Encouraging Female Talent
The chemical industry has historically been dominated by men. At Arkema, we’ve long been pushing to change the status quo by hiring female talent.
“Talent is the only thing that matters.” Dominique Massoni deliberately underscores the comment. “It is the only focus, the only ‘bias’ acceptable in Arkema’s recruitment and career advancement
policy,” emphasizes the Vice President, Human Resources Development & Internal Communication. No distinctions are made on account of origin, age or gender, in keeping with the company’s ethics and — it goes without saying — legal requirements.
“Arkema hires people who are both ready to work in operations and able to think ahead to help us build the future. That being the case,” continues Dominique Massoni, “there’s plenty of room for women here. Not because they’re women, but because of
the professional expertise and potential they have, like anyone else.”
DISPELLING STEREOTYPES
Determined to shake things up, especially among managers, Dominique Massoni was quick to enlist an expert, objective approach. Patrice Georget, a psychology and sociology researcher and consultant, leads seminars to educate French managers about perception
and judgment issues. It’s an innovative approach. “We’re not just looking at training certain recruiters anymore. We want to reach everyone routinely tasked with developing know-how and soft skills cross-functionally. The issue,” stresses the expert,
“is how to manage people who are very different from one another, factoring in their personalities, experiences, cultures, training and education. Unless we’re careful, we can all fall into habits and stereotypes that can lead us to adopt discriminatory
attitudes without even realizing it. Becoming aware of these perceptual and judgment biases will have consequences for how we manage and make choices. It’s a way to take a step back, to heighten our discernment.”
MENTORING AS A WAY TO ACHIEVE GENDER EQUALITY
To counter the risk of a glass ceiling and support the advancement of our female employees, we have created a mentoring program for them. Volunteer mentors — male or female senior executives — are trained to coach and assist their mentees in developing
their careers. First tried with 21 female managers in 2016, the initiative has since expanded to 60 women. There is no “performance contract” or subordinate relationship in the mentoring pairs. Mentors draw on their experience and offer astute advice
to help their mentees, talking to them regularly about career management and opportunities offered at Arkema.
30 % of Arkema’s middle managers are women.
