Benedikt Bocek, an economics student with parents from the Czech Republic, got a summer job at Orkla. Because of the work he did as an Alarga scholarship holder, Orkla is considering amending its documentation on how it manages its corporate responsibility.
Benedikt Bocek
“Diversity is an important form of expertise. Alarga is serving us this expertise on a silver platter. People with new perspectives and different cultural ballast contribute toward innovation and thinking outside the box.”
So says Geir Aarseth, director of human resources development at Orkla. Aarseth is currently chairman of Alarga’s council.
Orkla has had three scholarship holders from Alarga, one at the head office and two at Elkem. With more than 30,000 employees, only one third of which in Norway, this might seem like a drop in the ocean. But this hasn’t prevented the people sent to us by Alarga from making a difference.
Corporate responsibility
“One of the scholarship holders, Benedikt Bocek, was assigned to the information department at the Orkla Group. He worked during the summer months on matters concerning social responsibility,” says Aarseth. “The reason we wanted him was that we knew he had a relevant background through his studies. We hired him for a summer job and became very impressed.”
Corporate responsibility (CR) is important to Orkla, and Aarseth admits the company has been lagging in working systematically with it.
“Orkla has always been value governed,” Aarseth points out.
“Value governance assures proper conduct on our part. But values must be lived up to, so the company also needs to create good ethical-assurance systems. The scholarship holder from Alarga was assigned to review Orkla’s guidelines for business ethics and corporate responsibility, and he pointed out a number of shortcomings that needed to be addressed and changes that needed to be made. Benedikt also helped us draw up a set of internal CR guidelines for our companies.
“Corporate responsibility involves not only ethics, but risk and opportunities. The basic principle, of course, is the duty to respect people and the environment. But society has expectations of business and industry, and a company can get a dent in its reputation if it doesn’t adequately assume its natural responsibility. Sustainability also means interesting business opportunities with respect to both innovation and new markets. Orkla’s commitment to solar energy is an example of a business investment with a major social benefit. Energy efficiency programmes and initiatives to reduce water consumption are further examples. We believe our CR commitment enhances Orkla’s possibility for long-term growth,” says Aarseth.
“So a young student with East European parentage has indeed directly influenced how the giant Orkla operates in the global community?”
“Yes, in the sense that he has contributed with useful input. When we prepared these guidelines five years ago, they were not specific enough regarding what we wanted from our employees. Our formulations weren’t as specific as they are today.”
Invisible workforce
Geir Aarseth
Aarseth is full of praise for Alarga.
“Alarga makes invisible labour visible. Alarga’s target group, Norwegian citizens with foreign parentage, is important for a company like Orkla, which is, and aims to be, a global player.”
Alarga scholarship holders usually contribute values different from those provided by Norwegian youth.
“They are young people, yet they make a solid impression. I’m impressed. What I see among many of them is that they are still hungry to show their stuff. When recruiting new people, we often philosophise about all those who ask: ‘What can Orkla do for me?’ rather than ‘What can I do for Orkla?’”
Orkla’s motivation
“What is Orkla’s motivation for contributing to the work done by Alarga?”
“Like many other major Norwegian companies, Orkla is highly active in the recruitment market, particularly at universities and colleges in Norway, Sweden and to some extent in Denmark. In the course of a year, the Orkla companies will thus recruit 80-90 young, academically oriented persons,” says Aarseth, adding:
“When Alarga contacted us, we were immediately aware that this was not a substitute for our ongoing work, but a supplement. Our experience is that this puts us in contact with types of candidates that surely existed in the places we are already recruiting, but now those candidates were served to us on a silver platter. The selection itself became a bit easier in many respects. We met a large target group that might otherwise have gone unnoticed.
“The second, and crucial point, was that we met so incredibly many competent people. Our primary aim was to facilitate our recruitment efforts, and we see that Alarga’s screening methods put us into contact with people with major skills. We also have an interest in acquiring persons with a background different from those we usually come in contact with. We have long experience recruiting people who perfectly fit our profile, like MBAs and analysts. People with foreign parentage may also have these qualifications, but they also have something else: their cultural background. They bring with them the additional ballast that comes with growing up in a multicultural family.”
Global mindset
“How does this ballast contribute?”
“We want people who can handle different cultural challenges. We operate in many countries where it is important to understand the local culture. We do not go to Romania or Poland to spread Norwegian culture. It is not about being submissive, but about understanding, because without understanding we wouldn’t be able to work the local markets and succeed.
“Another thing about Alarga scholarship holders is that many of them have a global mindset. They’re not hesitant about going to Asia – they may have family and contacts there. This is different from those with purely Norwegian parentage. After all, there’s no denying that it isn’t always so easy to motivate people to work abroad. Norwegian youth are gradually opening up to a more globalised world, so I won’t put everyone in the same bucket, but Alarga scholarship holders evidently have more of a global mindset than others.
Five business areas
Orkla is a major corporation operating in five business areas: Orkla Brands, Aluminium Solutions, Materials, Associates and Financial Investments. The degree of international commitment varies. One of the most internationally oriented is Elkem. Two Alarga scholarship holders have been assigned there.
“Elkem has a tradition of recruiting people from different cultures,” says Aarseth. “The company is traditionally more international than many other Orkla companies. During the building of Elkem Solar in Kristiansand, people of more than thirty different nationalities were involved. Consequently, it was easy for Elkem to say yes to a scholarship holder, who would fit right in with the corporate environment.”
“How many employees does Orkla have?”
“About 30,000 – some 12,000 of which in the Nordic countries.”
“How many in Norway have a multicultural background?”
“I honestly don’t know. This is one of the things we are asked and ranked on, but we don’t have all the data. As for diversity, in some enterprises we’re talking about a significant percentage of immigrants. The number shrinks the further up you go in the organisation, and in some companies you probably won’t find so many on the floor either. But I won’t speculate as to the percentage for the Orkla Group as a whole. However, I assume Orkla reflects society in general.”
“Large parts of Orkla’s activity are aimed at the consumer market. In your marketing and product development, to what extent do you take into account the fact that 25% Oslo’s inhabitants are foreigners?”
“We have skilled marketing people, and I hope and believe they are aware of the changes that growing immigration will bring in the market. Their task is indeed to understand consumers’ needs and develop products and marketing that people appreciate.”
Diversity is expertise
“The reason we should improve in this area is that diversity is initially a type of expertise, and if we don’t improve, we lose out, like we do when we fail to put women in managerial positions. That is something we don’t want.”
“And Alarga is a good first step on the road to correcting the situation?”
“Alarga is one of several steps. Alarga probably won’t be the staple for all our goals and future initiatives, but rather a supplement.”
”When will the first non-ethnic Norwegian become part of the Orkla management?”
“Orkla is a Norwegian company – again, it’s about a type of expertise, and if we find the type of expertise we want, it won’t matter if the person is from Belgium or Poland or an outlying district of Norway. But we will be careful not to recruit someone just for appearances. I’m also a bit weary that in seeking an external balance, we might do things that may not make much of a difference except to make us look good.”
Long, strange names
“From what we hear from others, there’s a surprising amount of expertise out there. Have you been surprised in this regard?”
“Positively surprised – yes. We have a hidden workforce that we previously failed to notice and exploit.”
“Any reflections as to why?”
“It is not about intentional rejection. It may often be due to commonplace coincidences, or unwitting attitudes. You touched on this earlier – they often have long, strange names, and their application might unfortunately be put aside for that reason. What we miss out on is enough to give pause. After all, we read now and then about highly skilled people who can’t get a job. Then they change their name and get a job on the spot. So there are people around us with skills that are not visible to us.
“But it is also about the way we conduct our recruitment work. We know, of course, that when it comes to women, the crucial factor is the person doing the recruiting. Many seek people who are a reflection of themselves, and we see that when women recruit, more women than men are hired. So we might just need an Abdul Rafsiz Hafsanani in our recruitment department.”
“I hear you are thinking about taking yet another look at Orkla’s recruitment policy.”
“I think that those who have the answer to that are very eager to find new ways to recruit the people. We don’t often recruit at our head office, but rather out there with our other companies. Ultimately, it is the companies that choose the people they want.
“I also believe that having role models in a system is good in its own right, and these role models must play a major part as bridge builders between the company and their own environment.”
“In closing: is there a halal Pizza Grandiosa?”
“Not as far as I know.”
Cermaq starts co-operation with Alarga
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