CSR reporting is based on social, societal and environmental indicators collected within the Groupe’s 720 entities and, since 2009, with a rate of coverage of the Groupe’s workforce of 99% (the exclusions being entities acquired within the last six months). Epsilon was integrated on July 1, 2019, all Epsilon entities are fully consolidated in the 2020 scope. The scope of CSR and non-financial reporting is aligned with that of financial reporting, which includes all subsidiaries owned at more than 50% by the Groupe. Three indicators are subject to lower coverage rates, and exclusions are due to the lack of data on these topics from our subsidiaries:
2020 CSR reporting focuses on the period from January 1 to December 31, 2020 and is carried out annually.
Quantitative, social, societal and environmental data is collected in accordance with financial reporting rules and processes via a dedicated module (HFMCSRGRI) incorporated into the financial information system and specific verification, control and validation processes. This data is under the responsibility of the agency and country Financial Directors.
Qualitative, social, societal and environmental information is collected via a dedicated internal platform (NAXOS) which is accessible to all agencies. Qualitative information is placed under the responsibility of the agency and country Chief Talent Officers (CTOs or Human Resources Directors), who sign off on the content shared.
Both of these tools are linked in order to ensure consistency and run materiality tests. The definitions and calculation methods are aligned with the GRI and are presented in the CSR Smart data section.
The scope of impacts includes the Company and all its subsidiaries (100%), as well as some third-parties associated with digital activities for clients (e.g. servers) and those relating to employee personal travel, and integrates a part of the supply chain and some suppliers (those assessed by EcoVadis).
CSR is under the responsibility of the Secretary General, who sits on the Management Board. CSR issues are reviewed by the Management Board and monitored by the Strategy and Risk Committee, so that members of the Supervisory Board can be updated with changes in progress. Certain topics related to talent and diversity are regularly addressed during the meetings of the Supervisory Board, and appear on the agenda of the monthly meetings of the Management Board.
A summary of key indicators is presented to the General Shareholders’ Meeting annually.
The CSR Department coordinates an internal CSR Steering Committee that brings together the Groupe’s main corporate functions (finances, HR, audit, legal, procurement, risk management, etc.). The CSR Steering Committee plays a role in the detailed work done on integrated reporting. The CSR Department works in project mode with various teams worldwide. Using a dual approach: “push” to help with the roll out of internal initiatives and to push forward certain issues, and “pull”, with the comprehensive steering of non-financial reporting.
The Internal Control and Internal Audit teams verify, during the course of their work carried out throughout the year, that the agencies correctly implement the CSR reporting processes and have access to historical tracking of data and information.
CSR reporting is done within each Groupe entity (720 in 2020) with the assistance of the CSR Champions in the agency and the support of the teams in the shared services centers (Re:Sources) who are closely involved from the earliest stages of the reporting. The internal guide, titled 2020 CSR Guidelines, is updated annually; it defines the required collection and validation processes at the different levels, as well as the content and definitions of the various indicators (over 90 quantitative and qualitative indicators). This manual was distributed to a cross-functional working group of roughly 100 people and 1,000 contributors during preparatory webinars held from October 2020 to January 2021. In the course of its data checking and verification process (of each indicator per agency), the CSR Department at HQ was in direct contact with all the local teams during the final consolidation phase.
All of the quantitative data and qualitative information is checked and analyzed by the Groupe CSR Department, who compiles the consolidated reporting for the whole Groupe. Bureau Veritas auditors have completed 110 on-site audits in agencies, but conducted remotely: United States, Colombia, Costa Rica, Germany, United Kingdom, France, South Africa, India and China, as well as five new countries: Australia, Italy, Russia, Mexico and Canada, i.e. 14 countries representing 52.68% of the total workforce. The whole CSR report is checked by the external auditors (see Opinion in Section 4.9) in accordance with regulatory requirements: they check the consolidated quantitative and qualitative data, processes and explanations and hence the consistency of the whole financial year by conducting random checks in all Groupe entities.
