Human capital

EMPLOYMENT

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The growth of employment in the Lagardère group is closely linked to the growth of the business, which has largely been achieved through external acquisitions over recent years. At December 31, 2008, the media division employed 29,889 people worldwide.

Distribution of workforce by division at 12.31.2008

Temporary employment

Temporary employment is analyzed on a regular basis and successful efforts have been made to reduce it in the various divisions in recent years. The average level of employees on fixed-term contracts across all sectors is around 9%, though this varies significantly depending on the business (in the audiovisual sector, employees who are paid a fee for each appearance are included in this category) and the level of temporary staff varies from 1% to 8%.

Recruitment

The group receives a large number of unsolicited applications every year. This is a testament to the well-established reputation of our name and our brands, as well as to the degree of interest in our business and the ambitious scope of our projects. We are viewed as a highly attractive employer at every level of recruitment, but for all that, the group is continuing in its efforts to communicate with young people to impress the Media image on them even more firmly. In 2008, the group hired 7,736 staff.

Diversity

Women make up the majority of our group, representing 58% of the workforce. In 2008, 61% of the Group's new recruits were women - in line with the trend which has seen the proportion of women among its staff increasing.

Our group is, of course, involved in corporate social responsibility initiatives and tries to respond to the problems of diversity as part of this approach.

Before we put our name – as others have done – to a diversity charter, we looked at the subject in detail to analyze our strengths and weaknesses in the area, using this as the basis for shaping our Human Resources policies in relation to recruitment, remuneration, dealing with disability and defining performance indicators that were both appropriate and acceptable in ethical terms.

Through the code of ethics, which is given to all staff, employees in the HR department and all managers are already aware of the importance the group places on equality of opportunities and not discriminating against anyone for any reason whatsoever.

Some examples of the work done in this area include:

• Press activity: work on recognizing our integration of disabled staff.
• Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation: partnership with the Seine-Saint-Denis education authority to work on career advice and apprenticeships for young people.
• Joint work on the issue of diversity by the Human Resources departments in the Lagardère group.
• Development of an awareness-raising programme for managers.
• Creation of a free phone number for employees to call.