Promoting the quality of working life
As responsible employers, we provide our people with the support they need at a time when our business activities, technologies, and organizational structures are undergoing far-reaching change. Consequently, one of our core preoccupations is the quality of our employees’ workplace experience. Within Groupe BPCE, the quality of working life (QWL) means creating an environment that enables everyone to deliver high-quality work in pursuit of the combined goals of customer satisfaction, social progress, and economic performance.
Concrete action has been taken to improve the quality of work, to achieve a better work-life balance, and to preserve the physical, mental and social well-being of our employees.
- 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 recognized 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, to organize their schedules, and to 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 on career development after a long leave of absence, and organizing specific HR interviews before and after maternity or adoption leave.
The Group supports those of our employees who are also caregivers by organizing awareness-raising initiatives for management and teams, by publishing information guidebooks, and providing access to platforms offering services and greater flexibility in working schedules. This approach won official recognition in the form of the first ‘Companies & Caregiving Employees’ prize in 2021.
- Hybrid work, a new reality
The organization of work has evolved significantly under the impetus of various factors, with the Covid-19 crisis further accelerating the pace of changes already underway. We are responding to these challenges by combining remote working with in-person attendance and offering a more flexible and dynamic working environment, made possible by the development of digital tools and the many possibilities for interaction and collaborative work they provide. In this, we are actively pursuing the four key objectives of economic efficiency, reduction of our environmental footprint, employee well-being, and customer satisfaction. In our BPCE 2024 Strategic Plan, we have set ourselves the goal of strengthening our innovative capacity with a view, in particular, of shaping the future of work by imagining new organizational structures.
- Supporting all our employees
In the context of the health crisis and the profound changes affecting the banking industry as expressed in the new ways of organizing work, it is essential to provide each employee with appropriate support. We are taking a number of measures in this area with, notably, the Human Impact Assessment (HIA). This mechanism provides employees with an opportunity to express their own points of view and enables us to identify the consequences of ongoing transformations on the working community. Thanks to this global insight into impacts, we can adapt our change management plans and, if necessary, adjust the pace and direction of the transformation.
The professional integration of young people is another major social issue. Our Group is fully aware of its responsibility in this area and is making a concrete commitment in different ways with work-study programs, internships, and the financing of studies.