LAB 1: this program is designed for young people with high potential and for future managers in business and operational roles. This is a career fast-track program, with 66% of participants being promoted within 6 months of the end of the course.
LAB 2: Every year, a group of 50 experienced managers benefit from a unique experience via two, three-day, sessions a year, and group work lasting for two months, ranging from client projects to work on the Group’s internal transformation.
After operating as a pilot scheme for a year, the Marcel internal platform is now operational in the United Kingdom. This pilot scheme validated Marcel’s data, technology and operation in a full-scale test. Feedback has been incorporated into the next version, which is being rolled out Group-wide from April 2020. With Marcel, employees have a central role to play in terms of their skills and experience.
Marcel relies on information-sharing and collaboration to build the best team for each individual project, and to implement solutions that are appropriate both from a creative as well as a technological and data point of view, or even to rally support for a good cause. Developed thanks to the expertise of Publicis Sapient and in partnership with Microsoft, Marcel is transforming the way Group teams interact.
One of the advantages of Marcel is the opportunity that it gives to individuals to access numerous possibilities. Whether this involves taking part in a brief on an entirely new subject or thinking about career development, Marcel makes things easier. During the pilot scheme in the United Kingdom, all opportunities in London agencies were, for the first time, brought together and made accessible via Marcel. In numerous cases, offers were exclusive to Marcel, and were presented in a less formal and more attractive style.
Other initiatives set up to facilitate mobility include the YouXplore program piloted by Publicis Media, which was rolled out more widely across the Group in 2019 – for the 8th year running – in 35 countries and 48 cities. 250 young talents had the opportunity to spend two weeks working alongside other Group teams in another country, in other business lines and different organizations.
This program enables upskilling in a number of different ways and results in individual cultural enrichment. The program’s participants then go on to be a force for transformation in their agency.
8,218 employees benefited from international mobility in 2019.
Most agencies have adopted flexible working to allow for teleworking (from home, from the client’s site, or from another Group agency, etc.) particularly in major cities where travel times are significant. Employees are equipped with the tools required to facilitate their work. Flexible working methods (collaborative work, teleworking, variable hours and part time) are carried out within a strict framework within each agency in accordance with regulations. Each entity can determine specific conditions (based on workload, role in the team, task to be carried out for the client, performance, etc.) and employee eligibility criteria. Flexibility is suitable for numerous situations, and employees can benefit from it at different stages of their professional careers. With a view to being able to offer employees a variety of career paths, many entities have schemes such as sabbatical leave (eligibility criteria are defined locally) enabling employees to take a break and then return to work.
3,094 employees benefited from parental leave during 2019 (60% women, 40% men), with the knowledge that all employees are potentially eligible, depending on the local legal framework and, above all, on the local, and often more favorable, arrangements put in place by agencies. Agencies have reinforced their policies for maternity leave, not only with regard to the number of weeks of paid leave in countries with less favorable regulations, but also from a managerial point of view, in order to enable future mothers to better manage their return to work (with ad hoc support before, and after birth, and on return to work). Different initiatives are taken to facilitate family life: several large agencies (on all continents) have made breastfeeding rooms available and, on some main campuses, daycare is available too (e.g. Bangalore). Social benefit programs (via Employee Assistance Programs or EAPs) include provisions for childcare.
