CSR

Diversity and Inclusion

By ENGIE - 24 April 2023 - 13:23

Policy

At the Group level
In 2022, for the first time, ENGIE adopted a Global policy for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). This policy has a dual objective of helping the Group progress in terms of the representation of the diversity of populations and in making all work environments inclusive. There is no place for either discrimination or harassment in any form.


This policy:

  • is aimed at all employees;
  • must adapt and be modified to local legal and cultural contexts;
  • is designed to change Group culture;
  • is scalable over time;
  • and contributes to performance. The priority subjects defined for 2022 and 2023 are:
  • gender equality (notably with the Fifty-Fifty program);
  • the question of LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender / Transsexual plus);
  • origins (including nationalities, ethical origins, skin color, religion, social background, education and non-standard career paths);
  • generations (the integration of young people and the employability of seniors);
  • and the issue of disability.


The new “Be.U@ENGIE” policy allows each employee to feel free to be themselves (“Be.Unique”) to fully contribute to the Group’s collective ambition (“Be.United”). A road map will be rolled out across all regions as of 2023 and managed by a DEI World Committee.

In France
For many years, the Group has implemented a corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy that is proactive, ambitious and innovative. It aims to combat discrimination and promote equal opportunity and treatment. This measure has been recognized by the award of the Diversity label for the first time in 2012, confirmed by regular audits and extended in 2022. The most recent audit was carried out in September 2020 and confirmed the Group’s commitment to promoting diversity and equal opportunities. It praised the many initiatives taken by all the entities in France.

 

Gender diversity

ENGIE aims to become a benchmark for professional and pay equality. Two new Tier 1 non-financial targets were set and approved by the Board of Directors:

  • pay gap between women and men less than 2% on equivalent positions at the Group level, by 2030;
  • gender equality, with an objective of 40% to 60% of women in management positions by 2030.


For ENGIE, diversity, professional equality and inclusion are innovation and performance drivers. ENGIE has therefore launched and has been rolling out the Fifty-Fifty program since 2020. This program is based on a systematic approach to creating the conditions needed to achieve gender equality.

This program came in response to demand from the Society, ENGIE’s customers, and its stakeholders. Its road map is based on six pillars: structuring and governance, diagnostics and certification, communication and awareness, organizational adaptation, employee training and development, and external resonance. For ENGIE, it means becoming a best-in-class in this area and attracting the best talents.

Since 2021, each entity has benefited from a “Fifty-Fifty toolbox,” tailored to the professions and cultural environments of each region, mainly focused on:

The training and development of employees

  • three “Diversity, Professional Equality and Inclusion” programs have been rolled out since May 2021: one online program for all employees and two on-site and remote programs, one for mentoring and the other one for the Group’s managers and senior managers;
  • in 2022, the Group continued to roll out the Wo+Men to Lead personal development program, for male and female leaders;
  • a partnership with the Women Initiative Foundation has been focused since 2020 on training employees ininclusive leadership, in cooperation with major international universities.


Communication, team awareness raising and the sharing of best practices

  • events are offered to all employees during the year: to mark International Women’s Day, to raise awareness among managers and HRs regarding bias in recruitment;
  • A “Sexual Harassment and Sexist Action” guide was compiled in 2022 and shared with the Human Resources and Ethics teams in each of the Group’s countries, led by the Executive Committee which sought to reaffirm the Zero Tolerance policy on this subject;
  • awareness raising workshops have been organized by the entities’ Executive Committees since 2021. These workshops aim to raise awareness among managers, helping them build equality-driven action plans within their entity;
  • the Fifty-Fifty Awards, a competition open to all to award the teams that are most invested in gender diversity, hasNbeen organized annually within ENGIE since November 2021;
  • an online media platform containing plenty of resources (videos, testimonies, articles, best practices) was created on the Group’s e-learning platform in November 2021;
  • conferences and the sharing of best practices targeting “Diversity, Professional Equality and Inclusion.” These are available throughout the year to ENGIE employees looking to launch new initiatives within their scope. This network called Change Drivers was founded in November 2019.
  • The ChangeMakHers network, created in 2021, brings together leaders trained to challenge the status quo within the organization and showcase ENGIE’s commitment outside the Group, through conferences, partnerships and round tables.


Diagnosis and EDGE certification

  • in December 2022, 15 entities in nine countries obtained EDGE certification in Diversity and Inclusion; seven others are currently undergoing certification. This certification offers international recognition of gender equality and covers the corporate culture, recruitment, promotion, mentoring and training of its managers;
  • in October 2022, 25 questions relating to “diversity, professional equality and inclusion” were included in the ENGIE&ME annual engagement survey;
  • in May 2021, the findings of the audit of the processes used to assess talent, in order to make them more inclusive, were reported. Recommendations are regularly applied or updated.

At the end of December 2022, women made up 26.1% of the Group’s workforce. The proportion of women in management was 29.9%. The proportion of women on the Operational Committee is 35.2% (19 women and 35 men). The proportion of women on the Group Executive Committee is 40%
(four women and six men).
 

External resonance
To promote gender equality within its business lines, ENGIE is raising awareness among young female audiences through the “Elles Bougent” association. which promotes the role of women in technical sectors in France. Furthermore, as part of its partnership with Le Laboratoire de l’Égalité, ENGIE has been helping since September 2019 to develop an artificial intelligence pact. This ensures that new technologies underlying HR processes that incorporate Artificial Intelligence are not discriminatory in terms of gender.

Moreover, as part of its commitment to the apprenticeship foundation, Fondation Innovations Pour les Apprentissages (FIPA), ENGIE has undertaken to start a school class dedicated exclusively to young women, “les Ingénieuses,” which aims to help them becoming Engineers. In September 2021, four young women from ENGIE joined this promotion. In September 2022, ENGIE continued its commitment with the start of a second promotion.

Finally, since 2022, ENGIE has been taking part in the Rise & Lead summit which brings together business leaders and entrepreneurs to share best practices and ideas to drive change toward diversity, equity and inclusion.

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Professional and pay equity

As part of its CSR policy and to support its purpose, ENGIE had made the decision to extend the French obligation to calculate the professional and pay equity index to all of its companies abroad with more than 250 employees. As a reminder, this index is based on several criteria: the gender pay gap, the difference in the distribution of promotions and individual pay raises, the number of employees who received a pay rise on returning from maternity leave and the number of women among the ten highest-paid employees.

In 2022, in line with its ambition and for greater readability, the Group decided to focus, among the professional and pay equity index indicators, on the equal pay indicator. It measures the difference between the compensation of men and women. ENGIE has decided to set a maximum gap objective of 2% at the Group level for equivalent positions.

For 2022, the difference in compensation between women and men stood at 1.73%. In a high inflation context, ENGIE has been able to reduce this difference.

All the companies use a decision-making tool called EQUIDIV, developed by the Group HRD. The tool offers an automatic and standard calculation of the index based on individual data. EQUIDIV provides priority remedial actions to advance professional and pay equality between women and men.

On November 22, 2017, ENGIE has signed a European Agreement for an indefinite period on professional equality between women and men, the fight against discrimination and violence, and the prevention of sexual harassment. Sexist behavior was the subject of a specific article.

In 2022, the Human Resources Department, in cooperation with the Ethics, Compliance & Privacy Department, introduced a practical guide aimed at all ENGIE countries and entities. This guide aims to align definitions and help the latter draw up their own program to prevent and combat sexist behavior and sexual harassment. The awareness-raising campaign began with a webinar in October 2022, committing each entity to building an action plan for “Zero Tolerance.”

ENGIE is committed to taking all necessary measures to prevent incidents of sexual harassment. Reporting tools have been put in place to enable any deviant behavior to be flagged. In early 2021, ENGIE took part in the BVA/#StOpE on Sexism scale for the first time.

In addition, on the basis of an international benchmark of legislation in force, the Group has defined a common international reference framework designed to eradicate sexual harassment. ENGIE launched a global information and awareness campaign on domestic violence on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Moreover, ENGIE includes on the energy bills sent to its all eight million customers in France, the freephone number “SOS femmes battues" for female victims of domestic abuse. The public is therefore kept informed of measures to combat violence against women.

 

Inclusion and job-seeking support

ENGIE is highly committed to this subject and develops many innovative initiatives in partnership with its ecosystem to promote learning.

 

Social and professional inclusion of young people
As a founding member of the Collectif des entreprises pour une économie plus inclusive (“Group of companies for a more inclusive economy”), the Group has been, since 2018, taking action countrywide, alongside 35 large companies and public authorities, For example, an escape game was created to raise awareness of ENGIE’s occupations among young people. The strength of the Collectif is the ability of companies to share their experience and allow everyone to benefit from shared
know-how and a local network. These actions promote the inclusion of young people, particularly those who have been distanced from employment or come from the most disadvantaged areas. In particular, ENGIE has undertaken to host 3,000 young people from priority neighborhoods for a period of three years, from the third grade until they start their working lives.

The Collectif launched an extensive program in September 2022 to encourage the development of mentoring among its members with the aim of reaching 1% of mentors among all employees of the 36 member companies by end-2023. In this regard, ENGIE has committed to developing its external mentoring, in addition to the existing internal scheme.

In 2022, ENGIE took part, alongside the companies within the Collectif, in the Salon Jeunes d’Avenir (Youth of the Future trade show) in the Ile-de-France region. This event was an opportunity for Technician Ambassadors to present the Group’s professions and for several female site managers to share their experience with young women looking for workstudy contracts and career advice. The Group also launched the “prépa apprentissage” initiative (prepare to learn), which welcomed ten young people who had dropped out of school and were distanced from employment. After taking part in the initiative, six joined ENGIE’s Apprentice Training Center.

The Group is committed to the social and professional inclusion of people in severe difficulty or in a situation of exclusion. Since 2020, ENGIE has chaired the French GAN (Global Apprenticeship Network), enabling to:

  • encourage corporate initiatives;
  • act on factors hindering the development of work-study programs;
  • connect these initiatives with real career opportunities for young people;
  • use professional training as a springboard for accessing the world of work.

The various institutional, associations and corporate partnerships also facilitate the employability of young interns and apprentices, both internally and externally. Close attention is paid during all stages of the recruitment process, for interns and apprentices in particular, to ensure a more inclusive recruitment process.

 

Employees with disabilities

ENGIE is fully committed to the area of disability, including at the highest levels of the Group. In France, it is mainly involved in recruitment, integration, support and job retention, awareness-raising, communication and collaboration with the sheltered sector.

Managers are invited to follow e-learning courses designed to raise their awareness of all aspects of disability in the company. A webinar on disability was hosted on October 6, 2022 by Jean-Sebastien Blanc, Executive Vice President in charge of Human Resources, with the aim of raising awareness among all Group employees.

In addition, in 2022 ENGIE designed a program specifically for the Group’s young work-study students and interns. The aim is to make them aware of any personal disabilities that they may have, in order to assist them, if necessary, in obtaining recognition of their disability. This program also allows to raise their awareness in their future role as managers and will be fully rolled out in 2023. 

Thanks to financial and human resources, €3 million per year on average and more than twenty disability advisors supported by local representatives, ENGIE has around 2,136 employees with disabilities in France. ENGIE’s employment rate in France was 3.4% in 2022.
The collaboration with the protected and adapted work sector (ESAT and adapted companies) makes the inclusive vision of the Group’s CSR commitments a reality. It aims to ensure the viability of indirect jobs, promote the local economy and encourage professional integration.
On October 3, 2022, Chief Executive Officer Catherine MacGregor signed a national agreement with the GESAT network, which represents 2,250 ESAT and adapted companies in France. The objective is to facilitate access for Group companies to suppliers employing people with disabilities.

As part of work on digital accessibility, ENGIE became involved in 2022 in an inter-company training program for digital accessibility coordinators. This training is reserved for people with disabilities.

 

LGBT+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender/ Transsexual plus)

On December 6, 2017 ENGIE signed the L’Autre Cercle’s LGBT+ commitment charter. In October 2020, in France, ENGIE published the practical guide “LGBT+, understanding to act together” in order to raise awareness of the question of LGBT+ in the workplace. ENGIE participated in the 2020 edition of L’Autre Cercle’s 95 LGBT+ & Allié.e.s au Travail Role Models in France. Two employees were designated in the LGBT+ Leaders and Allié.e.s Dirigeant.e.s Role Models category. In 2021, ENGIE stepped up its actions to boost diversity and combat discrimination, with:

  • the launch of “Friends,” the Group’s network of LGBT+ and Straight Allies employees;
  • the worldwide publication of a new guide, “Understand each other to better act together”;
  • the training of 150 Human Resources staff in France;
  • the provision of a training / awareness-raising catalog for management committees, managers, employee representative bodies and all employees;
  • the participation for the second time in the “Role Models” of L’Autre Cercle, with two candidates presented.

In 2022, ENGIE North America was awarded for the second year running by the Human Rights Campaign (score 95/100). Actions taken to improve equal treatment for LGBT+ employees in the United States were recognized.