Employee engagement
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT PLAYS A MAJOR ROLE IN REXEL’S SUCCESS AND IS ONE OF THE KEYS TO THE GROUP’S TRANSFORMATION. In order to attract, develop and retain its 30,000 employees, the Group relies on a foundation of common values as well as a participative and responsible human resources policy. In 2014, Rexel consolidated and renewed this policy in order to:
MOBILIZING EMPLOYEES
Employee feedback
The world is changing, and Rexel is changing along with it. The Group’s organization, professions, skills and business activities are constantly evolving. In order for its employees to be key participants in this transformation, Rexel asks for their feedback and includes them in its new roadmap.
After conducting opinion surveys, especially in terms of employee engagement, Rexel wanted to go a step further and analyze employee perception of the key components of the company’s identity. In 2014, 13 focus groups were held in 10 countries, with participants from various positions and managerial levels within the company. The aim: identify the DNA of Rexel’s Employer Brand. This exploration led to the development of Rexel’s Employee Value Proposition, which will be shared with all Group employees from June 2015.
These focus groups taught me a lot and improved
my motivation at work. I think that it is crucial
to understand the company’s values and our common goals. Personally, this gave me the opportunity to
clarify the path to my goals.
An organizational assessment
To further hone the Group’s organizational assessment, a survey was conducted in 2014 to determine the Group’s operational efficiency index, i.e. its ability to implement its strategic decisions, to execute them and to renew them. Forty interviews with various Group managers were conducted, allowing Rexel’s strengths and weaknesses to be identified.
40
INTERVIEWS
WERE CONDUCTED IN 2014
TO IDENTIFY THE GROUP’S
ORGANIZATIONAL STRENGTHS
AND WEAKNESSES.
Everyday values
The consistency between the Group’s values and the attitude of its managers is one of the key components in employee engagement.
In 2014, Rexel launched a 360° evaluation in order to assess the way in which Rexel’s values are experienced and promoted by the Group’s management. The aim is to make the 100 top managers into “model” examples as well as effective coaches who bring the Group’s values to life on a daily basis.
Rexel’s six core values guide the way
the Group interacts with its stakeholders
DEVELOPING SKILLS AND CAREERS
Rexel Academy
Career development is a key driver of the Group’s transformation and of its employees’ engagement. The launch of the Rexel Academy is in line with this momentum and is intended to respond to the Group’s direction in terms of customer centricity, commitment to Rexel’s values and collaborative work.
Rexel Academy will be a digital company university designed to be a widely accessible blended learning platform. Each training session mixes different media, while content sharing enables greater accessibility and cost optimization. Rexel Academy is also a training management tool that enables the creation of personalized training programs according to employees’ geographic location, management level and skills.
A wide-angle look at energy efficiency
DOMINIQUE BOSSU, Product Manager Rexel in Belgium
“When we talk about energy efficiency with our coworkers, customers or suppliers, we need to have not only the technical knowledge, but the general knowledge and fundamental vocabulary to understand each other as well,” explains Dominique Bossu, Rexel Product Manager in Belgium. To reach this goal, Rexel launched an online training platform that was tested in Belgium from November 2014 to January 2015. A representative selection of all personnel was invited to take part in one or several of around 20 online training courses on energy efficiency.
“The content is very didactic and goes well beyond a presentation of our products’ energy performance,” says Dominique Bossu. First, there are basic courses on the issues and key concepts of energy efficiency, which all employees must know. Next, there are more targeted courses for becoming more effective in our energy saving recommendations, whether in terms of ventilation and heating or motorization. They are product-centered but they also cover energy auditing and financing. Among the 20 people chosen to try out the platform, around 15 took at least one course.
5,532
EMPLOYEES TRAINED
IN ENERGY EFFICIENCY
IN 2013 AND 2014
“It’s a real advantage for one’s career development,” says Dominique Bossu. “It’s also a means of helping people to evolve, both professionally and in the way they approach their relationships with customers and suppliers.”
Rexel intends to extend this platform to all countries, thereby ensuring the consistency of training programs between the US, Europe and Asia. They will be aimed at two kinds of audiences: banner teams and specialists who are in contact with end users.
Annual interviews
All employees should be able to enjoy the career advancement opportunities that become available to them and engage in direct discussions with their managers. This entails skill evaluation and mobility management in particular. Rexel has adopted a proactive policy to extend the practice of annual performance interviews to all of its employees.
IN 2014,
62%
OF THE GROUP’S EMPLOYEES
HAD AN ANNUAL INTERVIEW
WITH THEIR MANAGER
Building loyalty through dynamic social policies
Health and safety
The Group guarantees its employees’ right to safety and health worldwide. In most of its countries of operation, Rexel offers its employees healthcare and disability insurance policies that supplement the mandatory coverage stipulated by law. The Group has also established a minimum coverage standard for work-related accidents, Rexel Plus Protection for All, which covers nearly 4,200 employees in 9 countries whose social protection is beneath the Group’s standards.
The main risks for Rexel’s employees are related to falls, road traffic, the operation of machinery, the handling of materials and cables, and computer work. Following the 2013 safety audit, Rexel launched a worldwide safety action plan with the goal of defining a safety policy and establishing safety standards for the Group.
As a responsible company and world-class leader,
whose success relies on its people’s energy all along the
value chain, Rexel has decided to launch a global safety campaign.
It underlines that the safety of our staff and all our stakeholders
is, and will always be, an essential part of how we do business.
A global safety campaign
A communication and global awareness raising campaign will be launched in 2015 and will be supported by the creation of a safety community.
ROMAN SAILER, Rexel Safety Manager
• What are the goals of the safety campaign?
It is the first to be organized by the Group in the area of employee safety and is meant to make everyone aware of the Group’s new policy. Rexel is strengthening its safety management, both to ensure the consistency of its actions and to support what is already being done at the local level. This means sharing best practices and creating a common message with respect to employees, customers and other stakeholders.
• What are the principal messages?
The key message is taking responsibility, which is expressed by the slogan “Be Safe, Be Responsible.” It is divided into 10 core principles to which every Rexel employee commits. The creation and enforcement of common safety standards that set the minimum requirements for all entities also constitutes a pillar of the safety policy, which will be completed by the implementation of a platform for the safety managers in our various countries of operation.
• What are the major phases?
The campaign was launched in May 2015 in our 127 logistics centers, with posters and communication activities every two months. It will be conducted in the same way in the 2,200 points of sale and 59 head offices beginning in September. In the meantime, this summer it will target the vertical markets of oil, gas and mining, where customer safety standards are particularly strict. During every phase of the roll out, activities and communication will be adapted to the primary safety risks for employees in our warehouses, agencies and head offices. At the end of 2015, all 30,000 employees in all 38 of the Group’s countries will be aware of Rexel’s safety policy.
Equal opportunity
The rejection of all forms of discrimination and the promotion of equal opportunity are central to Rexel’s ethics policy and are strictly enforced and respected.
In 2014, women represented 23.3% of the total workforce, a percentage that reflects the reality of the market and the low representation of women in the specialized distribution sector. The Group is committed to guaranteeing the equal treatment of men and women on a comparable basis and in every respect, including hiring, compensation, career development, training, etc.
In France, the policy of hiring the disabled was strengthened in 2013 by an agreement that provides for the development of partnerships to encourage the recruitment of disabled employees and the implementation of an integration plan. Awareness events are also organized for managers, employees and members of the Hygiene, Safety and Working Conditions Committees.
2.7%
DISABLED EMPLOYEES
IN 2014, VERSUS
0.8 % IN 2007
(FRANCE)
Social dialogue and employee association
to the Group’s performance
In order to maintain a fruitful social dialogue, Rexel encourages its employees to freely express themselves and respects their right to join labor unions. In 2014, around 840 employees took part in this dialogue through representative bodies and 137 employees were appointed as representatives by their labor unions. The European Works Council is a key part of this social dialogue.
8,000
Rexel employees
have become shareholders
in the company since the first
employee share purchase plan
in 2007
The Group involves its employees in its performance via its compensation and employee shareholding policy. A little over half of Rexel’s employees with indefinite term contracts are eligible for variable compensation. Half are part of a profit-sharing plan calculated on the basis of collective earnings. The latest employee share purchase plan, Opportunity13, was offered to employees in 15 countries in 2013. In France, the six Rexel subsidiaries gave their employees the choice of receiving the profit sharing bonus stipulated by law or investing this bonus in a Rexel stock fund through the Group savings plan, thus benefiting from an additional contribution by their employer. Nearly half of employees chose the latter option in 2014.