Priority 2: placing people at the heart of the group’s strategy
More than ever during these long months of the health, economic and social crisis, people have been put at the centre of the Lagardère group’s strategy. In addition to its immediate attention to the health, safety and protection of its staff, the Group has ensured that employee support measures have been adopted in every country in which it operates in accordance with local support mechanisms.
Dialogue with the various employee representative bodies has been particularly concerned with these various measures to support the most vulnerable and allowing people to work from home wherever possible.
Lagardère has long believed that the increased diversity of its human resources enhances its business performance and in 2020 it continued with its training and awareness measures on the basis of the three core principles of combating stereotypes, gender equality and providing a place for disabled workers. This applied at the level of the Group, which – as it does each year in France – organised training of managers selected by the divisions in managing diversity, as well as at the level of its international subsidiaries. In the United Kingdom, for example, the Changing the Story programme initiated by Hachette UK in 2017 allowed for initiatives to be launched via its THRIVE internal network. In the United States, where the Black Lives Matter movement triggered widespread awareness in 2020, initiatives were also organised such as at Paradies Lagardère with the creation of a Diversity & Inclusive Committee offering, among other initiatives for 2021, training and awareness-raising programmes on biases and stereotypes. Commitment to diversity and inclusion was also promoted by Lagardère News’ media publications, such as the Elle International network, which got 33 editions of Elle magazine around the world to sign up to its diversity and inclusion charter. The priority given to raising awareness about diversity is also reflected by an indicator in the CSR strategic scorecard to be finalised by the Group in 2021.
In terms of equality between men and women – which is also one of the Group’s priority commitments – Lagardère wanted to give greater depth in France to the dimension of combating everyday sexism in the workplace within the framework of its involvement in the #StOpE intercompany initiative. Having trained all its “workplace and employee sexism correspondents” in 2020, Lagardère devised for its other employees a tool to raise awareness about this matter, which will be made available to the whole Group in 2021.
92/100 Average (weighted for the number of employees) professional equality score for Lagardère entities in France.