Human Relations in the era of digital acceleration

With lockdown periods rolled out by governments in many countries to combat the spread of Covid-19, remote working skyrocketed at all Group subsidiaries, and training accelerated faster than ever before.  

Thanks to the digital transformation L’Oréal began 10 years ago, the groundwork had been laid to enable the Group to rapidly adapt to remote working and provide employees with an optimal work environment. L’Oréal built this momentum in 2015 by setting up an Employee Experience team as part of the Share & Care programme, with satellites in each Zone, to further improve quality of life in the workplace. This existing emphasis on tech was complemented by IT Days campaigns to make employees around the globe aware of the new information technologies available to them, familiarise them with the cloud, and introduce mobility solutions. These campaigns also helped employees successfully adopt the new collaborative platform, Microsoft Teams, rolled out by the Group in 2018 and currently used by 67,000 employees. During the first wave of lockdowns, when teleworking was the norm, L’Oréal was able to quickly roll out remote working for 55,000 employees and ensure optimal safety for all. 

Drawing on its digital expertise, L’Oréal quickly and successfully made the transition to e-recruitment. As part of this initiative, it rolled out an innovative, structured programme designed to preserve the Group’s ability to welcome interns. This new approach maintains a balance between remote and on-site working when the public health situation permits. It also enhances the Group’s appeal to a wider group of candidates. L’Oréal hired several hundred e-interns in France, Asia Pacific and Latin America.

L’Oréal’s Brandstorm innovation competition was also completely revamped, with national and international finals organised online and remotely. The new format proved particularly appealing, recording the highest ever participation levels since the competition’s launch. Every year, candidates have access to online training content to acquire and develop new skills.

A series of online e-conference workshops led by L’Oréal executives attracted between 800 and 1,100 participants per session, reaching students at universities in several countries. 

This year's challenges led to a completely new approach to training. More than ever before, training was designed to support the Group’s employees and help them grow, in particular by developing new learning methods in line with the public health situation, such as webinars, virtual classes, and a broader online offering with the launch of the global digital campaign, “Learning Never Stops”. Following a successful roll-out in China, the campaign went global, reaching over 50,000 learners. 

By offering and leading weekly coaching sessions on themes such as teleworking, managing teams and customer relations remotely, stress management, and e-commerce, training supported every employee’s ability to adapt and learn—all while cultivating a corporate culture of learning.  

Thanks to all of these initiatives and the mobilisation of Learning teams worldwide, every single Group employee received training in 2020, for the first time in L’Oréal history.