Innovative - 2019 Annual and Sustainable Performance Report

Innovative for People

I FEEL A REAL ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN THE GROUP AND ITS EMPLOYEES.

What is the role of Arkema’s values of simplicity, solidarity, responsibility and performance in talent management?

T. P. – One of our strengths is the way these values are linked. They are the best foundations to build for the future. I feel a real engagement between the Group, as an organization, and its employees, and I have particularly felt this in the way we have managed the current crisis. I really focus on the quality of talent in the Group. We succeed by taking on people in all types of activities, in different parts of the Group’s structure and of the world. We must apply talent management to everyone, based on our values. In other words, we must give everyone the opportunity to progress in all business lines, sites and countries, without necessarily needing a vertical promotion system everywhere, but by offering opportunities for career changes through training and skill sharing. Someone could move from human resources to sales, or from an operational role to a support job. We should encourage this functional agility, risk taking and geographic mobility. We should facilitate inter-departmental, inter-business unit, inter-country mobility, to break up silos and go beyond our comfort zones. Someone who has worked in different areas, lived in different places, and is familiar with different types of products has more opportunities. We are a Group of more than 20,000 people of more than 100 nationalities, including 13,000 people who work for us outside France in some 50 countries. This is a great strength. Our career management policy must reflect the demographics of our workforce.

By promoting diversity?

T. P. – A company that gets it wrong through a lack of diversity sends out a negative message. But while diversity is important, it is not enough. We must be inclusive. We must bring people into our Group not because they are different, but because they are capable. In today’s talent war, we will not be attractive if we do not think about all these aspects: internationalism, diversity, inclusion, mobility. We must send out powerful messages to the market, internally, and to our partners.