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Skills and career development: a Group priority

Objectives:

Encourage mobility, a valuable asset in the development of the Group
Help society’s underprivileged sectors and populations
Develop employee skills and expertise through ongoing training
Develop innovative training programmes (tailored courses, e-learning modules, etc.)
Implement a new appraisal process

Highlights in 2008:

99,581 employees Group-wide (excluding Rosbank) were given training in 2008, 69.5% of which were women
3.55 million hours of training

Career development – a benefit for Société Générale and its employees

The career development of its staff is a priority for Société Générale. Its careers management, mobility and training policies are adapted within each entity to suit their activities and staff. The Group aims to offer its employees a career path that is coherent, varied and motivating - one that leads to increased experience from which staff and company both benefit.

A number of means and resources are available to Société Générale employees and managers in terms of career development:

Mobility
Training to enhance technical and behavioural skills
Courses for professional promotion and the development of managerial skills

Mobility - a strong driver for development

Staff mobility overseas is encouraged by Société Générale as it fosters a deeper understanding of different cultures and stronger team cooperation.
While mobility only affects a limited number of staff, it is vitally important for certain activities overseas, such as the Group’s international Retail banking and Private Banking businesses. Thanks to the rules and tailored processes in place, overseas mobility is an excellent way of using employee expertise where it is needed most.

In France, functional mobility affects a large number of employees. In 2008, over 8,908 employees changed jobs, 71% of whom work in Retail Banking. In terms of internal promotions, 4,495 Société Générale France employees changed status¹ in 2008 (4,648 in 2007), 56.8% of which were women.
Moreover, measures have now been taken to enable staff, and more particularly women, to be promoted without having to be systematically relocated.

Training - an ongoing investment

As Société Générale’s development depends on the development of its employees, it constantly seeks to identify their skills, both concrete and potential, and to help develop them.
Training is designed to help staff meet their professional goals and add to their qualifications, both academic and otherwise.
Société Générale attaches a great deal of importance to seeing its employees develop beyond their immediate context and to assisting staff, whatever their profile, by giving them access to executive training programmes and a professional career path.
Training is also intended to promote the Group’s values, particularly that of diversity – hence the e-learning module on non–discrimination implemented in 2008. Designed to assist managers in dealing with discrimination, the module has two concrete objectives:

To better identify potential discrimination in the day-to-day management of staff
To devise efficient measures to prevent discrimination

In France, Société Générale has increased its training budget to EUR 2,740 per employee, i.e. 4.46% of its entire workforce.

NOTES

Classification as specified in the labour agreement for the banking industry.