As part of its commitment to preserving biodiversity, and to go beyond its efforts to reduce the impact of its value chain, L’Oréal launched the L’Oréal Fund for Nature Regeneration in 2020. This €50 million impact investment fund, managed by Mirova, is intended to simultaneously combine financial performance with the creation of environmental and social value.
By supporting projects to rehabilitate degraded soils, regenerate mangroves, and restore marine areas and forests, the L’Oréal Fund for Nature Regeneration aims to help preserve or restore one million hectares of ecosystem, to capture 15 to 20 million tonnes of CO2 and create hundreds of jobs by 2030.
Since the fund was launched, more than one hundred projects have been considered for the purposes of building the investment portfolio. Fifteen projects have been selected for further study, and investment has commenced in four projects totalling more than two million euros.
For example, in October 2021 the L’Oréal Fund for Nature Regeneration invested in The Real Wild Estates Company (RWEC). Based in the county of Somerset in the United Kingdom, this company is implementing the first major “rewilding” project led by the private sector and plans to restore 50,000 hectares of degraded habitats across the country and to create up to 1,000 direct jobs.
The mission of L’Oréal’s Human Resources Department (HR) is to support the Group’s growth and its transformation initiatives. The Group, which has always placed people at the heart of its organisation, relies on its employees above all. L’Oréal’s HR strategy is built on this double conviction: individualised management linked with collective strength.
To meet the challenges of a world that is constantly changing, which impact both the organisation and the work relationship the Group initiated a process of transformation to adjust its model to new aspirations and is implementing dedicated HR policies on recruitment, development and engagement. These policies are described in this chapter.
The Chief Human Relations Officer, who is member of the Executive Committee, reports directly to the Chief Executive Officer on a regular basis.
L’Oréal has always placed the individual at the centre of its model, convinced that the qualities of each one contribute to the performance of all. L’Oréal finds, recruits, and supports its employees with a long-term engagement vision. Training and development play a central role all along their professional careers.
In order to fully perform their function as strategic partner, Human Resources integrates the technological and digital dimensions and takes into account strong challenges such as social responsibility. The transformation of the Group towards Beauty Tech requires the recruitment of experts, the integration of new businesses and the dissemination of a digital culture at all levels of the company.
HR also plays a central role in the transformation of work methods and management culture. Thus, they supported the rollout of the Simplicity programme, initiated in 2016, to foster a management style based on trust, leaving room to initiative, cooperation and development. The programme was supported by a major training programme, Lead Enable for Simplicity and specific goals target the highest level of the Group. Since 2020, members of the Executive Committee and their Management Committees have been evaluated by their peers and their teams via the Leadership Survey.
Since 2018, L’Oréal’s HR department has adopted a brand new modus operandi. HR has become the incubator for country ideas and initiatives as an extension to and in the spirit of Simplicity. With the Disrupt HR approach, the Group prioritises co-construction and a test-and-learn approach designed to boost agility and respond more effectively to the expectations of employees and job candidates.
L’Oréal has committed to providing training to 100% of its employees every year, worldwide.
For L’Oréal, economic growth cannot be separated from social progress. To support this conviction, the L’Oréal Share & Care programme, created in 2013 and deployed in all our subsidiaries, offers employees a set of benefits organised around four pillars, which were updated in 2021: welfare schemes, healthcare, work/life balance and the working environment. In 2021, Share & Care evolved to ensure that it remains relevant and to meet employees’ needs and expectations at every key moment of their lives in this fast-changing world. Emphasis is placed on health with a global approach, both physical and mental, as well as on new working methods.
As part of a responsible and innovative social policy, L’Oréal has also developed “L’Oréal for Youth”, a global programme to promote the employment of young people, which not only provides them with professional opportunities for work, but also provides them with concrete ways to boost their employability.
L’Oréal also offers its employees a policy of sharing its growth. Profit-sharing programmes have been in place for many years everywhere in the world. L’Oréal set up an employee share ownership plan in 2018 and 2020.
Quality social dialogue is also one of the essential components of the L’Oréal model. It illustrates the Group’s desire to involve employees and their representatives to its development.
Finally, L’Oréal acts with the conviction that a policy in favour of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion allows everyone, regardless of their background, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, age or disability, to give their best in the company. This is an essential driver of performance and innovation and is crucial for maintaining sustainable growth.
