2020 Annual Financial Report

Actions engagées face à la pandémie de Covid-19

1. Managing the crisis

• An ad hoc crisis unit, known as the Group coordination unit, was set up at the end of January 2020, when the teams in China were confronted with a local lockdown and the application of restrictive measures, in order to set up and standardize decision-making protocols across the entire Group to protect the health and safety of employees, as well as to distribute a framework of rules to be followed to ensure employee health. This coordination was led by the Secretary General; it made it possible to monitor the number of sick employees or those having had contact with Covid-19 cases on a daily basis. Mirror crisis units were set up in each country (or region) to monitor the local situation in real time, with two modes of functioning: daily during periods of local lockdown or partial easing of lockdown, and weekly during periods with no lockdown.

Governance bodies engagement

• The Chairman and members of the Management Board were informed of the health situation once a day throughout the year. The Management Board decided the broad outlines and structuring measures, while implementing country-by-country operational management to give everyone the flexibility and agility necessary to adapt their actions to the local situation. Close coordination of actions was put in place. The resources thus implemented, combined with the exceptional mobilization of teams throughout the organization, made it possible to manage this crisis in a remarkable way throughout the year. 
• The Supervisory Board was kept constantly informed by the Management Board and was involved in the important decisions taken by the Management Board according to the evolution of the health crisis, its impact on employees and on the activity of Publicis Groupe. A specific update was given at each meeting to this effect. The Supervisory Board congratulated the Management Board on the way in which this unprecedented crisis was managed,  with the Group’s employees and assets protected, costs kept under control and the relationships with the teams and clients enhanced. 

2. Three Group priorities addressed simultaneously

Employees' health & safety

• Physical health: protecting employees from any risk of contamination was the guideline of the action plan. In just a few days, the Group organized itself to provide all employees with the necessary equipment and transfer almost all of its workforce (95%) to remote working. Employees almost entirely stopped travelling for work. 
• Mental health: the health crisis at its most intense was a sometimes painful experience for many employees; not only because of the risk of contamination for themselves and their families, but because of the sudden change in working methods and the isolation that this caused. The Group extended access to local applications and solutions to all employees, enabling employees to be supported, whether through widespread access to telemedicine or access to new services as part of its EAP (Employee’s Assistance Programs) offers, or access to dedicated applications. Lastly, in order to enable everyone to get through the lockdown under the best conditions, the Group financed the transfer of certain employees who were a large distance away so that they could join their families.