2006 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT REPORT

Apprenticeship at L’Oréal,
a means of promoting excellence.
Welcoming apprentices:
a strong commitment
Apprenticeships at L’Oréal
L’Oréal has a long tradition of training young people.
In 1993, L’Oréal extended its young persons
training initiative by setting up an apprenticeship
policy based on quality and selection.
This has now become a real resource for the professional
inclusion of young people and the management
of human resources and diversity within
the company, combining theoretical training at a
work/study training centre with initial work experience.
L’Oréal signed the Apprenticeship Charter in France
in 2005, and by December 2006 had 430 apprentices
on work/study courses in France* (apprenticeship
contracts and professionalisation contracts), representing
3.6% of total employees*.
Every level of qualification (from an initial vocational
diploma to a postgraduate qualification) and
every type of job (secretarial, research, industrial,
managerial, commercial, communication, human
resources, IT) are represented.
> INTERNATIONALISATION
L’Oréal sees apprenticeship as a means of promoting
excellence that gives young people the
resources to be successful by enabling them to
acquire specific skills. L’Oréal gives them the
possibility of being given real responsibilities
within one of the group’s teams. The volunteer
apprenticeship mentors receive special training
and ensure that the apprentice is monitored and
assessed regularly as they pass on their knowledge
and skills on an everyday basis.
2007 will be Apprenticeship Year, acknowledging
the commitment of all concerned, reviewing at
the group’s policy on apprenticeships, organising
the pooling of experience in France and in other
countries, and pinpointing any areas for improvement.
A MOTIVATING COMPENSATION AND
BENEFITS POLICY
L’Oréal is successful thanks to the quality of its
employees and each individual’s commitment contributes
to the group’s growth process.
Recognising individual contribution
L’Oréal’s global pay policy reflects its recognition of
employees’ involvement in the company’s development
and at the same time aims to attract talented
individuals.
Although it applies to all the group’s employees,
the application of the policy varies according to the
job and to the level of responsibility involved.
In all its units, the group’s compensation policy
is based on an appraisal system standardised all
over the world that recognises individual performance.
Each employee’s career and salary is managed
individually.
Offering a competitive
compensation package
L’Oréal’s objective is to offer a competitive compensation
package to attract and retain talented
individuals. In order to ensure its objective is ful-
The internationalisation of the apprenticeship scheme involves making international opportunities
available for French apprentices, particularly in Great Britain, Spain and Poland, and
developing all kinds of work/study training by subsidiaries in Europe and the United States.
This means that, during their three-year apprenticeship with L’Oréal, apprentice engineers have
the opportunity of spending three months at one of the group’s European production sites.
This experience in another country gives the young apprentices an opportunity to supplement
the skills acquired in France, to experience a different culture, and to perfect
their knowledge of another language. About twenty apprentice engineers had the benefit of
these international opportunities in 2006.
SOCIAL AFFAIRS
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