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2016 CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY REPORT (CSR)
4
THE ASSYSTEM GROUP’S CSR STRATEGY
4.1
THE ASSYSTEM GROUP’S CSR STRATEGY
The corporate social responsibility principles underpinning the Group’s
strategic business model are a fundamental driver of value creation and
business growth. Four challenges are central to Assystem’s CSR strategy:
●
Be a responsible employer
The success of the Assystem business model is attributable to the
quality of its teams who are the Group’s most important asset.
Their expertise, knowledge and innovation capabilities represent
the business growth drivers that enable the Group to create lasting
value for clients.
There are two priorities in this area. The first is to attract and retain
talent from a wide variety of backgrounds. The second is to promote
diversity and teamwork, so that the best use is made of each
individual’s skills and an environment is created in which employees
can achieve their career goals and become engaged members of
the community. For example:
●
convinced of the value of workplace diversity, Assystem has long
been committed to helping people with disabilities to join the
workforce, and to acting as a standard bearer in this area. In
2005, the Group pledged to uphold France’s equal opportunity
charter, in 2007 a dedicated unit was set up to help employees
and managers address the issues faced by disabled workers and
in 2013, a three-year corporate agreement on the employment of
people with disabilities was signed, which was renewed in 2016,
●
teleworking, an increasingly popular method of achieving a good
work-life balance, is a key challenge and a pilot scheme was
organised in France in 2016. Offering teleworking options makes
Assystem a more attractive employer and also helps to reduce the
Group’s carbon footprint by cutting down on commuting,
●
the creation in 2016 of more than 700 on-line communities
connected
via
WorkPlace promotes collaborative working and
the sharing of both ideas and innovations. This corporate social
network contributes to more fluid workflows and enhanced internal
communications, while also ensuring the dissemination and
appropriation of common values,
●
Assystem leverages the skills of its experts to develop innovative
solutions for the benefit of society. A recent example is the project
set up in 2016 with the Clinatec biomedical research centre to
develop a Brain Computer Interface designed to improve the quality
of life of quadriplegics. For the young engineers chosen to work
on the project, this is an opportunity to work on a solution that
will change people’s lives while at the same time honing their
technological skills,
●
Assystem also maintains a sustained constructive dialogue with all
the organisations representing its employees.
All of these topics and the related initiatives launched in 2016 are
described in Section 4.3 (pages 51 to 58) of this report.
●
Be an ethical market player
The Group considers that a shared culture of compliance and ethical
behaviour is both a necessity and a source of strength. In 2016, a
new version of the Assystem Code of Ethics was approved for phased
rollout to all of the Group’s countries and all employees. A series
of events will be organised in 2017 to support the rollout, mainly
in Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain and Romania, in order to
continue the process of raising employee awareness of Assystem’s
compliance policies.
●
Manage the Group’s environmental footprint
Through its business, Assystem has occasion to participate in projects
that have an impact on the environment. The Group’s public and
private sector clients have very clear expectations in this regard and
require their service providers to meet high environmental standards.
Assystem plays close attention to the environmental performance of
its businesses and to developing solutions and services that contribute
to reducing the overall carbon footprint of its clients’ products and
infrastructure.
●
Create value for clients through sustainable and innovative solutions
A key priority for Assystem is to guarantee the highest levels of client
satisfaction by offering targeted high quality services that help them
to transform their businesses and anticipate future needs.
As well as focusing on these four challenges, Assystem puts its CSR
commitments into practice through the projects undertaken by its E&I and
GPS divisions on behalf of clients or with other partners, as explained
below.
ASSYSTEM, FACILITATING ENERGY TRANSITION
AND EFFICIENCY PROJECTS AND THE DIGITAL
REVOLUTION
The E&I division
Assystem’s
Energy & Infrastructure (E&I)
division offers to
manufacturers, utilities companies and contractors working
in the nuclear, conventional energy, transport infrastructure and
life sciences sectors and on other complex infrastructures, the
expertise acquired through its long experience in the nuclear
industry and in infrastructure engineering in environments that
have complex operating conditions and/or stringent safety
requirements.
Managing nuclear risks is a challenge shared by all E&I
activities serving major nuclear industry clients. To accompany
the overhaul of general technical regulations applicable to basic
nuclear power plants, Assystem’s Nuclear Risks Management
Unit has launched a series of initiatives to instil a powerful
safety culture among employees. These initiatives respond to
a set of commitments described in the Nuclear Safety Culture
Charter adopted in 2014.
For more information about the E&I division, see Chapter 1 of
this Registration Document.
ASSYSTEM
REGISTRATION DOCUMENT
2016
46