The Talents policy, implemented at the level of the EDF group, describes the principles and criteria for identifying and validating employees with the potential, in the long and short term, for executive level responsibilities while respecting the management independence of network managers. Under this policy, high-potential employees should be identified at an early stage to prepare them and monitor them in the long term, with a high level of involvement from all executives at various stages. Regular assessments (junior/senior) are conducted to detect the talent and future leaders of tomorrow. These assessments are conducted using a unique leadership model, overhauled in 2019 and currently being rolled out in all Group entities and companies. Since 2018, the Talents 2.0 programme has supplemented the process used to detect new talent. Employees can identify themselves directly through a series of online tests which then lead to an assessment.
The Group continues to roll out and enhance the various components of its commitment to internal promotion and mobility, through the richness and diversity of its career paths. This is achieved by providing relevant information at the various stages of an employee’s career (for example, mobility e-forums, open to all employees, which showcase regional opportunities for jobs and mobility), support for moving up to the next professional category (mainly the transition to management positions) and not forgetting the efforts to promote work-study programmes and promotional training courses (including promotional training courses leading to qualifications). There was a sharp increase in the number of such courses in 2020, leading to the highest number of graduates in the last 5 years (137 for EDF SA).
The Company’s aim is to further promote retraining through work-study training schemes, to allow a wide range of career paths to be taken, even in difficult, uncertain contexts. Studies are being conducted on new courses (accountancy, HR regulatory support, IT operations manager, management controller, product owner). Following on from the success of the re-training scheme already implemented for data analysts, EDF is adapting this type of scheme to develop new courses in other hard-to-fill areas: nuclear engineering planners, procurement officers and boiler work and plumbing managers, while continuing to develop new data analyst courses. See also section 3.4.3.2 “Redeployment and individual support”.
The GMU was created in 2010 to support the development of EDF group managers and executives throughout their careers. Acting at the very heart of the transformations, the GMU develops managerial training schemes, prepares the “Group Talent” for executive responsibilities and ensures the professionalisation and development of the executives in office through a specially adapted curriculum. The GMU designs and provides programmes and training courses that help create and disseminate a common culture at the Group level based on EDF’s historical know-how and skills, and innovative practices in the field of management and leadership. The GMU is also developing partnerships with the best academic institutions worldwide, selected following tenders. The GMU’s programmes combine a demand for quality and openness to change with a capacity to adapt to the Company’s internal challenges. The GMU is responsible for implementing the model of leadership skills within the Company, multiplying its deployment through its training programmes so as to encourage a shared, rapid appropriation of the main issues to pave the way for the future.
In line with the Company’s training policy, there are many training courses available for employees and managers and also executives and directors on sustainable development issues. For example, the “Strategic energy business” training for executives, the “Business and sustainable development” module for new Group directors and also completely digital(1) courses such as “Management and sustainable development” or “Relations with the Group’s stakeholders” available for all managers and executives. Skills relating to low-carbon electricity generation and the safety of facilities are maintained and developed through the training programmes for business lines and employee on-boarding programmes.
For the extensive roll-out of the “Climate Collage”, see also section 3.1.3.5.2 “Innovation and collective intelligence”. In terms of biodiversity, the “Biodiversity Collage” was launched in the last quarter of 2020 (see section 3.2.1.5.3 “Raising awareness among the general public”).
The Company wishes to develop a culture of innovation. The aim is to support the transformation of the Company and its work organisations in keeping with the Company’s performance needs, employee expectations and societal developments.
The innovation ecosystem is shaped around the “EDF Pulse” brand, to cover all aspects. This brand is driven by employees and supported by special partners in each unit via calls for ideas and support schemes: networking through the creation of thematic discussion groups across the Group. It is particularly focused on accelerating and implementing high-impact projects via the creation of an incubator for internal start-ups called EDF Pulse Croissance, which has already launched subsidiaries such as Urbanomy(2) and Exaion(3).
This scheme is enriched by external collaborations with the academic world, start-ups (8,000 start-ups listed and more than 300 under contract), investment funds (around fifteen partnerships) and exchanges with peers from other companies through special networks. It is recognised at the Group level by the annual in-house EDF Pulse awards, rewarding innovative projects developed by teams of employees in the Group based on topics such as low-carbon generation and the transformation of the Group.
The various problems due to access to energy and energy poverty keep intensifying inmost developed countries, in terms of the number of households concerned or the severity of the impacts encountered. It is for this reason that EDF confirms and renews its commitment to its most vulnerable customers, by increasing the understanding of this diverse, complex reality, implementing support solutions based on public solidarity schemes and specific initiatives and developing various forms of social innovation and sponsorship through its Foundation.
The problems due to access to energy and energy poverty keep intensifying in most developed countries, in terms of the number of households concerned or the severity of the impacts encountered. Vulnerability varies according to geographical location, income, and size and type of accommodation, as well as the type of energy used. And its measurement is complex and varies from one country to another. In France, the French National Energy Poverty Observatory, of which EDF is a partner, publish edits indicator(4), revealing that 3.3 million households were in a situation of energy poverty.
(1) Available on the “ecampusmanagers” platform.
(2) Urbanomy is a new start-up incubated by EDF Pulse Croissance, which provides a range of energy and urban planning consultancy services making people the main focus of towns and cities again. The start-up helps both private and public-sector stakeholders to design sustainable, resilient urban spaces.
(3) Exaion is a cloud provider of blockchain and supercomputing solutions.
(4) French National Energy Poverty Observatory 2019 dashboard (Energy poverty quantification indicators).
