Luxottica Group, S.p.A. (LUX)

HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT

2008 was another year in which Luxottica was one of the organizations most highly rated in terms of human resources management and development. In addition to the more traditional initiatives, the Company made considerable efforts to strengthen employees’ sense of identity and belonging, without which it is impossible to develop motivated, high-performing resources at all levels of the organization.

On the operations front, Luxottica’s values of imagination, passion, entrepreneurialism, speed and simplicity were translated into 12 specific management “commitments” under which the organization reshaped its main human resources development systems in 2008. The commitments were:

1.     To enrich the content of organizational positions, starting at the basic operating level, and reduce the number of managerial positions to those offering a clear contribution to the co-ordination and integration of the organization.

2.     To prioritize development of resources already in the organization and only bring in people from outside in cases of real necessity or opportunity.

3.     To select candidates whose profiles not only satisfy the required technical skills but also closely reflect the Company’s values and the style of professional conduct the organization expects.

4.     To favor positive and effective induction of new entries by creating the conditions for long-term, mutually satisfying relationships right from the start.

5.     To ensure systematic assessment of training requirements and design increasingly personalized learning and professional development programs.

6.     To privilege learning through action and the assignment of challenging tasks in order to continually improve people’s capacities.

7.     To measure performance mainly in terms of a person’s combined capacity to pursue objectives (the what) by adopting the right organizational approaches (the how); such performance assessment to be based on analysis of data and fact, thus achieving maximum clarity and objectivity of judgment.

8.     To use results obtained and speed of learning as the basis for assessing the capacity to accept increasing levels of responsibility in the organization.

9.     To render assessment of people’s performance and potential as democratic a process as possible, especially for the positions of higher responsibility within the organization.

10.   To ensure that meritorious resources can also develop outside their areas of entry and reward managers who foster the development of their resources by giving them opportunities to move outside the organizational units they manage.

11.   To develop channels for clear and effective communication of organizational development policies, strategies and plans and train managers to communicate effectively and always be ready to listen to their collaborators; and

12.   To develop a “value proposition” that effectively satisfies the various expectations and aspiration of individuals, thus making Luxottica a really ideal to place in which to work and improve.

Lastly, initiatives in 2008 to boost and optimize return on professional capital included:

·    Relations with universities: collaboration agreements were officially entered into with ISB, Hyderabad and CEIPS, Shanghai, thus enriching the portfolio of partnerships already in operation for years with other prestigious universities and business schools in various countries.

·    Succession plans: the corporate process of talent identification and definition of management succession plans for the key positions in the Group was extended across the entire organization.

·    Annual Incentive System: the short-term incentive system (MBO) was extended to all management and

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