LVMH Highlights Recruitment Drive As Vacancies Reach Record Levels
● The world's biggest luxury group is looking to fill 2,000 positions by the end of the year amid a shortage of skilled workers.
LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton is hiring.
While that may be a given for the world's largest luxury group, vacancies are peaking amid a shortage of skilled workers, Chantal Gaemperle, executive vice president of human resources and synergies at LVMH, said at an event highlighting the company's recruitment efforts during the last 12 months.
“We have to prepare for the future now, and it's all the more crucial as it is difficult to find talent and we have very substantial needs,” she told employees gathered at LVMH headquarters on Avenue Montaigne in Paris for the screening of a short film based on the story of Lucie Faucher, an apprentice seamstress at Givenchy.
“We have a record number of vacancies this year. We have 2,000 left to fill by the end of the year and we need leather goods workers, jewelers, watchmakers and sales associates, as well as hotel and restaurant workers. And if we project ourselves a little further out to 2024, we're talking about 30,000 positions to be filled to ensure continuity,” she added.
Underlining the importance of the issue, LVMH chairman and chief executive officer Bernard Arnault attended the screening of the documentary, titled “Métiers d'Excellence, le cercle vertueux,” or “Métiers d'Excellence, the Virtuous Circle.” The group, which owns brands including Louis Vuitton, Dior and Guerlain, plans to broadcast a trailer for the film on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter on Wednesday.
Alexandre Boquel, head of development for LVMH's Métiers d'Excellence division, said the group has ramped up efforts to source new talents, including a recruitment tour in five French cities and school programs targeting 1,600 students under the age of 14. “It's been a crazy year with a single obsession: transmitting knowhow,” he said.
LVMH plans to ramp up the intake at its Institut des Métiers d'Excellence, which has trained some 1,400 people in France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Germany and
Japan since it was founded in 2014. This fall, 450 apprentices will join the program, which is expanding for the first time to the U.S. with jeweler Tiffany & Co.
Boquel invited Faucher, who is combining her apprenticeship at Givenchy with vocational studies at the Institut Français de la Mode, on stage to detail her experience. The trainee seamstress revealed she applied for the position by sewing a jacket and embroidering her CV on the lining.
To underline the potential of a career in craftsmanship, Boquel highlighted the fact that Jacqueline Smeyers-Picot, the head of the flou division at Dior's haute couture workshop, this year won the prestigious National Order of Merit for her services to the fashion industry.