Our HR policy
Our key priority: to encourage and facilitate the sharing of skills, versatility and the exchange of experience in small, tight-knit teams.
In 2000 we introduced an intensive and carefully structured recruitment policy. Applied to all our business sectors, this approach has allowed us to significantly increase our workforce.
In 2000, there were 295 staff members in France: today there are 600 of us in France and more than 500 in international posts.
In 2008, we recruited 122 people on permanent contracts in France.
The large number of recruitments has lowered the average staff age to 36. These young teams, featuring a variety of profiles (recent graduates and experienced staff members), reflect the great diversity from which our strength and dynamism are generated.
This people-centred approach makes us more efficient and allows us to make skill-sharing a practical reality. In our small and highly responsive teams, versatility and the exchange of experience is put into practice on a daily basis.
Recruitment: straight talking and transparency
We are convinced that straight talking and transparency is essential for making a good start:
- from the first contact onwards, we clearly state the skills we are looking for and the mission we are offering you,
- an interview attended by the HR Division and your future operational manager gives you the opportunity to present your career plan, your motivation and your know-how,
- once you have taken up your post, the same people will be there to welcome you and provide support.
Baptiste A., 31, Paris
Accounting Manager, Finance and International
The right integration path
"I joined the Financial Division of SOGECAP in 2006 to take charge of the Financial Reporting Division. Our missions are to compile the financial reporting of SOGECAP and its subsidiaries for Société Générale, and to pilot tools for the Executive Committee.
After 4 years' experience in an audit consulting firm, I was familiar with the systematic approach and basic skills needed for this kind of post: rigour, analytical thinking, and the ability to work under pressure. Although I was motivated by the challenge of the opportunity to work in this young and dynamic company, I was afraid of my lack of experience in the life insurance business. As soon as I arrived at SOGECAP, I was able to start my integration through a broadly based approach: a presentation of Société Générale, which is necessary to fully understand the particularities of the group, and an introduction to life insurance, a very special sector inside the bank. SOGECAP then enabled me to adjust the programme to suit my specific needs and my availability. This rapid integration enabled me to join our Romanian subsidiary to take on new challenges as Finance and Administration Manager for a period of eighteen months. Currently back in France, I have taken up new responsibilities in the field of accounting on the international side."
Career development: personalised management
We believe that the expertise and know-how of our teams is our most important asset. That is why we must do everything possible to meet our staff members' expectations in terms of career development and management, and encourage their development and self-fulfilment.
Our career management approach is based on practical and complementary tools such as:
- the jobcentre, providing privileged access to vacancies for mobility, with a wide range of opportunities (in both functional and geographic terms in our French and international divisions, and within the group),
- HR interviews and annual appraisal interviews to set up a personalised action plan to support each career move (training, change of role, mobility, etc.).
José N., 39
Head of Training - France
From sales developer to head of training, via Morocco
"I joined SOGECAP in 1991. I had just got my diploma in Accounting and Management. I started to work in the Claims Management department, before moving to Customer Relations, and shortly afterwards in 1993 I joined the Training team.
In 1997, I was promoted to the post of Sales Developer at the Eastern Paris Delegation (Northern Paris Regional Delegation). Then in 1999 I was put in charge of sales development at the Marseilles branch.
In 2001, SOGECAP moved into Morocco. I was then given a chance to take charge of Sales Development and Training in our new subsidiary, La Marocaine-Vie. My expatriation lasted four years. This first experience was both enriching and interesting. I was in charge of a team of 13 Sales Developers who we had recruited. This was my first experience of management, and furthermore coincided with the company's move into a new foreign country.
When I came back from expatriation in 2005, I was put in charge of the SOGECAP training network. Today I manage five instructors who teach life insurance in the Société Générale network. The challenge has been to expand business, and to recruit and to build up the skills of a team whose expertise is today acknowledged by our contacts.
What's next? I'm looking forward to another international experience."
Access to the right training for business objectives
Once you have joined one of our teams, the development of your skills through training is one of our major HR priorities. To fit in ideally with your professional aspirations, our training courses are devised with two aims in mind:
- they cover all training in businesses, languages and IT,
- they are designed to encourage integration, and to develop skills or provide advanced training.
Patrice M., 44
Head of Systems and Networks - Orléans
Responding as quickly as possible to changes in our environment
"I am in charge of the Systems and Networks team which operates in a constantly changing technological environment. In addition, SOGECAP is particularly dynamic when it comes to innovative projects. To respond to these two challenges, and make sure our IT systems are available when needed, it is essential to keep the skills of both administrators and technicians up to date. This is done through a training action plan which is defined each year with HR, and which is flexible enough to be adjusted to the latest developments.
Furthermore, we regularly hire new staff members, who we train in the technologies used at SOGECAP by means of training courses linked to the induction plan."
A compensation policy which motivates and encourages responsibility
The benchmark surveys we regularly lead, confirm that our compensation policy is one of the most dynamic on the market. Thanks to its different components, it is possible to adjust compensation level according to the degree of competence in the role exercised and the individual performance of each staff member. It also includes collective incentives which allow all staff members to benefit from the global performance of the company:
- fixed salary: this is the remuneration of the skills used in each job. It is set on the basis of market best practices;
- bonus: the bonus is paid according to the ability of each staff member to achieve the targets set at the beginning of the year;
- statutory profit-sharing: this component allows each staff member to share significantly in the company's financial performance;
- profit sharing: the incentive is calculated on the basis of various criteria used to measure collective performance (customer satisfaction, market share, operating factor, and return on equity).
Our Group has 163,000 employees of 122 nationalities, present in 82 countries.