Social responsibility

Social responsibility, a CSR pillar

“Our social responsibility applies to all employees and extends to the job catchments served by our shipyards and facilities.”

As the employer of over 12,000 people worldwide, DCNS has broad social responsibilities. To reconcile corporate growth and the personal development of its employees, the Group has adopted proactive human resources policies. To boost its competitive standing, the Group adopted an employment and skills management initiative (Gestion Prévisionnelle des Emplois et des Compétences, or GPEC) to forecast skills requirements and tailor the workforce accordingly. DCNS also promotes internal and inter-group employee mobility and the training and employment of young people, particularly through the Filières du Talent programme.

Employee skillsets, core value and valued core
By maintaining and expanding employee skillsets, our RH policies strengthen the Group’s competitive standing and contribute to customer satisfaction. Actions include:

• The GPEC initiative helps DCNS to forecast skills requirements and tailor the workforce accordingly. In 2008, the Group compiled a visual map of occupations and trends. GPEC also helps employees to develop career plans by helping them to identify training and personal growth opportunities with maximum potential.
• GPEC job forums present employees with job opportunities organised by occupation and type of work. The first was held in south-eastern France in 2008.
• Employee mobility. DCNS supports internal mobility through a number of measures including access to the French government’s ‘1% housing’ benefit and a special mobility allowance. The DCNS intranet gives employees direct access to all internal mobility, promotion and training opportunities. The major refit of CVN Charles de Gaulle in Toulon in 2007-08 involved extensive use of the intranet to organise stays by employees from all DCNS sites
• Training and employment are key HR missions. In 2008, the Group took on over 400 apprentices, 75% of them in production. New recruits attend an induction seminar. Overall spending on training amounts to more than 4% of total payroll, or considerably more than the French legal minimum. The aim, of course, is to maintain and further expand the Group’s advanced-technology skillsets.

Social action, remuneration schemes, equality and diversity

Like the ongoing challenge of matching resources to needs, social harmonisation is also a key HR mission. It is also one that contributes to healthy social dialogue, given that employee representation bodies (IRPs) contribute to the Group’s good governance.

DCNS’s in-house social workers support employees facing private or professional problems. To help employees with children up to six years of age to reconcile the demands of private and professional life, the Group has adopted the government-sponsored CESU or universal employment service cheque scheme. A similar scheme offers benefits for disabled employees and employees with disabled dependents.

For historical reasons, DCNS employs people under both private- and public-sector contracts. Employees hired under private-sector contracts also benefit from incentive and profit-sharing schemes and access to a company savings scheme. Last but not least, the Group successfully opened its share capital to employees in 2008.

DCNS supports equal opportunity and professional diversity. The Cherbourg shipyard has, for instance, established a methodology to help those in charge of recruitment to become as neutral as possible, hence to promote equal opportunity and gender balance. The Group is also committed to employment for people with disabilities.