Lafarge is a world leader in the building materials industry. Founded in France in 1833, and headquartered in Paris, Lafarge now employs over 76,000 people in 78 countries. To realise the organisation’s growth ambitions, Lafarge recognised that it needed to develop a more compelling and consistent global Employee Value Proposition (EVP) to attract, engage and retain the right kind of talent. It also realised that to do this effectively required the buy-in of local management teams, particularly those situated in the emerging markets where much of the future growth of the company is expected to be delivered.
The first step in achieving this common commitment was to ensure that the development of the EVP was not driven from a top-down ‘corporate HQ’ view of the organisation, but from a more emerging market-focused, bottom-up approach.
To achieve the right balance between global consistency and local relevance / ownership, the EVP development process comprised four main stages:
Six key markets were selected to participate in the first stage of EVP development process: China, India, MENA (Middle East / North Africa), South Africa, Russia and France. This included a quantitative survey focusing on internal engagement factors, interviews with key stakeholders, focus groups with representatives from each of the company’s main divisions, and consultation with a number of the company’s leading search agencies to investigate the company’s external reputation. In terms of representation, a total of 6171 employees provided input through the survey; 121 employees were given the opportunity to express their views in greater length through 19 focus groups; 65 in-depth interviews were conducted with senior managers and 20 with external recruitment consultants.
In each of the six target markets, the research was presented to a cross-functional team of HR, marketing and communication managers from each of the company’s main divisions, with the majority of these sessions involving around 15 to 20 people. The purpose of these local employer brand ‘work-outs’ was to generate a short-list of potential EVP attributes. This short-list was based on both the research findings (highlighting current strengths) and more aspirational claims that the participants reflected the forward momentum of the organisation in terms of ongoing improvements to the employment experience.
The attributes generated in each of the local markets were combined and ‘distilled’ into a common global EVP, reflecting the strongest common themes. These themes were stress-tested and further refined in a global workshop. This brought together representatives from each of the six target markets and a number of other important markets (like the USA) to ensure that it would work beyond the sub-set of markets chosen for research.
The final stage of development involved producing detailed reports and management briefing materials for each of the target markets. This included an explanation on how the global EVP had been defined; an analysis of local strengths and weaknesses in relation to the EVP; a recommendation on which EVP attributes should be emphasised in relation to local strengths and attraction / engagement drivers; and suggested people management actions to strengthen the desired employer brand experience.
These local briefings were further supported by a set of Employer Brand Activation Guidelines, providing a more practical ‘step-by-step’ approach to translating the EVP into effective recruitment marketing and people management action planning. These guidelines were launched via a series of workshops at Lafarge’s global HR Academy, ensuring that HR Managers from all over the world were equipped to embed them in their region.
Gereis Gereis, SVP of Human Resources at Lafarge, commented: “While it was important for us to develop a more consistent global employer brand, we were always concerned to ensure that it would work effectively across a diverse range of market conditions. If it didn’t work in China, as effectively as it worked in France, we would have failed in our task. The process that People in Business helped guide us through ensured that we achieved this balance, and they have continued to support us in making it work as we activate, embed and strengthen our employer brand worldwide”.
If you’d like to discover more about applying similar employer brand management practices to your own organization, please contact: Sophy.pern@pib.co.uk
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