Initiative

Agreement on the equality of men and women within the societies of UESTT of the Groupe Randstad

Summary of the initiative

France Randstad Group is part of Randstad Holding, the world's second-largest HR service provider founded in the Netherlands in 1960. Randstad specialises in human resource services for temporary and permanent jobs, including contract staffing of professionals and senior managers.

Randstad has been committed for several years to the fight against gender discrimination. It is the only French HR service provider to be awarded the "Professional Equality Label” (October 2008) and the "Diversity label" (January 2009), in recognition of its endeavours in promoting diversity within the company.

In December 2012 a company agreement was signed between the Randstad Group and five trade union confederations: CFDT, CFE-CGC, CFTC, CGT and FO.

The agreement is structured around three main pillars: I) Equality in HR management and decision-making positions; II) Reconciliation of work, family and private life; III) Equality in corporate culture.

Different challenges are highlighted by the introduction of the agreement. It is jointly acknowledged that most temporary workers are women and most temporary agency employees are female. Furthermore gender balance is not achieved in middle-level management or senior management positions. It is also jointly recognised that work-life balance is lagging behind and that better monitoring is needed to assess the lack of any gender pay gap.

The agreement thus aims at meeting the following objectives:

• When a gender pay gap higher than 2.5 is found, an in-depth analysis of the causes will be undertaken and a 3-year action plan will be launched in order to reduce the gap by 0.4 percentage points every year. Each company within the group should indicate the priority target to whom the action plan should be addressed;
• A greater gender mix will be promoted among occupations and management positions;
• Women will be encouraged to take up management positions and barriers to their careers progression will be analysed;
• Articulation between working time and private time will be strengthened;
• Human resource management will better integrate gender equality policy;
• Indicators will be established in order to monitor progress and launch action plans. They will be assessed every year.

The agreement also puts forward measures to increase female employees’ participation in continuous vocational education and training as well as making some highly feminised occupations within the group more attractive for men.

Finally specific provisions deal with meetings’ time arrangement.