The clothes help make the job applicant

Infor France donates 342 kilograms of business attire and accessories to La Cravate Solidaire 

The clothes help make the job applicant. It’s true, a professional appearance is a key factor in whether a job candidate is hired. Those who lack the right clothes are often at an immediate disadvantage.

But provide disadvantaged job seekers with quality business clothes and interviewing skills good enough to level the playing field, and they have a fair shot.

Nathalie Lopez — Infor WMS solution consultant manager and community engagement ambassador for Infor France — pondered these truths when she decided on the team’s fall charity event. From Oct 19 through Dec 8, all employees in the three Infor France offices — Lyon, Nantes, and Rueil-Malmaison (Paris) — could participate in collecting new and gently-used quality business attire and accessories for women and men, including outfits, suits, blouses, shirts, skirts, scarfs, ties, shoes, jewels, cufflinks and handbags, for donation to the nonprofit La Cravate Solidaire (The Solidarity Tie).

La Cravate Solidaire offers quality business attire to all who cannot afford to buy suitable clothes for a job interview to help improve candidates’ chances in their job search. The charity also provides image counselling so candidates feel more confident in their “new” clothing, as well as resume, cover letter and interview tips.

“Our request to employees to donate slightly used or new clothing and accessories was received very favorably,” Nathalie said. “Most employees participated.”

A big room in the Paris office was used for storage, with garment racks for suits and clean boxes for clothes and accessories. Each clothing, bag, and pair of shoes was carefully sorted, selected and packaged. Two employees drove the clothes dropped at the Lyon and Nantes offices to the Paris office to consolidate for delivery.

La Cravate Solidaire has a tradition of collecting a tie of the CEO of each company that partners with it. Infor CEO Kevin Samuelson kindly contributed one of his ties and so did Infor CHRO Ben Perry.

Infor CHRO Ben Perry ready to donate his tie to La Cravate Solidaire.

Why La Cravate Solidaire?

It all started in 2019. “We decided to launch a big charity event at Infor France to support a great social cause,” Nathalie explains. “A lot of Infor employees are customer facing, and they wear quality business attire. We all have a lot of clothes and accessories in our wardrobes, so we chose the La Cravate Solidaire because we wanted to be part of the success of people who have been badly treated by life.”

In early 2020, Infor France launched the first event for La Cravate Solidaire, and employees collected 380 kilograms of clothing and accessories. Remarkable!

“Because we were overwhelmed by the success of our first event and because solidarity plays a key role in our day-to-day lives, we launched a second collection event in October,” Nathalie said.

Donation, celebration and presentation of the ties

To close the event with a celebration on Dec 8, La Cravate Solidaire staff came to the Infor Paris office at Rueil-Malmaison to weigh and collect all the Inforians’ donations. Infor France employees donated 342 kilograms (754 pounds) of business attires, shoes, and accessories.

“Infor cares greatly about fighting workplace discrimination and ensuring equality of chances whatever your origins or life story,” said Infor SVP Frédéric Russo. “That’s why at Infor France, we’re proud to support La Cravate Solidaire in their work to give those less fortunate a real chance at achieving a better life through new and improved job opportunities.”

La Cravate Solidaire shared the Infor France event on LinkedIn.