As a global business operating in more than 32 different countries, FrieslandCampina faces numerous challenges. One key challenge is how to prepare and support its growing international assignee population to live and work in a wide variety of countries.
FRIESLANDCAMPINA
With 22,000 employees in 32 different countries, every day Royal FrieslandCampina provides millions of consumers all over the world with food that is rich in valuable nutrients from milk. With annual revenue of 11.3 billion Euros, FrieslandCampina is one of the world’s largest dairy companies1.
The company recognised the need to develop the global competence of its employees to ensure that they could be as competent working in Vietnam as they were in the Netherlands. Equally, accompanying family members – so critical to the success or failure of any international assignment – could not be overlooked.
As an organisation that treats its employees as family members, choosing an intercultural training provider who held the same values was critical for the FrieslandCampina Global Mobility team. Outsourcing an essential part of the international assignee preparation would see FrieslandCampina placing its trust and people in the hands of a third party.
The Global Mobility team carried out a rigorous RFP process that involved multiple submissions and interviews. Communicaid was delighted to have been chosen as FrieslandCampina’s partner to design and deliver a comprehensive suite of support interventions for its international assignee populations: short term, long term and commuters.
Organisational Objectives
FrieslandCampina set Communicaid the following objectives:
Assignee Objectives
Challenges
As a cooperative, which puts its farmers at the heart of its business, it is essential that all staff can maintain excellent, trusting and equitable relationships with local customers, producers and other suppliers.
This outsourcing project was the first time that FrieslandCampina had appointed a non-Netherlands based training provider, so it was very important to be confident that Communicaid’s global trainer network could cover not only existing markets (and demand) but also potential future markets as well.
An additional challenge presented to the Communicaid team was that many of the assignees travel with partners and children. The FrieslandCampina Global Mobility team were very keen to ensure that they were involved in the training to minimise the risk of assignment failure and maximise the return on investment in the assignment.
The key deliverables for the training were to:
Our Solution
To design the final training and support solution for each assignee, the Communicaid design team analyses the role, international experience and family status of each assignee. The assignment length and any regional responsibility are also important factors in the design of the personalised programme.
The solutions for assignees comprise the following elements:
Results
Communicaid won Best Family Support Programme at the 2016 Expatriate Management & Mobility Awards (EMMAs) for the services we provide to FrieslandCampina.
In addition, FrieslandCampina was awarded Best Global Mobility Team (Medium Programme). These two awards recognised the investment both companies have made and the success of our collaboration in supporting FrieslandCampina assignees and their families.
Client Feedback
On behalf of FrieslandCampina, I must say that we are delighted to work with Communicaid and RW3. Their support to our programmes and outstanding insights regarding cultural awareness provide us with the best possible support. The feedback received from our assignees, and their families prove this. For me, it is the greatest pleasure to have been nominated together with. Marco van der Neut, Global Mobility Manager
