Warner Bros. Discovery’s specific training needs and The Allyance’s tailored answer
💖 The purpose of The Allyance is to help both companies and candidates: companies wanting to reach excellence in hiring and candidates wanting to find the perfect companies.
➡️ Laura Rapp works in Human Resources at Warner Bros. Discovery France, the French branch of Warner Bros. Discovery. She was eager to follow the lead of the parent company on diversity and inclusion at the local level and made sure her staff got training sessions customized to their needs.
__ __ __🔗 DIVERSITY IN ACTION N°12 - Laura Rapp
__ __ __Laura Rapp, can you tell us more about your background?
🤝 I have held the People Partner position at Warner Bros. Discovery France for the past two years and a half. A People Partner is our terminology for a person in charge of human resources. I deal with the onboarding and the career development of 150 people.
💪 We really focus on training and on skills development. And the Warner Bros. Discovery group, to which we belong, has defined the fostering of diversity and inclusion as one of its strategic priorities. This is also why we wanted to develop this idea at our local level.
✌️At Warner Bros. Discovery France, many people work in marketing and sales, which was new to me since I dealt with people in more operational positions in my previous jobs. But what really makes the Warner Bros. Discovery staff stand apart is their passion.
How did you find out about The Allyance?
👀 Ok, true story. I started with an online search and contacted the more mainstream training organizations with whom we usually work. I knew Caroline from the time we worked together in another company, years ago. I looked for her on LinkedIn and that is how I came across The Allyance.
🗣 As for selecting The Allyance, it happened quite naturally. Caroline and I started discussing my proposal in a transparent and precise manner. She knew the topic thoroughly and we had an established level of trust. This led me to organize a meeting to finalize the choice of The Allyance with my manager, and with the SVP Diversity and Inclusion for International at Warner Bros. Discovery. The four of us really were on the same page and I immediately knew our collaboration would be conclusive.
Caroline delivered a training program specifically tailored to the needs of Warner Bros. Can you tell us more?
🚩We wanted to raise the awareness of our staff about unconscious biases that can lead to discrimination. We also wanted to touch upon the question of harassment in the broader sense.
✨Caroline designed two training sessions (that were delivered a total of seven times) that fit these needs and enabled us to really reach out to the 30 or so people who attended. Not only did she exactly respond to our need in terms of topic, but she also suggested a time-frame that made it possible for them to take part. Her training sessions lasted one hour and a half. She was the only one with such a format: the proposals we had from other companies were much longer. Finally, her sessions were interactive. She had quizzes for example, and that is great in order to have all the attendees on board.
⚖️Because Warner Bros is part of the Warner Bros. Discovery group, we had to be aligned in terms of messages and approach. To do so, we had calls and exchanges with our legal team and the Diversity & Inclusion one based in the UK. Caroline’s training sessions had to be translated into English for this purpose. But because she bases her demonstration on legal references and serious academic or official sources, the legal team green lighted everything, barring minor marginal changes. The fact that Caroline documents and sources all her assertions gave Warner Bros. Discovery full confidence in the quality of her proposal.
First slide of the tailor-made training created for Warner Bros. Discovery France (since the training happened, the company updated its name and logo)
What happened after the training sessions?
📢 After the first training session, we noticed a word of mouth effect: colleagues talked about it among themselves and, as a result, even more people had enrolled for the second session. That, in itself, speaks a lot about satisfaction.
🤗 Our staff representatives also heard a great feedback about these two training sessions with some employees that have additional expectations and focus on this subject. As a result, we are thinking of proposing a new session with a stronger focus on unconscious bias in order to to meet targeted expectations of some employees and to reach ever more people in the company!
This initial session was also offered to our sister company Turner Broadcasting System France.
How was your experience collaborating with The Allyance?
🔥I really appreciated Caroline’s reactivity and her patience with the various back and forth we had. She adapted to our complex organization. She made the effort to understand our specific issues and approaches and delivered a training that was specifically aimed at our staff. We really appreciated the fact that she took the time to learn about our processes and that she mentioned them (namely the existence of an external mediator and of a charter for Warner Bros. France) during the sessions. Other training organizations often do not bother and only talk about what they know.
Would you recommend The Allyance?
🥇That’s a big yes! Actually, I have already done it! I recommended The Allyance to friends who work in HR in other companies. Really, once again, a big thank you to Caroline and The Allyance!
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CONCLUSION
A few words from Caroline, The Allyance CEO:
“Helping Warner Bros. Discorvery in its awareness efforts has been an amazing experience. The company is careful about diversity, belonging and inclusion. Laura Rapp has helpt me tailor the sessions while Asif Sadiq, Senior Vice President, Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, introduced every session we did to make sure we embarked the maximum employees! I am extremely proud of our work together and the feedback we got.”
✔️ Want more?
If you are interested in knowing more about The Allyance trainings, feel free to get in touch with us.