Middle East
Rethinking the way we work: The new L’Oréal campuses
Aware of the changes in working practices and the new expectations of its employees, the L’Oréal Group is creating innovative and original office spaces around the world. Leading edge technology is being coupled with new ways of organizing space to create the kind of office where everyone feels good.
Campus environments that bring together well-being, balance and performance
In November 2017, L’Oréal opened new offices at Levallois-Perret on the outskirts of Paris. Named “Seine 62”, the campus is the latest in a series to have been opened in the Paris region, Copenhagen and Manhattan. Reflecting the new ways of working among its employees, the Group is moving to office spaces that are specially designed to be agile, collaborative and transversal. The main objective is simply to create an environment where employees feel good. In the Paris area, consultations during the office design phase led to 30 workshops, involving 300 employees, along with the Hygiene, Safety and Working Conditions Committee.
Among the decisions taken was to equip the offices with the latest technology for working together. The aim was not only to create links between the Group’s different operating units within the campus, but also with people outside, as a way of encouraging a collaborative way of working in general. “With our videoconference service, you can talk to someone in Shanghai as if they were standing in front of you,” says Jean-Michel Duffieux, Property Project Director in charge of facilities at the RIO building*.
Along with an infrastructure that protects the environment, the Group also offers a range of services designed to meet the need for both well-being and performance at work. These include patios with plants, terraces with panoramic views, and fitness centers, along with concierge and medical services, and a welfare assistant. Some offices even include a hairdressing salon, massage center or nail bar.
How to organize time and space: The L’Oréal solution in Copenhagen
More than just providing its employees with a comfortable place to work, L’Oréal also wants to make their lives easier. For example, by allowing them to organize their day according to their needs. “The typical day from 9.30am to 7.00pm doesn’t really make any sense in today’s world; many people want to plan their working day around a range of duties. And we have to respond to that need,” explains Bertrand de Senneville, Senior Global VP HR Social Relations for the L’Oréal Group. With this in mind, L’Oréal’s Nordics tower in Copenhagen has been specifically designed to enable employees to arrange their own personal timetable. An individual space with a view over the Copenhagen canal is provided for people who want to work alone and to find inspiration, while other areas have been created for group projects. For those who want to shut themselves away in order to concentrate, a special “Focus” space has been created. The building also features numerous meeting rooms and places to talk informally. The arrangements are extremely popular with Audrey Noumazalayi Ilounga, Nordic Retail Purchaser at L’Oréal in Copenhagen. “Having the flexibility to go where I want, depending on what I need to do, is just fantastic,” she says.
Fully aligned with the Sharing Beauty With All program, the Nordics tower has also been certified as an EU Green Building, featuring solar panels on the roof. Among the services on offer is free bicycle maintenance to encourage staff to ride to work, which is not only good for their health – but also good for their city. Put together, the various initiatives have helped to raise employee satisfaction levels at L’Oréal in Copenhagen from 64% to 71%.