Jean-Claude Le Grand,
Senior Vice-President Talent Development, L’Oréal worldwide
Digital marketing roles - which have doubled in demand over the past 3 years - increasingly, require data, analytical and technical skills. CMOs and hiring managers are challenged with even understanding the actual competencies of their teams, and marketers with benchmarking themselves against the market needs. As such, it’s vital to have transparency into the competencies of both potential candidates and current employees. To meet the staggering need, L’Oréal and General Assembly today announced the launch of the “Digital Marketing Level 1” (DM1), an industry built assessment to help individuals and employers have better transparency into digital marketing skillsets. 4,000 employees at L’Oréal have taken DM1 and now L’Oréal is also using DM1 to identify future employees, as 500 L’Oréal candidates have taken DM1 during their recruitment process over the past 3 months. DM1 assesses six key areas of digital marketing: digital advertising, engagement marketing, content marketing, mobile marketing, social media and multichannel marketing. The 45 minute online assessment tests foundational skills from setting objectives to optimizing campaigns, using questions based on real world case studies. Understanding the competencies of teams can guide priorities in training, identify individual learning paths for training and development as well as measure improvement post-training. In practice, L’Oréal employees across 60 countries will benefit from personalized training programs based on their competencies. “The idea of creating a “GMAT for digital marketing” was brought to us by Vincent Balusseau, Associate professor of marketing at Audencia Business School and expert in the digital sphere. It came to life thanks to the partnership with General Assembly, with whom we have cocreated DM1,” says Jean-Claude Le Grand, Senior Vice-President Talent Development, L’Oréal worldwide. “As a company recognized for its marketing expertise, it was key for us to accompany the deep transformation of marketing in the digital era by offering our employees and candidates the opportunity to benchmark themselves against the best marketers worldwide.” Additionally, hundreds of job
candidates have already taken DM1 as part of their recruitment process. L’Oréal is now using the assessment as a tool to consider an even larger, more diverse set of candidate profiles. DM1 is now available for broad use but has already been used in practice by dozens of companies and over 10,000 individuals around the world following thorough testing to verify that the most relevant competencies are assessed and that scores reflect actual skills possessed. The industrybuilt assessments were the result of collaboration with several companies including L’Oréal, Google, Bonobos, UM, and Priceline. L’Oréal is the 1st company to leverage DM1 on a global scale. “At General Assembly, we are focused on confronting the 21st century skills gap and part of that is addressing the need for both candidates and employers to have an unbiased way to evaluate skills. It is incredibly important for us to start with leading companies along with industry research to understand the current demand and needs for digital marketing skills and L’Oréal ensured that we are testing relevant skills in authentic ways,” said Jake Schwartz, General Assembly CEO.“General Assembly’s hope is to accelerate the use of skills-based hiring in the technology sector. We see a future where education to employment is about the skills you demonstrate, not where you’ve been." DM1 is part of a suite of assessments offered by General Assembly Credentials that help individuals demonstrate their skills and help employers assess, diagnose, train and reassess talent – ultimately helping drive performance in today’s skillsbased economy.
L’oréal Receives Equileap’s Award for Gender Equality
L’Oréal received Equileap’s award for Gender Equality to honor its number 1 position in Equileap's 2017 Global Gender Equality Ranking, among over 3 000 companies in 23 countries based on 19 gender equality criteria. Jean-Claude Le Grand, L’Oréal Senior VP Talent Development and Chief Diversity Officer, received the award at a ceremony held in Amsterdam. Jean-Claude Le Grand, said: “This recognition makes us very proud. It is the result of over 10 years of continuous efforts and a firm conviction that gender equality is a strategic lever to increase wellbeing at work, fuel creativity and innovation, and boost performance and growth. Being recognized as the champion of gender equality among over 3000 companies worldwide is a great honor and an encouragement to go further.” Diana van Maasdijk, Co-Founder and CEO of Equileap, said: “Gender diversity is not only the right thing to do, it is also the smart thing to do, with a significant number of research papers indicating that it tends to lead to higher returns and lower risk. Today, Equileap honors L’Oréal with an award as the number one company in its gender equality ranking. I hope that this recognition encourages L’Oréal and other companies to go further to speed up the achievements of gender equality worldwide.” In the L’Oréal Group, women represent 62% of executives, 33% of the Executive Committee members and 46% of the members of the Board of Directors; 58% of L’Oréal brands are managed by women (as of 31/12/2016). The L’Oréal Group has a longstanding commitment to workplace gender equality, and aims to ensure equal job classifications and pay for equal skills. In France, where L’Oréal has worked with the French national institute for demographic studies (INED) to analyse the pay gap since 2007, the gender-based pay gap on a like-for-like basis was equal to 3.21% in 2015 for management and non-existent for other categories of employees. In recognition of its progress on 63
workplace gender equality, L’Oréal has received the GEEIS (Gender Equality European and International Standard) certification in 23 countries and the EDGE (The Global Business Certification Standard for Gender Equality) certifications in 7 countries.
L'oréal And Natura Enter Into Exclusive Discussions Regarding The Body Shop
Following an extensive review of the strategic options for The Body Shop to ensure its best future development, L’Oréal has received a firm offer from Natura Cosméticos SA to acquire The Body Shop and has entered into exclusive discussions with Natura. The proposed transaction values The Body Shop at an enterprise value of 1.0 billion euros. Acquired by L’Oréal in 2006, The Body Shop is a British iconic brand, focusing on innovative, natureinspired products. Founded in 1976 by Anita Roddick in Brighton, England, The Body Shop has expanded into a global leader in ethical and natural beauty, with the deep-rooted belief that business can be a force for good. It is now present in more than 60 countries around the world, through various distribution channels including more than 3,000 point of sales and e-commerce. In 2016, it generated retail sales of around 1.5 billion euros and net sales of 921 million euros. “I am very pleased to announce Natura as the potential new “home” for The Body Shop. It is the best new owner we could imagine to nurture the brand DNA around naturality and ethics. Natura will support The Body Shop development in the long-term and enable The Body Shop to best serve its customers while respecting its strong commitments towards its employees, franchisees and stakeholders. I would like to thank all The Body Shop employees and partners around the world for their contribution to the development of the brand over the past eleven years and I am confident they will be in the best hands for the future”, said Jean-Paul Agon, Chairman & CEO of L’Oréal. “I am sure that all customers, employees, franchisees and stakeholders of The Body Shop will join me in welcoming L’Oréal’s decision to enter into exclusive discussions with Natura. The ethical values and expertise of Natura makes it the perfect new owner for The Body Shop to accelerate the rejuvenation of the brand and its future expansion,” said Jeremy Schwartz, Chairman & CEO of The Body Shop. The proposed transaction will be submitted to L’Oréal’s employee representative body(1) and is subject to regulatory approval notably in Brazil and in the United States. The proposed transaction is expected to close during 2017. About L'Oréal L’Oréal has devoted itself to beauty for over 100 years. With its unique international portfolio of 34 diverse and complementary brands, the Group generated sales amounting to 25.8 billion euros in 2016 and employs 89,300 people worldwide. As the world’s leading beauty company, L’Oréal is present across all distribution networks: mass market, department stores, pharmacies and drugstores, hair salons, travel retail, branded retail and e-commerce. Research and innovation, and a dedicated research team of 3,870 people, are at the core of L’Oréal’s strategy, working to meet beauty aspirations all over the world. L’Oréal’s sustainability commitment for 2020 “Sharing Beauty With All” sets out ambitious sustainable development objectives across the Group’s value chain.