Danone Establishing Strong Commitment in Employer Brand in the India – Southeast Asia Region

Singapore, 17 August 2022 – Danone India – Southeast Asia (ISEA) has been awarded in 7 categories and across 4 countries, in the Asia’s Best Employer Brand Awards Ceremony which was held recently at the Pan Pacific Hotel, Singapore. Organised by the Employer Branding Institute, World HRD Congress and Star of the Industry Group, the awards recognise organisations in Asia that have demonstrated excellent employer branding through effective talent management strategies, talent development and innovative HR Initiatives. 

Accepting the award during the Ceremony, Danone India – Southeast Asia VP, Thibaut Helleputte said it was an honor to be recognized in the prestigious Award.

“At Danone, we are convinced that the most valuable resource an organization can have is our people. We always strive to give employees the best working environment, providing an opportunity for them to grow and flourish while keeping in mind health and safety aspects, which are especially crucial during the pandemic".

He continued “This award is a milestone for us in confirming we are on the right track to make Danone ISEA to be a work destination for talented people who want to impact the world and specifically in our ISEA region in providing health through food to as many people as possible, walking the talk of our Danone mission. We also believe that sustainable value creation and performance always start with people. Implementing the right culture, organization and selecting our talent to work in our teams to define and achieve our ambition while seeding new growth opportunities”. 

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought with it many challenges, business uncertainty, and unprecedented disruption. However, the pandemic is also a moment for companies to learn leadership. Since the pandemic took place in 2020, Danone ISEA has continued to transform according to the situation needed. The company has made adaptations to interact digitally and collaborative efforts between existing functions in the company and still ensure that the safety and health aspects of employees as the main priority.  

Emphasizing on employees’ positive morale and motivation were also one of the main focuses of the company on ensuring business continuity through structured engagement interventions and employees connects.  It is also becoming Danone’s top priority to look out for the employees and provide them with opportunities to develop and learn continuously. Danone also advocates that employees are given opportunity to design a meaningful career journey with the Company, and this is co-built with their leaders, supported by the HR Business Partners. 

Danone ISEA Human Resource Director, Normalis Mohd Sharif, also highlighted in her speech, “For Danone, people is at the heart of the organization and HR is a very important business partner and contributor to the success of business strategies. This is demonstrated by the presence of our Vice President of India-SEA, Thibaut Helleputte, who have travelled to this event to celebrate this achievement with the HR Team. My utmost appreciation goes to all the HR leaders of countries and our operations units in India – Southeast Asia. It is their hard work with their respective teams, as well as the involvement of ISEA Danoners that have enabled us to bring back some awards this time around. This has made us proud, and we will always be proud Danoners.”

She also added “In the current context of our VUCA world, HR has to constantly adapt to the changing contexts, be innovative and more agile in the way we manage and develop our people. It is great to see many innovative HR ideas are being presented through such platforms as the Best Employer Brand Awards and hope we can learn from each other”

List of the Winning Award:

1.     Best Employer Brand Award (Danone Cambodia)

2.     Award for Talent Management (Danone Thailand)

3.     Award for Managing Health at work (Danone Thailand)

4.     Award for Managing Health at work (Danone Malaysia)

5.     Award for Excellence in Training and Learning (Danone Malaysia)

6.     Award for Transitioning to Virtual Workplace (Danone India)

7.     Award in Innovation in Career Development for (Danone India- South East Asia)

In the closing of his message, Thibaut said “I would also like to thank Normalis, our HR Director for India and Southeast Asia, all the ISEA HR Directors and leaders, and our 2000 Danoners for making this winning culture a success across the region which creates a lot of value for Danone, our ecosystem as well as growing our people”.