diversity
We
firmly believe that the development of our teams’ diversity is key for the
business to move forward. Promoting diversity through recruitment and career management
is contributing to our effectiveness and the quality of our labor relations. That
is why we signed the business diversity charter in 2004, alongside other leading
multinationals. We are fulfilling our commitment with two major programs: promoting
gender equality and integrating disabled workers.
promoting gender equality
The Group is particularly committed to ensuring gender equality. In line with
the collective agreement signed in 2004, a taskforce set up in 2005 promotes exchanges
of best practice at European level. In 2006, this working group submitted a report,
which was discussed during a plenary session of the Group European works council.
We widely distributed this report and will follow up its recommendations. More
generally, we encourage initiatives designed to enable women to network with one
another and take advantage of the opportunities available within the Group.
Naturally, efforts to promote gender equality depend to a great extent on the
situation in each country, but already women occupy key positions in various Group
companies. In Egypt, for example, women now account for close to 20% of managers
at Mobinil, where their progress is being encouraged.
In Romania, half of the Group Management Committee is made up of women.
Since its launch in 2005 we have been strongly involved in the Women’s
Forum
for the Economy and Society. We are part of the international advisory board,
which is responsible for contributing to the international and development of
this program.
We are also members of Cercle InterElles,
created in 2001 on the initiative of
several women business leaders, including one former member of our Group’s management
board, working to promote equal opportunities in the workplace.
The Group has set up a disability program built around three main areas:
- a commercial focus within the Group Accessibility Division;
- a non-commercial focus within the Orange Foundation; and
- a human resources focus in France with a national policy promoting the recruitment, integration and continued employment of workers with disabilities within the business, managed by “Mission Insertion Handicap” .
Created in 2003, the disability integration office (Mission Insertion Handicap) is responsible for ensuring the effective implementation of commitments made under our enterprise agreement of July 2003 for the integration and continued employment of disabled people. On a regular basis, it organizes awareness-building days within the company – “demystifying disability” – combining theory with practice, notably through role-play workshops based on three handicaps: motor, visual and hearing. The level of participation in these sessions is growing, covering an increasingly diversified public.
In addition to building awareness, we promote the recruitment of disabled workers by:
- having a “Candidate-library” reserved for applications from disabled people;
- the publication of openings on dedicated sites for disabled people;
- having partnerships with various shakeholders about the professional integration and redeployment of disabled workers;
- giving to for disabled students and graduates on the employment possibilities and professional paths available and
- contributing to training future young disabled graduates (short courses, work placements).
We are seeing results. In 2006, 38 disabled people were recruited in France, and a number of actions are carried out on a daily basis to facilitate the integration of disabled workers: adaptation of workstations, Braille keyboards, voice synthesis and image enlargement software, training and financing for sign language services, to name a few.
