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Inclusion, diversity, gender equality, benevolence – terms that are now part of the DNA and everyday language of many companies. Among them is ADEO, a business that is particularly committed to each of these subjects. But how can these words be transformed into practical actions to serve the company and its employees Ophélie LEBOUCHER (who graduated the Grande École Program in 2010), Diversity & Inclusion Leader within the Group has the answer.

How important to you were the subjects of inclusion and diversity before joining ADÉO?
I grew up and studied in Lille. As someone who is curious and open-minded by nature, I have always felt like a person capable of understanding and valuing differences. And that was before the culture shock I experienced on my university exchange in Chile when I lived with 20 people of 15 nationalities and different social origins. It was then I realised the power of diversity when it comes to making decisions, understanding others and forming your own ideas or opinions in an informed and objective way. This experience and what I learned there were of enormous help to me when I became a Diversity & Inclusion Leader at ADEO.

What does this mission actually consist of?
I guarantee and participate in the deployment of our global strategy by providing practical solutions and tools to the various Business Units, by leading and supporting our 21 representatives in all countries, creating synergies between the professions, nurturing our employer brand, etc. This global strategy, which I initiated and developed, has two major aims: to build a truly inclusive culture allowing our 150,000 leaders to unleash their full potential, but also to increase the diversity of profiles at all levels in the company. This approach corresponds perfectly to our tagline, “HUMAN FIRST” which places the person at the heart of all our actions and decisions. Diversity & Inclusion therefore become an essential means of developing our model, while capitalising on and making our corporate culture even more tangible.

One of the areas you cover concerns gender equality. How do you implement this?
This is indeed one of our priorities. We have set ourselves the goal of having 40% women leaders and site managers by 2025, we have signed up to the Women Empowerment Principles of the UN to affirm our commitment, we support our Business Units in putting in place an action plan in the event of a gender pay gap. We are also establishing procedures to facilitate parenthood: paternity leave, flexibility and work-life balance depending on the circumstances locally and culturally, etc.

How are these subjects regarded internally?
They are seen very positively, in general. However, we really need to educate people to prevent our actions from being interpreted as positive discrimination. We are being quite modest about this since there is still a long way to go, but we are moving in the right direction as shown by the recent creation of the WOMANEO corporate network, made up of women and men, which works towards getting a better mix. We are confident that this is an important subject because although it mainly concerns women for the moment, future generations will be more and more sensitive to it. Offering practical ideas in this area is therefore essential to attract and retain new talent. Achieving 360° diversity, demonstrating with data the impact this has on our financial and non-financial performance will definitely be the challenges of the years to come!

This article was written by Luna Créations for IÉSEG Network’s magazine, IÉS #15.