In France, the Group is continuing its long-term partnerships (Associations Frateli, Nos quartiers ont des talents, Baissez les barrières, Jeunesse et Entreprises, C’Possible, Prométhée Education, etc.) since, to be effective, support should be carried out over the long term.
In March 2018, in partnership with the C’Possible non-profit, the Group organized events for National Youth Day (JNDJ) as it had previously with another non-profit. The objective was to put young high school students living in underprivileged circumstances in touch with the world of business. On the strength of this success, an event was held in April 2019, during which two classes of penultimate-year high school students were given the opportunity to attend various presentations illustrating the wide range of jobs in advertising. The Group’s Secretary General attended and spoke at this event.
With regard to the allocation of the apprenticeship tax, diversity is still a key priority for the Group (training, job profiles, etc.), which continues to back several pilot high schools for young people from disadvantaged districts. The Group remains committed to the fight against youth unemployment, to promoting the employability of young people and to fostering their integration with different partners, as it does within “The Alliance for YOUth” led by Nestlé, which this year, with the help of Alliance partners, expanded the initiative on a global level.
With regard to professional gender equality, in France, 15 Group entities with over 50 employees published their gender equality index with an average score of more than 95/100. This is now monitored each month by the France Executive Committee, led by Agathe Bousquet, CEO of Publicis Groupe in France. Group agencies are active in terms of professional development, promotion and compensation. The agencies also take part in the activities of the internal network, VivaWomen! which enables women to participate regularly in debates on leadership, mentoring and personal development. The Egalité (LGBT) network was also re-launched across Publicis France with a new program.
The percentage of disabled employees in France was 1.59%. The integration of disabled employees remains a priority (no global Group indicator due to legislation in different countries). Agencies welcomed 28 interns in 2019 under the AACC (trade) and Rectorat de Paris programs. A disability initiative was organized with the support of an internal network of 13 trained contacts.
The Group is keen to make its work and documents, particularly corporate publications, e-accessible, and to encourage video subtitling. Agencies routinely offer to make their clients’ content e-accessible.
Group agencies continued to work on reducing the gender pay gap via their respective action plans. They worked on agency-wide collaborative projects relating to recruitment, career development and equal pay. With a majority female Executive Committee, for Annette King, CEO of the Publicis Groupe in the United Kingdom, equality issues are a priority and are monitored monthly. Mandatory since 2017 for companies with more than 250 employees, i.e. eight Group entities, this Gender Pay Gap reporting is showing improvements but there are still disparities. Action plans have been bolstered as well as corrective measures. Legal teams continued their management and team training programs, particularly on Unconscious Bias for women and men.
VivaWomen! UK continued its work to support employees in the United Kingdom by organizing events and small work groups. Égalité UK pursued its internal awareness raising 4 campaign designed to change attitudes with regard to LGBT related questions. These initiatives are run by employees for the benefit of other employees and are part of an inclusive internal culture.
