An encounter with Jean-Claude Le Grand, SVP Talent Development and Chief Diversity Officer at L’Oréal
Advocate and unwavering sponsor of the development of the EVE Program (especially on an international level), Jean- Claude Le Grand, SVP Talent Development and Chief Diversity Officer at L’Oréal, has been convinced for a long time of the benefits of gender balance for the corporate world.
He believes that the corporate world must take the lead on this important social issue that does not only concern women. It is precisely the role of men in the movement for gender equality that the blog EVE wanted to question him about.
Eve le blog: Hello Jean-Claude. At L’Oréal men are a minority. Does this lead you to pursue a different gender equality policy than other companies employing fewer women?
Jean-Claude Le Grand: At L’Oréal, men represent 31% of the total workforce and we have the challenge to attract more and more of them because we want to reach gender balance throughout the organization.
However, even with more women than men in the workforce, we face the same issues of balance than any other company in any other sector: we need to have a proactive policy to attract women in some occupations where they are traditionally under-represented (and vice versa for men); and we must be particularly vigilant to ensure that women and men have equal career opportunities and access to positions with high responsibility.
This policy, conducted for over 15 years, has enabled us to achieve concrete results: today, we have no longer a significant wage gap in France (source: Ined), we’ve reached parity at senior management level, we have an Executive Committee that is among the most balanced of the CAC 40 …
Eve le blog: We can easily imagine that a company particularly attentive to gender equality is attractive to female talents. But is it also for male talents?
Jean-Claude Le Grand: The latest Universum ranking of the most attractive companies for young people ranks us 11th in the world and as the leader in Europe. However, there is a gap between the very positive perception of young women about our Group and that of young men, who place us on an honorable rank (40th globally) but see themselves less in a career at L’Oréal.
This is an interesting signal, but I think our gender equality policy can be used to attract men rather than a reason that keeps them away. Our vision is that gender equality is beneficial to everyone, and in believing this, we never imagined that it would be at the expense of men. It is not a matter of replacing men to put women in their place: what we seek is balance.
We promote values such as entrepreneurial spirit, the spirit of initiative, adventure or the taste of challenge that everyone can adhere to. I believe that equality is in the process of joining the core of these values that give meaning to the professional life of individuals, regardless of their sex, their origins, their culture…
Eve le blog: How do you explain that men, who have remained out of the debate on gender equality for a long time, are more and more committed today?
Jean-Claude Le Grand:I think there are two reasons why men are joining the movement for gender equality.
The first is based on reality: the topic is on the table, around the world, in the economic world, in the media, in politics, in international institutions… And we will not go backwards. Now the challenge is to move from words to action and results. Companies are today the spearheads of the movement for gender equality, far ahead of the political world for example, and this is in my opinion what favors the commitment of men. The subject is not presented to them as a debate about convictions, but as a matter of quality and performance of their businesses. In other words, understanding gender equality and making advances on the topic are now expected professional skills for men as well as women.
The second reason is about generations: for people in their thirties, equality is not an option. They attended gender mixed schools, they have the same diplomas, their partners have the same level and the same ambitions, they are competitors in the job market and peers in the workplace. They are not like us, in the older generations, blown away by the idea this is actually a big progress, they look at it as something natural and obvious. This does not mean that these generations are immune to recreate inequalities, especially if nothing changes in organizations. Young people are pushing organizations to change and it is up to us to ensure that gender equality remains, over time, within the movement of transformation that they are asking for.
Eve le blog: Let’s talk about these major changes that await us … How do you see the world in the years and decades to come?
Jean-Claude Le Grand: To answer this question, I want to invite you to read the book “Sapiens” by the historian Yuval Noah Harari. This captivating history of humanity helps to understand why, among the six human species that populated the earth 100 000 years ago, only one survived, taking precedence over all others and installing its dominant position on the whole planet. Nothing predisposed homo sapiens, much weaker than the other species, to occupy this place… Other then, their ability to master languages and tell stories in order to federate and create institutions, from monetary systems to nations, passing through religion, time or traditions. The book also dismantles the myth that women are physically weaker than men with scientific evidence underlining their greater capacity to resist hunger, illness and fatigue (this deserves to be pointed out). The power of narration is presented as the key to change.
We have perfectly demonstrated this power via dictators and wars, from ecological disasters to human tragedies; we know how to use it for the worst. Now, if we want, we can use it differently: we can tell other stories, create other images. Everyone is talking about for example, the digital transformation as something that goes far beyond us and to which we will have to adapt. However, we will only have to decide what to do about it, the stories we will want to tell and what legacy we leave behind for future generations. For the future, everything is to be written and that’s very exciting, isn’t it?
Interviewed by Marie Donzel for EVE le blog.
