Recruiting Innovative Talent / Managing Innovation - Breaking the Mold

Blogger’s Note:  Two client presentations demonstrated innovative talent applications.  I am combining them to present the need for breakthrough approaches - especially for attracting and managing new talent.  These organizational stories (while very specific in nature), include lessons we all can apply (if we dare).

Speakers:

• François de Wazières, Director, Human Resources Strategic
  Marketing/ Corporate Communications & External Affairs, L’Oréal
• Felix Mayr-Harting, Executive Vice President of Fine Fragrances Worldwide, Givaudan

As the world leader in cosmetics,  L’Oréal is 100 years old and looks amazing!

Beauty is a fascinating industry -- it’s truly about emotion.  And, essentially, L’Oréal sells confidence.  The infusion of new talent is the key issue at hand for the organization.      

Comparatively, Givaudan is the world’s leading company for the creation of fragrances and flavors and has an environment where the perfumery team requires a type of talent management all their own.

Innovative Approaches:

• Expanding the reach of recruiting efforts at L’Oréal - their approach to finding new talent is really innovative.  L’Oréal is focusing their attention on the recruitment of young professionals through a cool ‘gaming’ application.  The application is part of a digital revolution and feels like a questionnaire about you!    With the emergence of social media and expanding consumer markets, the business model has definitely changed. The informational game expands recruiting into previously unexplored student communities and fields. If you do well with the game, you may arrive at the decision that working for L’Oréal is a fit for you.  Playing the game helps an applicant get to know the L’Oréal culture and (if you like it) you can upload your CV/Resume and announce your candidacy. This is an amazing foray into talent just entering the work force, educating them about the company, and truly extending recruiting WAY beyond conventional approaches. 
• An innovative approach to Leading Perfumery Teams at Givaudan - creative perfumers are not born, yet Givaudan has a very innovative approach for developing them.  Perfumers work in the fine fragrance business, developing new scents -- everything from household cleaners to luxury brands. Felix’s presentation examined key issues for successfully leading innovation and inspiring the individuals who make up the perfumery teams.

He offered seven success factors in leading perfumery teams:

1. Value differences - do not homogenize people toward a corporate feel of performance (value what each brings to the party)
2. Allow both creative and commercial aspirations to be fulfilled.  The way to get the best out of perfumers is to acknowledge their need to create, be recognized and feel fulfilled - very different needs than feeling ‘commercialized’
3. Recognize strengths and weaknesses of financial incentives - a paycheck is important, may not be the key to fulfillment
4. Manage success and failure - you learn more form the failures than success
5. Give a voice to the team in the business - involve them in the business and expose the team to other areas of the business
6. Build a creative career path - providing a type-of hope or vision about careers can evolve past creating fragrances to managing the brand
7. Give 100 words of encouragement for every 1 word of criticism - “creative people feel criticism much more deeply, and we need to manage [to] this” consciously

Candidly, these two added a bit of glamour and fragrance to our everyday work, and definitely used those skills to close our Leadership Transformation Conference with panache.  

Even though everyone in the room might not have qualified as “new and emerging talent” to recruit from for either of these companies - I think we all secretly wished we could play the L’Oréal recruiting game, or be treated with the innovative talent management style at Givaudan,

It was beautiful…

LM