Diversity and Inclusion

By Author: Mr. VIPIN AGRAWAL (MENTit Both)
Affiliation:

The company which did the research report- Societie generale group

About the company – Societe Generale is one of Europe's leading financial services groups and a major player in the economy for over 150 years, which supports 30 million clients every day with 133,000 staff in 61 countries. 

“Building together, with our clients, a better and sustainable future through responsible and innovative financial solutions.” 

Area of research– The report focuses on:

1) Creating a work environment conducive to include-

  1. Diversity and inclusion at every level of the organization
  2. Strong group commitments to diversity
  3. Values conveyed through common measures

2) Promoting employee diversity that reflects their customers and societies-

  1. Employee careers based on skills 
  2.  A balanced compensation police
  3.  Engaged employee communities

3) Fighting against all forms of discrimination-

  1. Focus on gender equality
  2. Focus on generational balance  
  3. Focus on non-discrimination of the LGBTQ+ community  
  4. Focus on people with disabilities

Participants of the survey - In September 2020, an internal PULSE survey on diversity and inclusion was sent out to all employees (that includes more than 133,000 employees representing 137 different nationalities working in 61 countries, and 56% of the workforce employed outside France) to assess their views on integration at the company and better understand their expectations. 

Societe Generale is the first CAC40 company to carry out a survey on this scale, involving all its employees worldwide. The responses will make it possible to go further in targeting the issues that the group’s employees are facing.

The main points of discussion in the survey:

1) A balanced compensation policy - Gender equality index score, which stands at 86 out of a maximum score of 100 for the 2020 financial year. It is comprised of several indicators, such as:

  1. the pay gap between women and men
  2. disparities in individual pay raise
  3. the percentage of employees who received a raise during the year in which they returned to work from maternity leave
  4. gender equality among the 10 highest earners
  5. the promotion distribution gap

2) Internal communities that actively participate in promoting its commitments to diversity and inclusion - The involvement of employees in these internal networks underpins the group’s actions. These networks are based on values such as socio-cultural origins, professional equality, sexual orientation, intergenerational issues, disability or neurodiversity for which employees become true ambassadors.

3) The code of conduct – With the saying “All our employees must be able to develop professionally and personally in a safe working environment and enjoy respectful working conditions.” The Code of Conduct applies to all of the group’s activities worldwide including stakeholders, managers and HR professionals. 

4) Gender equality -

  1. Leadership development programmes are planned specifically for women.
  2. Putting in place mentoring programmes to help women develop their careers.
  3. Supporting entrepreneurship with, for instance, the Female Fintech for Good challenge.
  4. Keep in contact with women during their maternity leave and make their return to work easier. Conferences dedicated to fatherhood have also been organised to support fathers/ single parents in their role and in sharing the responsibilities of parenthood.
  5. The “Women in MARK” initiative aims to encourage diversity in all activities and processes, develop the potential of female employees, attract more female talent and increase the retention rate of women.
  6. Providing support for women during the crisis - The Coaching Community provided around 1,000 people with individual or group coaching at the beginning of a health crisis. 50% to 55% of women have benefitted from this support.
  7. Leave for adopting parents - At the end of the parental leave for legal adoption, the adopting parent is eligible for additional standard paid leave, namely 45 calendar days at full pay or 90 days at half pay.

5) Generation Balance-

  1.  Reverse mentoring, which aims to explore and put into perspective the digital processes that are developing at the group and local level and to strengthen the inter-generational links between ‘digital youth’ and experienced managers.
  2. Focus groups, which offer workshops on adapting community projects to young people.
  3. Supporting seniors in areas of training, health and prevention, adjustments to working hours and end-of-career skills transmission dedicated development programmes.

6) Non-discrimination of the LGBTQ+ community -

  1. Pride & Allies Network
  2. Conversational guide to LGBTQ+ issues
  3. The Rainbow letter - These newsletters include LGBTQ+ articles from around the world and from Societe Generale but also address specific issues that are rarely covered by the media.
  4. Mobilising through sport to fight LGBTQ-phobia - This is an unprecedented approach to mobilise and encourage all those involved in professional rugby to promote diversity in the interest of the community in sport and society.

7) For people with disabilities -

  1. Hiring, integration and support programmes, particularly in Romania, the Czech Republic, Germany, Serbia, Spain, Algeria, India, Japan and the United States to promote the employment of the disabled.
  2. Measures to keep employees in their jobs at Societe Generale SA in France.
  3. Societe Generale SA in France has helped the protected worker sector set up manpower and skills planning for managing its human resources.
  4. Measures ensuring its banking services are accessible to disabled customers.
  5. Awareness-raising and training in managing disabilities provided to management and operations teams whose activities directly or indirectly impact the disabled.

Findings of the survey:

75% of employees think that their work environment is sufficiently open and inclusive to everyone’s differences and uniqueness.

  1. 43% WOMEN in management positions 
  2. 29% WOMEN on the Management Committee
  3. 25% NON-FRENCH NATIONALS on the Management Committee
  4. 137 DIFFERENT NATIONALITIES, working in 61 countries
  5. OVER 105 ENTITIES (96% of the Group’s workforce) have policies or implemented measures promoting gender equality 
  6. 100/100 IN THE CORPORATE EQUALITY INDEX for LGBT+ policies and practices at Societe Generale, New York
  7. The average age of employees is 38 
  8. 2,641 EMPLOYEES have disabilities 
  9. 86/100 In the Gender equality index at Societe Generale SA in France.

Questions :

1) What is the title of the survey report?

  1. Closing the gender gap
  2. Fighting against discrimination
  3. Work environment
  4. Diversity and inclusion

2) The survey was done by?

  1. Standard chartered
  2. Global markets
  3. Societe generale
  4. Synchrony

3) Societe generale is the ____ company.

  1. Retailing
  2. Financial services
  3. Banking
  4. NGO

 4) Societe generale has been a major player in the economy for how many years?

  1. 200 years
  2. 100 years
  3. 150 years
  4. 50 years

5) What is the average age of employees?

  1. 25 
  2. 35
  3. 28
  4. 38

6) ____% of employees think that their work environment is sufficiently open and inclusive to everyone’s differences and uniqueness.

  1. 50%
  2. 65%
  3. 75%
  4. 82%

7) The group’s ambition is _____.

  1. diversity and inclusion are strategic priorities
  2.  building a company together that is open to all and made better by its differences
  3. Involving all its employees worldwide.
  4. Have a shared framework across all its entities worldwide

8) Which of the following statements is false for creating a work environment conducive to inclusion?

  1.  Diversity and inclusion at every level of the organization
  2. Strong group commitments to diversity
  3. Values conveyed through common measures
  4. Increased collegiality in the appointment of senior executives

9) Which of the following is not a point of “Promoting employee diversity that reflects their customers and societies”?

  1. Strengthen management strategies
  2. Employee careers based on skills 
  3.  A balanced compensation police
  4.  Engaged employee communities

10) Fighting against all form of discrimination means ______.

  1. Focus on gender equality
  2. Focus on generational balance  
  3. Focus on people with disabilities
  4. All of the above

11) Gender equality index score indicators ____.

  1. the equality between women and men
  2. disparities in pay raise as a whole
  3. gender equality
  4. the promotion distribution gap

12) Code of conduct refers to _____.

  1. Delivery of services
  2. Monitoring the group’s policies
  3. Rules governing the group’s activity
  4. Exercising good faith

13) Group’s gender equality is based on a variety of actions, except _____.

  1. monitoring of the representation of women within the entities’ management bodies 
  2. achieving targets and goals set by the governing powers
  3. public reporting or reporting to the employee representative bodies
  4. social agreements, which set targets for the promotion and advancement of women within the company

14) Which of the following is the group’s workforce policy or programme to promote gender equality at work?

  1. conferences dedicated to fatherhood
  2. focus groups
  3. the rainbow letter
  4. diversity committee 

15) Which of the following is the group’s workforce policy or programme to promote generalisation balance at work?

  1. conferences dedicated to fatherhood
  2. focus groups
  3. the rainbow letter
  4. diversity committee 

16) Which of the following is the Group’s workforce policy or programme to promote non-discrimination of the LGBTQ+ community at work?

  1. conferences dedicated to fatherhood
  2. focus groups
  3. the rainbow letter
  4. reverse mentoring

17) Which of the following is the group’s workforce policy or programme to promote the rights of people with disabilities at work?

  1. conferences dedicated to fatherhood
  2. integration programs for young people
  3. the rainbow letter
  4. diversity committee 

18) ______% of management positions are held by women.

  1. 20
  2. 45
  3. 47.2
  4. 46.9

19) ______% of women on the board of directors.

  1. 48
  2. 53
  3. 43
  4. 33

20) What % of employees with disabilities account for the overall workforce?

  1. 5
  2. 2
  3. 10
  4. 12

References:

Disclaimer:
The views/opinions expressed in this blog by me as a MENTit user are my personal. MENTit or its promoters or other users may not share the same views or opinions as mine. If any copyright/trademark/patent/plagiarism/controversy issue emerges because of this article written by me, I, as an author, shall be the sole responsible for the consequences.

x
Mentorship Description and need of the mentorship in everyone's life.