Throughout its 40 years, Thorne has never settled for “good enough.” This standard does not apply solely to our products – it applies directly to our culture, our core values, and those who exemplify them: our people. We continue to strive for better, from our science-backed formulations and quality ingredients and, more importantly, to recruiting, hiring, and retaining our people and culture.

I’m Jessica Carter, Senior Human Resources Manager at Thorne. My role generally focuses on the broad spectrum of employee relations, and I find I take the most pride in developing efforts to make Thorne’s employees proud to be part of Thorne’s tradition of being experts in personalized, scientific wellness.

At Thorne, our people are our most important investment. Thorne moved its headquarters to Summerville, South Carolina, in 2018 with a little more than 100 employees. Since then, we have grown to more than 700 employees – each one trained in quality best practices to carry out the talented, rigorous work required to make high-quality nutritional supplements. Our immense growth as a company has been possible through our employee engagement, our ability to retain experienced talent, and innovative hiring practices that have created the foundation for the inclusive workforce we have today at all of Thorne’s places of work nationwide.

It takes dedicated employees who require years of training and specialized expertise to collectively run our state-of-the-art campus and laboratories where we manufacture and test our supplements. We continue to develop more and innovative ways to invest in our employees’ training and development, well-being, and overall happiness in working for Thorne.

How do we do it? 

We invest in our employees’ lives both in and out of the workplace.

Thorne invests in multiple initiatives that are designed to help employees build a long-term career at Thorne as well as cultivate a healthy work-life balance. Those strategies include investing in employee’s health through a monthly supplement stipend, gym membership reimbursement, onsite wellness classes, individualized wellness consultations, and community engagement events and volunteer programs.

Thorne’s commitment to our employees begins before Day 1.

As soon as a job candidate walks through the door to interview for a position, Thorne’s promise of quality without compromise is immediately evident. From our incredibly clean buildings to the meticulous steps for every process in every department, Thorne demonstrates unparalleled quality, and we do our best to showcase this standard not only when an employee starts with us, but in every part of the interview process.

I experienced this firsthand when I applied to join Thorne’s team. After working for my previous employer for almost 10 years, I was ready for a change of pace. After searching for jobs throughout the Lowcountry for opportunities that fit my skillset, I found an opening at Thorne on LinkedIn. When I was invited for an interview, what attracted me most was the healthy employee culture and the phenomenal growth the company has carried out. To me, it felt like a fresh start on my career.

For every member of Thorne’s team, after a successful interview and an invitation for new employee orientation, that first day on Thorne’s campus highlights the incredible standards we abide by that set us apart from our competitors.

The Thorne training difference

We have rigorous training standards for all employees. Collectively, Thorne employees have received more than 65,000 hours of training on current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP), such as gowning and hygiene practices, quality control, and many more – and that number will continue to grow as we grow our workforce.

Our standards are exemplified by the extensive training process for employees at our manufacturing campus in Summerville, South Carolina. Because of the complexities of our quality manufacturing processes, we require each employee to complete thorough on-the-job training with certified instructors. On average, a new employee receives about nine months of instruction to become fully qualified in his or her respective manufacturing job.

We also employ full-time Learning and Development staff to deliver robust functional training and professional certification through a catalog of programs designed to promote career progression.

Thorne’s Learning and Development team not only focuses on big ticket training opportunities like Six Sigma Green Belt training, but also focuses on creating day-to-day training opportunities to allow employees to take ownership in their own development. Our ongoing emphasis on development and career growth delivers functional certifications, promotions, and salary increases, to support the upward mobility of our employees within Thorne.

Building a strong community

Thorne invests in more than just standard Human Resource initiatives when it comes to extra-curricular opportunities for employees. We are always developing new and innovative ways to engage with them to understand what’s working for them and what’s not. To support these efforts, we’ve created several groups within Thorne that help to promote employee health and wellness on a daily basis.

Thorne United, an interdepartmental and cross-cultural team of employees from every Thorne workplace across the country, arranges in-office social events and volunteer events for employees.

Thorne Thrive, our corporate wellness initiative, organizes activities to help employees discover a healthy body and healthy mind.

Thorne’s Green Team, our environmental work group, develops eco-friendly programs to educate and involve employees in environmentally responsible operations.

To support these teams and their initiatives, Thorne’s Human Resources department steps in to arrange employee engagement events like onsite picnics or trips to local hockey games. (Go, South Carolina Stingrays!)

Employees of all levels have opportunities to get involved in an activity at any given time because of the multiple efforts of these key organizations within the company.

We have developed and implemented a lot of great programs, but honestly my proudest moments are when that employee who was previously struggling comes back to me and says I truly made a difference in helping them with whatever issue they were experiencing. To me those are the greatest success stories. Through our commitment to hiring and retaining the right people for the right jobs – and giving our employees the right tools and resources to perform their duties and develop themselves professionally – Thorne continues to be a great place to work and build a long-lasting career.