A responsible employer

True to its cooperative values, Groupe BPCE fosters the active engagement of its more than 100,000 employees by offering them favorable conditions conducive to their personal development and well-being at work.

Promoting the quality of working life

In its drive to attain its strategic objectives for 2030, Groupe BPCE is actively encouraging the engagement of its employees. Hybrid working practices, digitalization, and artificial intelligence are all areas where we support the development of our different business lines by investing in the training of our employees and by paying particular attention to the quality of their working lives (QWL).

Groupe BPCE is also committed to diversity, equity and inclusion at every stage in its employees’ professional lives, including the development of their career paths, the pursuit of gender equality, diversity, fairness, inclusion, the consideration of parenting responsibilities, health at work, etc. We are committed to creating a conducive work environment that allows each one’s talents to shine.

A healthy work/life balance

With the signature by the Group’s different companies of the charter of 15 Commitments for a Work/Life Balance, we recognize how critically important it is for employees to strike a healthy balance between their private and professional lives to ensure the quality of their workplace experience and to improve the company’s performance. Clear commitments have been made with regard to our employees’ ability to disconnect from work, organize their schedules, and optimize time spent in meetings or in managing their e-mails.

Parenting responsibilities also concern three quarters of the employees working for our Group. We are taking concrete action in this area, notably by offering part-time work opportunities for both men and women, providing training to bring them up to date with changes in their professional activities after a long leave of absence, and organizing specific HR interviews before and after maternity or adoption leave.


Hybrid work, a new reality

The organization of work has evolved significantly under the impetus of various factors.

We are responding to these challenges by combining remote working with in-person attendance and by offering a more flexible and dynamic working environment. We provide secure access to the digital tools required to facilitate interaction and collaborative work.

In this, we are actively pursuing the four key objectives of economic efficiency, a reduced environmental footprint, employee well-being, and customer satisfaction.

Customized support

In the context of the far-reaching changes affecting the banking industry as expressed in the new ways of organizing work, it is essential to provide each employee with flexible support tailored to their specific needs. We are adopting a number of measures in this area, such as the Human Impact Assessment (HIA) process that enables us to guide our change management plans and to keep them aligned with any emerging transformations.

The professional integration of young people

As a responsible employer, we have made concrete commitments to promote the employment of young people, especially in France. Groupe BPCE has mobilized around the need to encourage the integration of young people into the world of work, as evidenced by its commitment in June 2024 to welcome 1,000 students aged 15 to 16 from secondary schools located in Priority Urban Areas, following the implementation of the scheme launched by the French Ministry of Education. This engagement reinforces the Group’s commitment to equal opportunities and the professional integration of young people with no fewer than 4,000 young people recruited on work-study programs by 2023, and 25% of employees under the age of 35 on permanent contracts.

More than 4,000 young people on work-study programs

Because talented people with different backgrounds and career paths have their place in our Group, we are developing a large number of initiatives designed to break down the barriers between the corporate world and young people, and to encourage them to join us. In 2023, for example, 110 employees from eleven of our companies worked with the association Nos Quartiers ont des Talents (‘Talent from the Tenements’) to help young graduates from disadvantaged areas to find their first job. Another example is our work with the Capital Filles (‘Girl Capital’) association in which 203 female employees became mentors to young women graduating from high school in rural and disadvantaged areas and supported them in making their career choices.

The employability of people over the age of 50

Talent knows no age, which is why we are committed to promoting the place of people over the age of 50 in our Group and combating age-related stereotypes. Our aim is to enable everyone to develop and flourish, regardless of their age or experience. This is why, in June 2023, alongside 46 other companies, we signed the commitment charter in favor of the employment of people aged over 50, an initiative launched by the L’Oréal Group and the Landoy Club, a think-tank dedicated to demographic transition.

Supporting our caregivers

In France, almost 9 million people have a disability or suffer from diminished autonomy, a figure that is set to rise with the progressive aging of the population. Considering that 55% of caregivers also pursue a professional activity, our Group supports those of its employees who also provide care to others. In particular, we offer awareness-raising initiatives for our management and employees, information guides and access to platforms offering services and work organization solutions. This approach was awarded 1st prize in 2021 by the Prix Entreprise & Salariés Aidants (‘Awards for Companies & Employee Carers’).

Groupe BPCE also carries out studies devoted to caregivers with a view to encouraging public debate about this question: the first study published in 2021 by BPCE L’Observatoire focused in particular on the issue of money in the caregiver relationship. For the 2023 edition, the chosen theme was how caregivers reconcile caregiving with their working lives.

Health and safety: two priorities

All our companies assess occupational risks, target appropriate prevention actions and the solutions to be adopted. Each company has a Social & Economic Committee along with a Health, Safety & Working Conditions Commission. One of our more significant commitments is the fact that we take account of cancer and chronic illnesses in our HR policies. So far, 24 of our companies have signed the charter drawn up by the Cancer@work association that has been working with its member companies for more than ten years to help people with cancer to remain in their jobs and to change the way people think about the condition.

Health through sport

We have been involved in sport for many years and are convinced of the importance of practicing sport for good health. We also encourage our employees at every level of the company to take part in sporting events organized by Groupe BPCE Sports, an association that boasts more than 3,500 members, or through intra-company challenges involving all Group companies.

The Paris 2024 partnership: sport as our legacy

To prepare for the legacy of Paris 2024 Olympic & Paralympic Games, an event supported by Groupe BPCE in its capacity as a Premium Partner, we launched the Sport Health & Collective Commitment program with a view to encouraging the practice of sport within all Group companies as a way to have a positive impact on our employees’ health. The program is also part of the Group’s drive to attract and retain employees, and to contribute to its diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.

Promoting diversity in all Group companies

The challenge of gender diversity

We are taking a number of actions affecting the very nature of our structures to promote professional equality between men and women, such as making the principles of gender equality an integral part of all HR processes, ensuring strict parity in all senior management training programs, and supporting women in the management of their careers.

Fifteen of our companies have been awarded the AFNOR Professional Equality label, a distinction that makes it possible to guarantee third-party verification of the effectiveness of the processes implemented. The signing of the Gender Equality Charter (download the Charter), a document laying out ten priorities for our Group’s different companies, further strengthens this commitment. We also run 31 women’s networks set up to raise awareness of the issue of gender diversity among all our companies and to speed up the application of these principles.

Consistent with our desire to foster a respectful working environment for both women and men by enforcing zero tolerance for sexism, we have joined the #StOpE initiative, a collective of a hundred or so companies, associations and schools committed to the fight against ‘everyday’ sexism in the workplace.

Under French Act No. 2018-15 dated September 5, 2018, for the ‘Freedom to choose one’s professional future,’ companies with the required workforce draw up indicators to determine their level of commitment to professional equality between women and men. The ambition adopted by the Group as a whole and by its principal companies in this area is given tangible expression in a score of 92 out of 100 in 2023.

This index takes account of five differently weighted scores:

  • The gender pay gap (score: 37 out of 40),
  • Salary increases (20 out of 20),
  • Promotions (15 out of 15),
  • Salary increases upon return from maternity leave (15 out of 15), and
  • The distribution of men and women in the ten highest pay levels (5 out of 10).

Score of 92 out of 100 group gender equality index

Ten years after the adoption of the Copé-Zimmermann law that paved the way to gender equality in the boardrooms of large companies, the so-called Rixain law dated December 24, 2021 tightens the requirement to have women appointed to senior executive positions and as members of senior management bodies. Companies with more than 1,000 employees are now required to have at least 30% of their positions in senior management and on their executive bodies held by women by March 2026, a proportion rising to 40% by March 2029.

Thanks to Groupe BPCE’s commitment to gender diversity, we obtained in late 2023 a consolidated view of the scope of the companies concerned that satisfies the first threshold well ahead of the March 2026 deadline, i.e.:

  • Senior executives: 35% women – 65% men
  • Management bodies: 37% women – 63% men

LGBTQIA+ inclusion

By signing the LGBT+ Commitment Charter advocated by the L’Autre Cercle organization, the Group’s Executive Management Committee undertook to ensure equal rights for all LGBT+ employees, and to combat all acts of discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. This commitment is reflected in the openness of our parenthood programs to all forms of parenthood and conjugality, as well as in the organization of in-house awareness-raising initiatives to combat homophobia and lesbophobia in the workplace.

We also support All Equals, the LGBT+ network, which has members in our various companies.

Promoting the employment of people with disabilities

Within the framework of their commitment to diversity and the promotion of equal opportunities, Groupe BPCE companies have been implementing a policy aimed at fostering the social and professional integration of people with disabilities since 2006.

This policy is based on a number of structuring measures, foremost among which are the Handicap Agreements, which define the framework, set objectives, and mobilize human and financial resources to act on 4 main levers:

  • Job retention,
  • Access to employment and professional integration,
  • Changing attitudes to disability,
  • Responsible purchasing policy.

In each Groupe BPCE company, a Disability Officer supports people with disabilities throughout their career with the company, working in conjunction with Human Resources managers, managers and occupational health services. His or her role is to reconcile the constraints linked to the individual’s disability and their professional situation, while guaranteeing each individual fair and equitable career development prospects.

Inclusion through employment
  • 4,440
  • 6%
  • 9.6 million euros