Formal Report Proposal – Improving the Internship Program at L’Oreal Indonesia

To : Dr. Erika Paterson

From : Emily Krisnamurti 

Date : October 6, 2019

Subject : Proposal to improve the internship program at L’Oreal Indonesia

Location of Study

L’Oreal Indonesia head office will be the location of this study, which lies in the heart of Jakarta, Indonesia; Central Jakarta. The office is located inside DBS tower, occupying the 29^th floor of the building. L’Oreal Indonesia is a busy personal care company with many highly qualified personnel working under a lot of different divisions including marketing, human resources, finance, etc.

Background Details of Readers

This report is intended for the Recruitment Manager; Indra Dharma and HR project Manager; Indri Sudarmadji. They are the ones who are in charge of the Internship Program as well as the Management Training Program for L’Oreal Indonesia. Both of these are well driven individuals who value interns, as they believe an internship program should be a stepping stone for interns to launch their career – it should be a tough, challenging, but fun and rewarding experience. I chose these two individuals as my target audience because they are the most relevant audience that could accept and perhaps implement my recommendations. 

Introduction

Life in the FMCG Industry is fast and stressful as the competitors are plenty and relentless, as a result L’Oreal employees are bombarded every day by deadlines whether it be presentations, delivering trainings, new marketing campaigns and many more. The office is hectic most of the time with people running around trying to accomplish each of their own mission, not having the capacity to handle any other problems but their own. Interns are often left astray as they are left to fend for themselves in an unfamiliar environment with unfamiliar people under the expectation that ‘they know what they’re doing’.

The interns in L’Oreal Indonesia lack proper guidance and training amidst all the stress in the office, and as a result their experience is not maximized. They could not only learn so much more given the proper facilities, they could very well also provide more to the company itself.

Statement of the Problem

L’Oreal Indonesia lacks proper training, guidance, and mentoring for their interns. As a result their experience in L’Oreal is not optimal as they do not learn as much as they’d hope and they could not provide what is expected, moreover this could potentially tarnish L’Oreal Indonesia’s reputation as not taking care of their interns as well as they should.

Scope

The main purpose of this report is to improve the internship experience of L’Oreal Indonesia. Over the next few months data collection will take place in L’Oreal Indonesia to see how the current end-to-end internship program actually operate, to see the potential gaps that could be improved. Mainly the data will focus on the following:

• What training (if any) is provided to the interns prior or during their program
• What qualifications do interns need to have
• What are the key expectations that must be delivered by interns in L’Oreal
• What are the interns’ satisfactory level
• How is their work compare to their package (salary and other benefits)
• What are some things the interns themselves would think could improve their internship experience

Methods

My primary data source for the report will include interviews, observations, and comparison to similar industry/company to serve as proper benchmark. The interviews will be conducted with the human resource department to drill down the internship program in L’Oreal Indonesia as well as the interns themselves who will be divided into 3 sub-groups:

• Currently interning in L’Oreal Indonesia
• Previously interned in L’Oreal Indonesia
• Soon to be interning in L’Oreal Indonesia (if available)

The purpose of dividing the intern interviews into different sub-groups is to get different perspectives of a similar experience. Current interns will be focused to answer questions on their current experience, the pros and cons, as well as their expectation vs the reality that they are currently in. Past interns will be focused to answer reviewing questions such as; what could be improved, what they found most rewarding/troublesome, their satisfactory level from their internship at L’Oreal Indonesia. Future interns will be focused to answer questions on their expectations of L’Oreal Indonesia such as; why they want to intern there, what they think the internship will be like, what they think their job description will be, what they hope to get from their internship program.

Observations will be done in the office to see what the daily activities of interns are like and to assess whether or not they are having a good experience based on qualitative data (e.g. the workspace itself, how clear is their daily job description, whether they are appreciated, how often do they get guidance from their seniors or managers, etc).

Secondary data will focus on comparing L’Oreal Indonesia’s current state of internship program with that of a similar company such as Unilever to compare some easy to access data (e.g. average salary of interns, whether or not they have proper training for interns, etc). This will serve as a comparison parameter which could be a benchmark on where to improve.

My Qualifications

I am currently interning in L’Oreal Indonesia and I am accustomed as to the package that interns receive overall. I am also accustomed to the procedures that L’Oreal Indonesia has for their interns. Being a current intern, I have access to plenty of resources for primary research and thus could gather plenty of data to make for a comprehensive report.

Conclusion

Even though L’Oreal Indonesia is a huge and well known FMCG company, their internship program could be very well improved. By improving their internship program, not only will they offer more for interns but will also receive more from their interns – this could very well increase their productivity and their reputation as well. By studying the above questions to find the gaps in L’Oreal Indonesia’s current internship program, I could determine some ways that the program could be improved on to benefit both the interns and the company alike.