Air Liquide’s HR strategy is consolidated by the employee experience of younger members of staff

Air Liquide, which employs 67,000 people in 80 countries, has been fully primed since the start of the health crisis and is one of the four French industrial groups in the consortium that was tasked by the government (1) with producing ventilators for hospitals.

The company has always pursued a long-term hiring strategy with the core aim of enabling staff to advance their careers in-house. This strategy puts the onus on identifying and managing talented individuals to capitalise on the potential of all employees.    

Every year, the firm takes on around 1,200 interns and apprentices. A monitoring programme has been introduced for them to turn this initial experience in the company into lasting jobs.

As the expectations and priorities of the current generation are no longer the same and as they are more likely to change employer, the HRD is looking to instil loyalty:

• An assessment and recommendation system improves visibility over profiles. This information is fed back and shared to establish a pool of young graduates.

• A number of events (monthly e-cafés, an annual forum) foster discussion with experienced members of staff who describe their career paths and professions, as well as giving HR advice.

This means that new arrivals have everything at their disposal for successful onboarding with an approach that also allows them to put forward “value proposals’” and thus make a contribution to their employer’s brand.

¹ With PSA, Schneider Electric et Valeo.