L'Oreal's Strategic Recruitment

As the world's largest cosmetics company, L'Oreal Group officially entered the Chinese market in 1996. Although it came later than many competitors, it ran faster. Over the past eight years, L'Oreal China has successfully ranked among the top two beauty care manufacturers in China; not only has it introduced 12 international brands, but also acquired two local brands, "Little Nurse" and "Yu Sai", which are well-known. Zhen; its four categories of products (high-end cosmetics, professional hair products, mass cosmetics and pharmacy active health products) are among the best in their respective market segments.

But these are not the most satisfying report cards for Paolo Gasparrini.

The most satisfying thing for the president of L'Oreal China is that a company with more than 6,000 people is growing and flourishing. "Those little boys and little girls", who were just starting out eight years ago, have taken on more and more responsibilities. And L'Oreal China, which was built by these people, is attracting more talents to join.

Because of the belief that "the best candidates for doing business in China should be Chinese managers", when Paul first arrived in China, he set up a strategy to develop local talents, and has insisted on implementing it to this day. Among them, "recruiting local talents suitable for L'Oreal" is a crucial part.

"Meeting each other" with the same culture

Before 1996, for Italian Guy Paulo, China was still a legendary and mysterious country in the East. He, who had never been to Asia before, was glad to accept the order when he learned that he would be dispatched to China by L'Oreal headquarters. Because of the challenges of the new environment, he was excited and full of expectations. He describes himself as "a typical L'Oreal guy" who likes innovation and change.

Now, this typical L'Oreal person with this typical L'Oreal culture, with various dazzling market data and performance indicators, has proved that he can win the challenge from the Chinese market. At the same time, this culture is also the starting point for his selection of materials in China. Dai Qing, director of human resources at L'Oreal China, said that in the criteria for recruiting talents, one of the decisive factors is "whether it is compatible with the L'Oreal culture".

As a fashion-related cosmetics company, a culture of innovation is integrated into every aspect. Whether it is product development or marketing, rich imagination and creativity are essential qualities. In a highly competitive industry, the speed of responding to the market is often the key to success or failure. Therefore, employees need not only the flexibility to adapt to rapid changes, but also the diligence and responsibility to put them into practice.

Because of this, L'Oréal has always called the ideal talent a combination of "poet and farmer", hoping that no matter what kind of cultural and educational background employees are, they are full of "poet"'s creative passion and imagination , and down-to-earth like a "farmer". These two seemingly contradictory temperaments built the first hurdle in L'Oreal's interview.

Similar to many fast-growing companies, nearly 90% of L'Oréal China's new employees come from market recruiting. "There is no denying that there is a lot of talent flow between competitors in the consumer goods industry every year. But because of L'Oréal's strong cultural selectivity, many times the decision to accept a candidate is not based on his skills or experience." Dai Qing emphasized.

"For example, I once interviewed a manager who was applying for a director-level position. He has been in the industry for many years and has achieved a high position in the original company. The feeling is that many of his descriptions are repetitions of past experiences, and he does not have his own ideas and creativity; and he has been in a leadership position for a long time, which makes him indifferent to many implementation details and lack of interest to understand." Qing believes that people who lack "innovation" and "execution" cannot survive at L'Oreal.

In Guy Paul's view, L'Oréal employees also need an independent "entrepre-neur" spirit who can work with the attitude of their own business. Because, unlike some companies with strict organization in the same industry, L'Oreal's management mechanism is very flexible. It does not constrain employees to complete tasks step by step, but leaves sufficient space for them in the organization, and everyone has room to play. . "Sometimes the strength of the individual is even more important than the organization, which requires employees to have a strong sense of direction, not only to be able to make independent decisions, but also to be self-driven."

"In L'Oréal, every employee should be a leader in his own post. Entrepreneurs." Guy Paul had in mind not just sales, marketing, but even employees in HR or finance, which are usually considered support departments.

For example, in addition to doing a good job in accounting statistics, a financial officer should also take the initiative to understand the ins and outs, and think about how to increase revenue and reduce expenditure; employees on the production line do not just sit there and produce products, but also think about why they are produced. , where will it be sold in the future, what will be the sales in the market, and so on. "Entrepreneurship means working in a more responsible way and being self-motivated to prepare for the future. Proactive, curious and passionate about work is what L'Oréal likes."

Culture The importance of suitability, L'Oreal is opposed to the kind of "rush" recruitment method to cope with the pressure of manpower shortage. "If employees with a sense of identity join in, it will be a long-term cooperation." Like Dai Qing, many senior managers of L'Oreal insist on this point during interviews, and are constantly improving their evaluation skills. "For example, being enthusiastic doesn't necessarily mean being very articulate. Judging by being introverted or extroverted alone may lose the people we're really looking for. We're introducing some psychometric tools in this regard." Qing believes that judging soft qualities related to values and personality is not as simple as looking at hard indicators such as experience and education, and it is also a challenge to interviewers. You must have enough knowledge and patience to remove some biases to be able to analyze the real side after the appearance.

"Selection" with a development strategy

A girl stood up confidently and said in fluent English: "I hope to be a captain in the L'Oréal fleet after graduation."

The podium Guy Paul on the top, looked at this brave young man with admiration and tolerance.

This is what happened in the lecture hall of Shanghai Jiaotong University in the fall of 2004. The L'Oreal Group's annual campus recruitment exchange is in progress. Indoors, the lecture hall that can accommodate hundreds of people is full of seats. The aisles, on both sides of the entrance, and even on the windowsill are full of young students who come to admire the name of "the world's largest cosmetics company"; On the posters of the "Contest" and "Global Online Business Strategy Competition", L'Oreal is smiling and welcoming them to try their hand at it.

Many heavyweights including Global Vice President, Global Strategic Recruitment Director, President of China, Human Resources Director of China and other senior leaders participated in campus exchange activities in person, which is enough to show L'Oreal's commitment to the "talent nursery" of university campuses. degree of importance.

In fact, in the recruitment plan of L'Oreal China in 2005, except for the three major factories in Shanghai Pudong, Suzhou and Yichang, which were specifically recruited by their respective human resources departments, the headquarter was responsible for recruiting more than 300 people. (mainly marketing personnel and managers at all levels), and the proportion of campus recruitment is less than 10%. As a "warm-up exercise" to attract talents, L'Oreal invests as much as RMB 500,000 to 600,000 in campus publicity each year, and it is even more difficult to measure the manpower, energy and supporting resources invested.

"From a strategic point of view, as a multinational company with potential and ambition to develop in the Chinese market for a long time, it is very important to have a group of young people with the same potential and ambition." The cornerstone of L'Oreal's talent pool has made no secret of its importance to young students.

"We hope that through the annual publicity on campus, not only graduates, but more students will know and like L'Oreal, and we will build a pool." Dai Qing wrapped his hands and gestured: "Now hiring Although there are not many students, the annual increase rate is very high. In 2000, we only recruited five or six students, and this year's plan has 30 students. And the cost of my investment has not increased every year, because the employer brand has been It has been established."

After entering L'Oreal, most of the fresh graduates recruited from campus took the most basic positions in various departments as management trainees. After six months to one year of job rotation training, Reassign work. In fact, this is just a microcosm of L'Oreal's recruitment strategy in China. Rejuvenation of employees has become an increasingly clear trend in L'Oreal. It is said that a large proportion of new recruits are newcomers with less than two years of work experience. Among the nearly 600 employees in Shanghai, the average age is only about 30 years old. In the whole company, 50% of the general managers of the brand are under the age of 40, and nearly half of them are even rising stars under the age of 35.

"Compared with the early stage of the company's entry into China, our current recruitment strategy is indeed more inclined to young people." Gao Paulo analyzed that in the first few years, L'Oreal needed a group of managers with considerable experience to enter the company, who could immediately undertake start work. At that time, if there was too much reliance on internal training, not only the speed could not match the pace of business development, but also there was not enough manpower and energy to help newcomers grow. Now, it is time for L'Oreal to reserve more energy for the company's long-term development. "Help them integrate into L'Oreal, teach them how to run a business, and after a year or two, this batch of fresh blood will bring new vitality to various departments."

The youth that Guy Paul values to a large extent means with potential. He believes that recruiting a suitable talent is like planting a sapling. After watering, fertilizing, and experiencing wind and rain, it must grow into a towering tree. Therefore, when selecting, not only pay attention to whether he is competent for the current job, but also examine whether he has the potential to develop and take on heavier responsibilities. Therefore, the professional background is diluted, and the basic qualities are more important, such as being good at analysis, thinking, innovation, Communication, forward-looking, etc. "At the same time, young people's passion for careers and sensitivity to fashion are all our concerns."

In order to cooperate with the long-term development strategy, L'Oreal determines the recruitment scale every year, except for some that are similar to other consumer goods companies For example, at the end of the year, each business department makes a preliminary summary of the number of people according to the business budget and personnel needs of the second year, and the human resources department also conducts a survey according to each brand, counts the personnel structure, and analyzes the report. In the form of a variety of talent pool suggestions to the relevant person in charge. "Our current requirement is that there must be management trainees in important positions in all important brands, and there must be every year." Dai Qing said.

Using a variety of tools to "tailor"

"When I first came to China, it was not easy to recruit people." Paul recalled that L'Oreal was not well-known in China at that time, " Almost no one knows." Now, with the rise of more than ten product brands under its brand, L'Oreal China's employer brand has also achieved the effect of "one call and one response" in the market. It is not uncommon for a position to attract hundreds of resumes.

"However, we are also becoming more demanding, because the work of L'Oréal employees is becoming more and more complicated from the initial zero starting point to the second largest market share in China." Guy Paul said that the company needs to Among the many applicants, find more talented and competitive talents.

"We have a set of globally unified talent core quality model, which is divided into different levels, including professional, experience, skills, cultural values and personality requirements. But only standard descriptions are not enough, how to measure And evaluation is the most critical. And for different positions and different quality requirements, different selection tools should be used." Dai Qing said.

In order to "find out outstanding talents", since 2000, L'Oreal has introduced the recruitment tools "campus planning competition" and "global online business strategy competition" planned and designed by the group into China successively, trying to understand themselves through the competition. Future potential employees are also expected to understand and fully appreciate their suitability for company culture and values through the competition. This kind of deep contact avoids the blindness of both parties in the choice.

Liu Xiaojia, who is in charge of campus recruitment in China, made a vivid analogy: "We often say that students are like a blank sheet of paper, but how can we know that this blank sheet of paper is more suitable for us than that blank sheet? Especially when we have no experience In the case of resumes, potential, personality traits, and cultural suitability need to be measured with more scientific tools, so that after entering the company, their work will be smoother and their loyalty will often be higher."

According to him, At present, the company's marketing positions have basically replaced the traditional campus recruitment by these two competitions, and the participants are not limited to fresh graduates, "to make sufficient strategic reserves for the future talent pool". Among them, the "Planning Competition" mainly targets undergraduates from Peking University, Tsinghua University, Jiaotong University and Fudan University to examine brand marketing and market planning capabilities; the "Online Business Strategy Competition" is open to undergraduates and MBA students from various institutions. , which mainly examines management and decision-making abilities.

Zhang Wei, the current product manager of L'Oreal China Professional Hairdressing Division, was a participant in the first "Campus Planning Competition" in 2000. At that time, he was a junior in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. "I still don't know why L'Oreal is sacred." He just ran to listen to the promotion of a "planning competition" on a whim, but he didn't expect to change his life path.

"I was initially attracted to the speaker. Although he didn't have any rhetoric, he just felt that what he said was very important." Zhang Wei recalled that the main reason for his decision to participate in the competition was that he found that he had come to give campus lectures at that time. There is a unique personality charm in the senior managers of L'Oreal, which is the trait that he has always yearned for. Later, while dealing with different L'Oreal people during the competition, he found something similar. "It should be said that it is the passion and devotion to the business. This sense of identity attracted me to finally decide to join L'Oreal." Design a new set of marketing strategies, including product mix, packaging and communication strategies, to compete with each other. Finally, a complete proposal is submitted and the respective plans are presented to a jury of L'Oréal senior leaders and management experts.

"We designed a portable sunscreen product at that time, and made a series of plans for marketing, sales price positioning, advertising and publicity." After more than five months of primary, secondary and final selection, Zhang Wei's team He won the Best Creative Award, and he himself was named by the professional hairdressing department for his outstanding performance, and has now worked for L'Oreal for nearly four years.

During the several months of the competition, the hiring managers have been in constant communication with the contestants, and there are many opportunities to learn about their division of labor and cooperation, their roles, their problem-solving styles, etc., and they can also more accurately Determine each person's truest personality traits. Liu Xiaojia believes that only one competition can not decide whether to hire a contestant, but the competition does make the process more effective.

At the same time, L'Oreal China's industrial department has developed a campus industrial design competition based on the specific needs of local industrial talents, which involves designing production lines according to production capacity, improving production processes, plant layout and other aspects of engineering skills. assessment.

Lin Jing, senior human resources consultant of Hewitt Consulting, commented on L'Oreal's various campus competitions: "Not only have the channels for talent introduction been subdivided, but also different strategies have been designed for different candidate groups. "And the strategic recruitment idea of "going to the right place, using the right method, and finding the right person" developed from this is affecting L'Oreal's talent discovery and selection methods in other channels.

In terms of market recruitment, L'Oréal chooses many recruitment channels. Depending on the level of talent, they are found through print media, the Internet and headhunting companies. Since it is unlikely to conduct a comprehensive assessment of applicants over a period of several months as in campus recruitment, the current main assessment method is still based on interviews. , developed to assess the specific qualities of different positions in a targeted manner, and use them according to their capacity, reducing the error of "knowing people" and "employing people".

"Applicants have to go through at least three or four interviews. Human resources department, line manager, department director, and at some levels, President Paul will be interviewed in person." Dai Qing said that in addition to some regular questions, more and more interviews were conducted during the interview. Scenario simulations, case studies, etc. have been added in many places to fully understand how candidates deal with various situations that may occur in the work.

As a human resources director, Dai Qing himself is most concerned about the management quality of candidates in the workplace: "I tend to use some psychological tests, not necessarily a full set of tools, but in conversation We use similar questions to examine the bias of his leadership style. For example, his work pace is fast or slow, and his communication style is negotiating, influencing, or observational, etc. The purpose is not to understand him as an independent individual, but I want to know what kind of behavior he will have in a team."

"In addition, we emphasize that we should look for people based on different positions and different quality models, and we cannot generalize." Dai Qing emphasized that the standard ability has been determined. Finding the right people will not result in a waste of talent. For example, junior financial personnel do not necessarily need very good speaking skills; a salesman in a certain area in the Mainland does not need to be very good in spoken English. "Many companies can't find people because they don't have a sober analysis of the quality of the personnel they need. If they blindly ask for it, employees will feel that they can't perform at all in this position, and even if they come, they will leave quickly."

Although Formally still the traditional assessment tool, interviews have become increasingly challenging for hiring managers and department heads. In addition to requiring them to have a broad cross-functional, cross-business knowledge, some testing tools are also very demanding of users. "For example, to test imagination, the interviewing manager must first have imagination and enjoy the process; to test the sensitivity to fashion, the interviewing manager must be a person who is interested in fashion. Only in this way can you be good with the interviewee. Only by communicating with him can he judge whether he has these abilities."

Now, all recruiting-related personnel in L'Oréal China will receive a "skill-based recruitment interview" training, which allows managers to learn about L'Oreal's needs. To avoid differences in the evaluation of candidates due to differences in subjective perceptions during interviews.

"lead the way" with communication and tolerance

In L'Oréal Group's positioning of the human resources department, Recruitment means Integration. That is to say, after a new employee is recruited, he has the responsibility to help him integrate into the enterprise. From this perspective, the hiring manager is often regarded as the "guide" of the new employee. This special arrangement makes L’Oréal different from companies that are also in rapid development and face a large number of recruitment tasks. The brain drain rate has been maintained at a relatively low level in the industry, with an average of 12%. Among them, the loss of management trainees is 12%. ratio is lower.

"The job of retaining employees starts from the very beginning of recruitment. For example, we attach great importance to cultural fit and quality fit. We should also pay attention to honestly sharing some of the company's practical difficulties during interviews, so that new When employees enter the company, they will not choose to leave because they feel that there is a big difference and are not psychologically prepared." Dai Qing thinks that recruitment is sometimes like doing marketing, and you can't whitewash peace. Instead, you should communicate the company's strengths and weaknesses with sincerity, so that you can Happy and long-term cooperation.

After hiring, there is more to do. In L'Oreal, in addition to requiring the hiring manager to communicate with new employees regularly, and the Human Resources Department to provide comprehensive 360-degree feedback during the probationary period, the company will also assign corresponding mentors to all management trainees recruited from the campus to cooperate with their respective of supervisors mentored them during one-year training rotations. "In order to make these management trainees grow better, L'Oreal has been strengthening the training of internal tutors for the past two years. This year, more than 40 outstanding managers have been selected from all over the country to focus on training their coaching and communication skills." Dai Qing I believe that the reality of L'Oreal in China is that more than 300 new employees join the company every year. Although the company cannot spend the same amount of energy on everyone, there is no difference in sincerity.

"Senior managers take the time to pass on their knowledge and experience to young people and treat them very leniently. This is a long-standing tradition at L'Oreal." Guy Paul admits that not only for management trainees, but also for new Staff always give a little more attention and protection. For example, L'Oreal requires managers to be more sensitive to the various performances of new employees and to help them complete the transition period as soon as possible, because new employees generally bear high expectations of everyone, and in an environment with very high competition pressure, sometimes it is unavoidable to make mistakes. Some mistakes, if handled well, may become a new learning opportunity for them to develop better, otherwise it will cause brain drain.

In 2004, L'Oreal China's sales reached 3 billion yuan, nearly doubling from the previous year, and it was the third consecutive year that sales increased by more than 60%. This means that, compared with the early stage, not only a larger number of personnel are required to cooperate in different levels of positions, but also the requirements for the quality of talents are constantly improving. Therefore, in Guy Paulo's view, L'Oreal China, which has completed "from nothing" and "from good to good", must continue to the right place and use the right method in order to be "better". , the "wisdom eye" recognizes those who are right and brings them under his command.

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L'Oreal's Strategic Recruitment

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