Facing challenges in attracting talent to its rural site, Flex expanded its traditional apprenticeship programme, which enables students aged 15 or 16 to enter a four-year programme and specialize in electrical engineering, mechatronics or metal techniques. It blends academic learning with professional training. Investments in the programme have allowed Flex to grow the number of apprentices by 20% since 2020 while increasing the participation of women to 25%. CASE STUDY 9 Flex offers apprenticeship programme for young talent – Austria Unilever Pouso Alegre, aiming to expand employment opportunities to disadvantaged population groups, partnered with the Center of Reference of Social Assistance (CRAS) to solicit job candidates – especially women, refugees and underrepresented groups. This intentional hiring effort sought to overcome factors that had presented obstacles to these groups, including requirements for specific job knowledge, minimum education levels, language requirements and minimum prior experience. The company’s traditional hiring process took up to three months, precluding people in vulnerable situations who could not wait that long. Unilever designed a pilot programme that set aside dedicated job openings and accepted applications in multiple languages. They shortened the hiring process to one month, during which candidates received a cost-of-living stipend while onboarding. A training programme, built in conjunction with a local technical high school, enabled candidates to learn basic job skills, along with mathematics and Portuguese. The pilot hired 20 people and was so successful that Unilever embedded the process into recurring business. The programme provides access to a wider talent pool, reducing vacancies and improving diversity – including increasing the number of Black workers by 50%, the number of female workers by 9% and the promotion rate of Black workers by nearly 40%. Programme participants have also had a lower turnover rate than the larger worker population.CASE STUDY 10 Unilever develops a hiring programme for disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds – Brazil Putting Talent at the Centre: An Evolving Imperative for Manufacturing 20

Putting Talent at the Centre An Evolving Imperative for Manufacturing 2025