At Criteo, significant investment is made in team growth. Consequently, Criteo recognizes the importance of talent development. Employee and manager development is pivotal in ensuring sustainable performance and success as a high-growth global tech company.

In 2016, a new Learning&Development (L&D) team was established within the Human Resources (HR) department to foster professional development initiatives. Four main challenges are shaping Learning&Development strategy and policy:

• Criteo‘s fast-paced environment, which requires continuous adaptation to changes in markets, businesses and organizations and the development of effective solutions in a highly competitive market;
• Growth hacking, which requires developing talents and team performance to keep up with innovative marketing through on-boarding and induction and strong initiatives to support managers and leaders;
• Criteo‘s global presence, which requires an inclusive approach for people across regions and organizations with diverse and multi-cultural profiles;
• Criteo‘s position as ad tech‘s star performer and game changer, which requires that all talent is cutting edge.

Since 2015, Criteo has bolstered its learning and development efforts to tackle these challenges. The company has invested in teams that are dedicated to ensuring a positive learning experience for all Criteo employees, using bold, impactful, and effective learning content. The key players are:

• Criteo‘s Products and Solutions enablement team that collaborates with internal subject matter experts to deliver dozens of in-class or virtual class sessions on vertical market/industry products (overviews, refreshers, new product launch);
• Criteo‘s Training Managers who support growth (Mid-Market sales) and are seated with the business teams;
• Criteo‘s Global Learning&Management Development Director who shapes overall L&D strategy and leads global endeavors and flagship programs.

As demonstration of this investment, in 2016, Criteo spent $2,059,590 on training initiatives for the legal entities covered in this chapter.

In addition, Criteo has invested in new technologies to create a more compelling learning experience, ensuring inclusive reach on a global scale and putting valuable resources at the fingertips of all employees. These include a unique e-platform (referred to in-house as “The Learning Zone”) that grants employees access to a multitude of e-learning modules created in-house or integrated from third-party resources. The online resources are available to managers, staff and employees with specific job profiles or roles depending on the content (soft skills, managerial skills, financial fundamentals, language training, programming or data processing skills) and are accessible in up to eight languages. The Learning Zone makes it possible to create internal on-line content relating to systems and tools (such as HRIS and expense reports), Criteo Products and Solutions and onboarding (FlyCriteo Welcome On Board).

The Learning&Development team works closely with HR Business Partners, HR Directors and the Finance department in all regions company-wide to ensure that:

• The level of training spending per employee is fair and consistent;
• Training and development activities are aligned and prioritized with regard to business needs and Criteo strategy as well as people and team performance development;
• The Career Path/Development framework (which is currently under construction) is effective.

Training and development at Criteo address a broad range of knowledge and skills as illustrated below:

Formal training development opportunities may be e-learning sessions prescribed to employees or available in the online catalogue. They may also take the form of in-class or virtual class sessions (instructor led), and address a broad range of knowledge and skills to meet the specific needs of all staff. On top of these “formal” training and development activities (in-class and virtual class sessions, e-learning, videos and coaching), Criteo also encourages and promotes “informal” training and development activities, such as collaborative or peer-to-peer learning and on-the-job training, which are also part of the company‘s DNA.

In this chapter, the training presented encompasses face-to-face training sessions and on-line training for the entities represented in the scope of this work.

Face to face training sessions are either organized in-house or through attendance to public courses and the vast majority are organized with third-party facilitators/training firms. A few are organized with internal subject matter experts or trainers. Most of the numerous "Criteo Product" enablement sessions (virtual class or face to face sessions to disseminate knowledge on Criteo Products), or on-boarding for all employees (within Sales or R&D) are not taken into account because attendance for these cannot be confirmed.

For the scope of this report, only the training sessions that focus on improving on-the-job efficiency of employees is considered. Therefore, some trainings are voluntarily excluded from the scope (this includes training on health and safety, internal management tools), so as to only show a conservative value when representing Criteo‘s investments in people development. Hence, within this defined scope, the total number of face to face training for the relevant legal entities for 2016 was 17,979.5 hours. This represents an average of 9.7 hours per employee (using average 2016 head count).

To obtain this figure, Criteo relied on the reports submitted by HR Business Partners across regions/countries and organizations who tracked all organized training sessions (topic, dates, duration, attendance, and provider/facilitator). In 2017, systematic tracking of attendance sheets (or equivalent training evidence) across entities is a clear priority and a "must". Efforts have already been implemented to increase awareness of the importance of formal tracking of training initiatives. This will contribute to the continuous improvement of the reliability of the training figures and confirms Criteo‘s strong investment in talent development.