Developing talent & prioritizing training

Throughout their careers, Lafarge offers its employees internal training programs that relate to the Group's professions and culture. These courses are offered at several levels:

• at Business Unit level, for training in the local language,
• at Business level, to study different techniques and professions,
• at Group level, to acquire management skills at Lafarge University, our corporate university.

External training programs provided by specialized organizations or business schools may be offered to meet specific individual needs.

In 2006, the number of hours of training per person averaged across all sites stood at 37 hours for executives and 23 hours for non-executives.

Lafarge University was created in 2003. It was designed to improve management and encourage managers to act in compliance with the Group's Principles of Action. This corporate university works in partnership with some of the best business schools in the world: Insead and Henley in Europe and Duke University and Chicago G.S.B. in the United States.

The program includes individual development plans and skills training. Each year, 12 sessions are held in Asia, 12 in North and South America and 25 in Europe and Africa. Each session brings together between 8 and 20 different nationalities! These sessions help to build networks between managers and encourage knowledge sharing and the development of best practices.

Programs are regularly updated and enriched. For example, Lafarge University is working with the Executive Finance Committee to implement a program on the ways financial directors can add value in their management committee.

In 2006, 2,013 executives (1 manager in 5) attended a session at Lafarge University. On average, participants rated their satisfaction at 4.2 out of 5.

At Lafarge, we have always believed in enabling and empowering our employees to regularly upgrade their skills and knowledge through diverse learning opportunities, on /off the job. Learning and Development (L&D) at Lafarge aims to provide opportunities to employees to constantly enhance their technical and behavioral skills which will help them in bettering their performance and career progression. Effective training, aids in developing leadership skills, motivation, loyalty, right attitudes, and other aspects that successful workers and managers usually display, thereby leading to creation of Future Leaders in the organization. The Company has 5 key priorities around which the Key Performance indicators (KPIs) are formulated. L&D is one of the significant areas of the People Development priority and is measured locally as well as benchmarked at Lafarge Group level.

We therefore have regular programs like Cement Professional Development Program (for new joinees), Visible Felt Leadership (Safety), Change Management Workshops, Lafarge University Programs, Leadership Development Workshops, Development Center, Workshops on Managing Self and Working Effectively etc. to continuously develop our employees.

As part of the Talent / Potential assessment for middle management, Human Resources team at Cement division undertook comprehensive exercises to help develop & provide opportunities to harness individual potential of all its employees.

Competency Mapping (CM): Competency, defined as any skill, knowledge, or other attribute that is observable / measurable and identifies successful (excellent) performance. Competency Mapping is a process by which individuals are helped in a planned & organised way to acquire or sharpen competencies required for current role & future role in an organisation.

Development Center (DC): Post assessing the ideal competency levels for each role and rating the individuals against these competencies, is to validate if the ratings received is the true reflection of their competence.Development Center provides an opportunity to assess an individual's competencies using a variety of tools and a number of assessors. It consists of a standardized evaluation of behaviour based on multiple inputs. Several trained observers and techniques are used. Judgements about behaviour are made from specifically developed assessment simulations. These judgements are pooled in a meeting among the assessors. The subsequent discussion results in evaluation of performance of the assessees on the dimensions/competencies that the assessment centre is designed to measure.

Mentoring Program:  The Assessors who gave feedback become the mentors and mentees are the participants. This process is focused towards supporting the individuals in their development process.

At Lafarge A&C the HR team has undertaken various initiatives

Internal Vacancy Notification. To source the right people for the right job within the system & process with hands on experience, the internal talent search was initiatied through Internal Vacancy Notification. As of today such initiatives have been successfully completed for the Plant Production Incharge & Plant Quality Incharge levels.

Training Initiatives:

• Pumping protocol -  internally designed & developed workshop for pumping team on safety methods of pumping concrete.
  
• Basic Selling Skill Workshop - the workshop was designed internally and conducted jointly by an internal & external resource.
  
• Energy Isolation and Lafarge University Tool Kit conducted by as per group guidelines

At Lafarge Aggregates we develop aggregate talent by nominating employees for programs like International Diploma in Quarry Management from Derby University and Lafarge Aggregates management program.