Transformation | L'Oreal HRD on building a tech-fuelled new work environment

L'Oréal is a brand name that many consumers are familiar with. The French-born brand is currently the largest cosmetics company in the world and is best known, not just for its hair and skincare products, its makeup and its perfume, but also for its academy, which trains 10,000 beauty specialists per year.

The brand has a vast heritage globally but has strong roots in England and, more specifically, London. However, the firm recently announced that it will be moving from its current office site in Hammersmith to a brand new bespoke building in White City.

L’Oréal will occupy six floors of the eleven-storey building, which is part of the new creative business district White City Place and which hosts other historic companies such as Yoox-Net-a-Porter, the BBC and ITV Studios. 

The workforce of 1,000 employees at L’Oréal’s London-based headquarters is due to move in Autumn 2023 to the new building, which presents both a challenge and an opportunity for HR. To discuss the opportunities that L’Oreal’s move presents to HR, and the wellbeing science of office design, HR Grapevine caught up with the firm's UK & Ireland HR Director, Paul Gilliam.