HR Awards
Best employee wellness programme
Societe Generale
GOLD AWARD
Well-being in our staff's personal and professional lives is the key factor for the sustainable performance of our Bank.
Mukta Arya, Regional Head of Human Resources, Asia Pacific Societe Generale
Societe Generale believes that employees' quality of life in the workplace, together with health and well-being of its employees, are the key factors for efficiency, effectiveness,
and sustainable performance. To achieve the ambition, they believe employees are the Group's most significant assets—and if they were not motivated and energised, the Group would not be able to achieve its goals. The leadership model is based on the above ambition and is directly linked to the values of the Group—Team Spirit, Commitment, Innovation and Responsibility all aiming to work towards empowering employees, to create a relationship-focused bank and achieve Societe Generale's objectives with a "win-win" mindset for employees and the Bank.
In 2015, Societe Generale launched the Life at Work programme to continue and share the initiatives undertaken throughout the Group, while fostering the creation of new initiatives. In Hong Kong, along with the global direction, the Group has embraced many initiatives to enhance "workplace well-being" for all employees. The programme is fully supported by the senior management of the Bank who review it regularly with HR, to ensure proper business alignment.
To achieve the above goals, Societe Generale has worked consistently towards enhancing the regular HR benefits like different kinds of leave, introducing "work from home" policy for departments that can accommodate it, upgrading systems and tools to support flexible working, the introduction of flex days, staggered working hours, forming a staff engagement committee to take care of extra-curricular activities aimed at health and well-being of employees, organising health and wellness months, bonding activities, and providing work-life coaching through an external provider.
In addition to attracting and retaining the best talent, the Bank has designed a holistic benefits plan to support them at different stages of their lives, whether with health and wellness, medical benefits, family-friendly leave, or their general well-being at work.
The Health & Wellness Event has the key objectives of fostering a community spirit within the Bank and promoting Health and Wellbeing as part of the Bank's People Value Proposition. Health Topics help ensure the Bank can better assess employees' health risks and provide sufficient information to raise awareness on this topic. Wellness Topics aim to demonstrate the Bank's CARE philosophy in that Societe Generale cares for its employees. The above topics have also been successfully integrated into the "Life at work Programme".
The Life at Work programme focuses on several pillars:
- Work from home and new ways of working
- Working environment
- Key life events and benefits
- Health and safety
- Individual and collective efficiency
- Management
For example, in 2020, to better support staff in working from home, the Bank subsidised staff in purchasing a larger screen for their workstations at home. In terms of supporting parental transitions, on top of the 20-week maternity leave and 15-day paternity & partner leave, the Bank also provides individual coaching and awareness sessions for parents-to-be and line managers to help support parental transitions with the staff, the managers and the teams. During COVID situations, the Bank has also strengthened its delivery of mental health support to staff through a professional vendor. Employees facing questions or concerns in these areas, as well as their family members, can receive free advice and support from experienced and professionally trained counsellors.
GOLD AWARD
