Carrefour : provides its future senior managers with an immersive experience working for French start-up companies

Carrefour is enhancing the training pathways of young high-potential graduates via its Graduate Manager and Graduate Digital programmes.
Once they have completed their three-year training courses (including one year abroad), these young managers will spend several months working full-time in a French technology start-up company. Carrefour ensures that innovation and digital technologies are central to its human resources strategy and policy - it works closely alongside new company OSCARh, which provides managers from major companies with temporary mobility pathways working for start-ups.

Develop the entrepreneurial spirit
Carrefour has its sights set on hiring 30,000 young people under the age of 26 in 2016 (5500 employed on work-study programmes) and is committed to being a positive influence on the job market. This new initiative is an example of its commitment. Thirteen young Carrefour managers will spend three months working full-time in 13 different French start-ups. They will be involved in helping these companies to grow and will be given tasks to do with their marketing strategies, their business development strategies and their organisational structures. 'The corporate world is constantly changing; as the leading private employer in France, we are committed to being at the forefront of innovation at all levels. By providing our young graduates with immersive traineeships working with start-up companies, they get real opportunities to better understand this digital ecosystem which nowadays is a key aspect of Carrefour's operation', says Isabelle Calvez, Head of Human Resources for Carrefour France.

Support the growth of small French tech companies
To help them acquire new expertise, Carrefour has decided to place these talented young people with thirteen start-up companies. Some of them are involved in developing innovative new social and environmental solutions, such as 'OptiMiam' - an application designed to reduce waste. It keeps its users informed in real time of special offers on surplus food stocks among retailers in the vicinity, and Carrefour is one of its partners. Another example is 'I Wheel Share', a platform that people can use to map and share venues and events that are suitable for people with reduced mobility. Others provide new services, such as 'Mobeye' - an application that invites customers to fill in short questionnaires while they shop. In exchange, they get discounts. And then there is 'Coephe' - a platform specialised in opening, fitting out and managing pop-up stores.

Carrefour's Graduate Manager and Graduate Digital programmes - springboards for talented young people
Carrefour's Graduate Manager and Graduates Digital programmes take on around twenty high-potential young graduates every year from France's prestigious management and engineering institutes. These young people get customised support over several years. This very quickly