With regard to the allocation of the apprenticeship tax, diversity is still a key priority for the Groupe (training, job profiles, etc.), which continues to back several pilot high schools for young people from disadvantaged districts (Article 1, Jeunesse et Entreprises, etc.). In 2020, France welcomed 115 young people on professional training contracts and 478 interns.
The Groupe remains committed to combating youth unemployment and supporting the employability and integration of young people with various partners, such as within All4Youth (previously The Alliance for YOUth) under the aegis of Nestlé, now rolled out in several countries. Arthur Sadoun, Chairman of the Management Board, made a personal commitment during two events: the launch of “Ally” (artificial intelligence developed by Facebook, Nestlé and Publicis Groupe) with a panel of young people questioning leaders; and “#TheStartupMindset” live event, continuing the dialog between young people and the CEOs of the Alliance. Agathe Bousquet, Chairman of Publicis Groupe in France, represented the Company at regional level for the “#BeFutureReady” event in October 2020 (workshops between young employees of Alliance member companies, on digitization and sustainable development); and a second round of discussions with members of the European Commission and the European Parliament. The objectives remain ambitious: to create 300,000 opportunities for young people across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, by 2025.
Within the agencies, a community dedicated to equal opportunities and the inclusion of diversities of social and ethnic origin was created in June 2020, under the guidance of the newly created Diversity and Inclusion Department. Composed of volunteers, it has developed an action plan (“Make it happen”) to defend and promote equal opportunities within the Groupe, business lines and society. This plan’s first actions have already been put in place, with the help of the Troupers agency, to integrate more diversity into castings, and with the launch of Publicis Track at the end of the year, a program designed to offer internships in agencies to young BTS (Associate Degree) scholarship students.
With regard to professional gender equality, 12 Groupe entities in France with over 50 employees published their gender equality index. Our operations overall scored 95/100. This Index is monitored by the France Executive Committee. These elements serve as a diagnostic under the professional equality agreement signed in 2020, which also provides, among other things, for the granting of financial assistance on the birth of a child and until his or her third birthday, as well as the introduction of full compensation for paternity leave. Lastly, Publicis France signed the “#StOpE” (Stop Everyday Sexism in Businesses) charter in December 2020 to confirm, with 120 partner companies, its commitment against harassment and discrimination.
The Groupe’s agencies are active in terms of career development, promotion and effective compensation. They participate in the activities of the internal VivaWomen! network enabling women to speak regularly on issues of leadership, mentoring and personal development; the Égalité network (LGBTQ) continues to grow with actions in favor of the defense of rights, education and communities.
The integration of disabled employees in agencies remains a priority (no global Groupe indicator due to legislation in different countries), either through the recruitment of people with disabilities, or support, in terms of adapting and reorganizing workstations, for employees with disabilities. The Disability team worked on the following topics:
The validated and final rate for 2020 will be available in mid-June 2021, and is expected to show a very slight improvement (1.74% in 2020 versus 1.59% in 2019).
The Groupe 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.
In July 2020, Publicis Groupe UK published its “Embrace Change” action plan in favor of Diversity, Equality and Inclusion, developed following an internal day dedicated to reflection in workshops and experience sharing, echoing the “Black Lives Matter” movement. To respond to the urgency of social inequalities, the teams have made the fight against discrimination of people from minorities a priority. At the same time, recurring actions continued, such as the legal teams’ training of managers and employees – women and men – on unconscious bias and with programs adapted to younger generations.
This “Embrace Change” plan is based on three objectives:
The Groupe joined the “BITC Race at Work” Charter (Business in the Community), which also makes it possible to monitor developments in the sector. This led to the creation of two specific positions filled in 2020 to lead the Diversity & Inclusion actions. Internally, the Publicis Groupe UK Behavioral Charter was introduced, built on the motto Viva La Difference, with a new alert policy to better monitor any incidents. The United Kingdom also has a Diversity Council, made up of people from outside the Groupe such as clients and social inclusion experts, who will meet twice a year to monitor the progress of the action plan.
Although in 2020 British regulations suspended the obligation to publish Gender Pay Gap Reporting, the eight agencies concerned continued their evaluation work, under the responsibility of Annette King, Chairman of Publicis Groupe United Kingdom, herself a role model to motivate other women to take on responsibilities.
Two new affinity groups joined “VivaWomen!” UK (supporting women) and “Equality” UK (for LGBTQI people); “Embrace” brings together employees from ethnic minorities and their allies, and “enABLE”, is dedicated to disabled employees and their allies. These initiatives are managed by employees for the benefit of other employees and are part of an inclusive internal culture, based on the sharing of testimonials and recognition of the wealth of different backgrounds.
