learning opportunities. Our investment in our colleagues deepens our high-quality internal talent pool and enables our colleagues to advance. Our global mobility benefits further support our colleagues who are ready for a new career chapter. By focusing on internal talent, we also enable a deeper understanding of the business and areas where we most need targeted skills development.

 

Additional training is available to, and in many cases mandatory for, all colleagues on specific topics such as Practical Process Improvement (PPI), diversity and inclusion, ethics and anti-bribery, our EHS management system and our quality management system.

Leadership development

Our full-time, multi-year rotational programs, some of which have been offered for more than 20 years, are a way for individuals entering the

workforce to gain unique and dynamic work experiences supporting critical functions, such as product engineering, operations, quality assurance, regulatory affairs, IT, data science, HR and finance. Alumni of the program have held a variety of roles across the company, including as division presidents and members of the Company Leadership Team.

 

Associate talent

Developing our associate talent pipeline is another critical focus area. We have deployed talent plans across North America to strengthen the end-to-end colleague lifecycle for our associate colleagues and their managers. These plans drive greater engagement and improvements in the total colleague experience, including recruiting, onboarding, job readiness, developing capabilities, building high-performing teams, optimizing the work environment and workforce planning. Through the implementation of these talent roadmaps, with a particular focus on our colleagues during their first year, we have successfully reduced colleague turnover and improved engagement at our manufacturing and distribution facilities.

 

Supporting talent mobility

Providing our colleagues with a variety of work experiences is one of the most effective ways to help them build rewarding careers while contributing to our Mission. We actively manage our talent through rotations across our businesses, functions and geographies to provide new experiences and to enable colleagues to share knowledge and broaden their skills. Talent mobility is also a key component of our continuous succession planning process, which leverages workforce data and predictive analytics to establish meaningful career experiences for colleagues while building long-term benefit for the company.

 

We have an improved MyCareer platform, which provides access to career development resources, peer-to-peer networking, and suggested reading. The site supplements the already robust offerings of Thermo Fisher University to support our colleagues and managers in career development and planning.

 

The enhanced MyCareer experience showcases our internal job site, with features and navigation to more easily find global opportunities and development resources tailored to each individual. The site also allows an internal candidate to:

 

  • Assess their own profile against a job’s requirements
  • Connect to Thermo Fisher University to build additional skills required
  • Feature skills on their individual talent profile which is visible to hiring managers
  • Network with peers who have the skills and capabilities a candidate is interested in gaining
  • Access our dynamic Careers in Motion learning content within Thermo Fisher University

 

University internship program

At Thermo Fisher, we know it’s critical to gain experience and exposure prior to and after graduating, which is why we invest in meaningful internship programs to create additional opportunities for students who will develop into the next generation of scientists, engineers and business leaders.

 

Our University internship program provides “in-role” experience – an important part of cultivating the skills interns need to fully and effectively transition into the workplace from their focused academic endeavors. We offer internships across various areas of the business to help students create career paths that align with their interests and aspirations.

We fuel our growth strategy with integrated, differentiated talent solutions that promote a diverse workforce and elevate the colleague experience across the talent life cycle. Our talent management strategy is anchored by our core performance and succession planning processes, which are complemented by deliberate job rotations as well as formal and informal development opportunities.

 

University internship program

At Thermo Fisher, we know it’s critical to gain experience and exposure prior to and after graduating, which is why we invest in meaningful internship programs, support education through scholarships and create additional opportunities for students who will develop into the next generation of scientists, engineers and business leaders.

 

Our University internship program provides “in-role” experience – an important part of cultivating the skills interns need to fully and effectively transition into the workplace from their focused academic endeavors. We offer internships across various areas of the business to help students create career paths that align with their interests and aspirations.

 

Leadership development programs

To create our pipeline of talent who will be the next generation of business leaders, we offer leadership development programs for new graduates determined to accelerate their careers with robust, on-the-job learning opportunities, mentorship and structured learning plans. Learn more on the Thermo Fisher careers website.

University of California-San Diego (UC San Diego)

In partnership with UC San Diego, we have embarked on a 10-year strategic collaboration designed to accelerate research and technology innovation, cultivate diverse talent, and meet ambitious sustainability objectives. Thermo Fisher and UC San Diego’s partnership goals include creating a collaborative research framework to drive innovation in emerging scientific fields, engaging current colleagues in the program, while also developing a pipeline for underrepresented talent in STEM disciplines.

 

Laboratory Plastics Essentials Training

Thermo Fisher’s Laboratory Products business collaborates with community colleges, vocational schools, and universities globally. Our laboratory plastics essentials program is co-developed and delivered in partnership with institutions that neighbor our sites in Mexico, Finland, and beyond. Through this technical training program, current Thermo Fisher colleagues as well as local vocational students learn to operate heavy equipment while also developing manufacturing skills, such as molding and plastic injection techniques. Often dividing their time between Thermo Fisher sites and classroom learning, participants can more seamlessly transition into permanent roles within the company.

Biotechnology Research and Technology Training

Our Thermo Fisher site in St. Louis, Missouri has a strong partnership with the local community college. Together, we developed the Biotechnology Research and Technology Training (BRaTT) program, which has been honored as Saint Louis Community College’s (STLCC's) Innovation of the Year. The program is now hosted in-house at Thermo Fisher and provides comprehensive training on the biomanufacturing process, good laboratory practices, and quality assurance to our colleagues. Targeted at new hires, BRaTT equips participants—often new to the field—with the skills necessary to excel in a biological production environment.

 

Engineering Co-Op Program

For more than 20 years, our Engineering Co-Op Program has provided undergraduate students from local universities with practical experience through rotational positions within Thermo Fisher. Our Cincinnati, Ohio site has partnered with several local universities to recruit undergraduate engineering students into the program. With substantial opportunities for hands-on experience in their respective fields, graduates of the program have been successfully integrated into full-time roles across our engineering, operations, and quality teams.

Ireland Apprenticeship Program

Our apprenticeship program in Cork, Ireland offers rewarding career opportunities through a unique partnership with Solas, an education and training agency dedicated to developing a world-class workforce for Ireland’s future. Our four-year program encourages exploration of various facets of our company's operations in fields such as electrical and instrumentation, mechanical, and analytical development. Apprentices gain hands-on experience working alongside seasoned professionals at Thermo Fisher, with continuous support throughout their learning journey. 

Back to top