2010 ANNUAL REPORT OVERVIEW OF THE gROUP - 3rd quarter ...

80. hermès: a responsible, committed employer
GUARANTEEING OUR CUSTOMERS
A WARM WELCOME AND EXCEpTIONAL SERvICE
The year 2010 was a lively one in our stores, inspiring an
intensive focus on skills development for sales staff.
This year’s “Hermès Merchant School” (École des Marchands
Hermès) was structured around two themes: product knowledge
and the “art of selling”. More than five hundred staff members
in our global retail network took part in it, perfecting the art of
building a personal relationship to ensure that each customer
walks away from our stores with a memorable experience of his
or her time in the world of Hermès. Training to familiarise staff
with our products was held locally as well as through centralised
sessions in Paris, to help sales representatives build general
knowledge of products’ history and the skill and artistry their
manufacture requires, or to hone their command of the
season’s collections.
FORMAL RECOGNITION OF SKILL SETTING
TO ENSURE GREATER EMpLOYABILITY
In 2010, in response to the business downturn caused by
the recession, Les Cristalleries de Saint-Louis, with support from
the Hermès Group, set up a series of measures intended
to maintain and strengthen the division’s human capital.
These measures included a process known as validation des
acquis de l’expérience, or VAE, through which employees may
obtain an equivalency degree or certificate that officially
recognises knowledge and skills acquired outside a traditional
educational setting, particularly through work experience.
The Lorraine Region supported Les Cristalleries de Saint-Louis
in the implementation of this programme through its VAE
service hub, which helped to pilot the programme and assisted
employees who wished to participate all the way through
to the final interview. Les Cristalleries de Saint-Louis provided
information to employees who wished to benefit from the VAE,
and then guided them through the process of identifying the
degree or certificate that corresponded with their work
experience. Management also created work groups to help
employees describe their work experience and to frame it
in the appropriate terms and to practice interviews. This first
phase of the programme took place in the first half of 2010.
A total of twenty-five employees applied for equivalencies,
ranging from certificates from the French Ministry of
Employment to CAP vocational diplomas to Masters’ degrees.
Interviews for certificates from the French Ministry of
Employment and secondary diplomas from the Éducation
Nationale began in the last quarter of 2010; interviews for
university-level degrees will be finished by the end of the first
half of 2011.
DISTRIBUTION OF BONUS SHARES
In 2010 as in certain previous years, each employee was given
thirty Hermès shares in recognition of their service and as
further incentive to work towards achieving the Group’s goals.
This embodies Hermès’ desire to cultivate loyalty to the Group
and to foster a sense of belonging to a family-owned, forwardlooking
company.