Universal Registration Document 2021

3.3.3.6.6 Developing a culture of innovation: the EDF Pulse ecosystem

The Company wishes to develop a culture of innovation within the Company in order to support its development and transformation in line with its performance needs, the expectations of its employees and customers, and societal changes.

The internal innovation dynamic is structured around the “EDF Pulse” ecosystem, which relies on several levers:

• the EDF Pulse programmes, a set of support mechanisms to help all innovators grow;
• the EDF Pulse awards, a competition started in 2014 to promote “the women and men who are creating and inventing tomorrow’s world today”, with a section for external startups and a section for internal efforts;
• the EDF Pulse community, a network for developing and disseminating best practices in innovation within the Group.

3.3.3.7 Remuneration

Total remuneration is a key component in recognising the contribution of every staff member to the Group’s performance. It contributes to employee engagement, increases the loyalty of talent and adds to the Group’s attractiveness.

3.3.3.7.1 Fair and competitive global remuneration

Accordingly, the Group is committed to offering its employees fair and competitive remuneration, while paying great attention to the quality and level of social welfare it proposes, particularly in terms of cover against the major risks of life.

Global remuneration policy:

• it covers all employees of the main companies controlled by the Group. The Group’s main companies’ remuneration and social welfare systems have been reviewed based on this policy;
• the policy is based on four main principles: competitiveness in the external market; internal consistency and fairness; financial sustainability; and readability.

It is based on fixed remuneration and individual and/or collective variable remuneration which serves to recognise the achievement of objectives, connected to the companies’ economic results. There is a direct and visible link between the employee’s contribution and the related remuneration. The Group’s companies guarantee the meeting of the minimum legal or professional requirements in each country and the absence of discrimination.

EDF is reaffirming its priorities in terms of recognition and updates its policies by:

• improving the integration of recognition into its managerial practices and processes;
• strengthening the direct, unbiased and obvious link between personal contribution (performance, ability to adapt and take the initiative), professional development and financial recognition; and
• developing variable remuneration schemes, linked to the Company’s financial performance, to recognise through differentiation.

To meet the challenges of employee and manager recognition, the project to modernise the pay classification system for the Electricity and Gas Industries branch was carried out throughout 2021. For total gross remuneration, please refer to the note on employee expenses.

3.3.3.7.2 Variable remuneration plans to boost performance

Variable remuneration: within the Group, most employees have individual or collective performance-based variable remuneration. The terms and conditions of this variable remuneration differ from one Group company to another based on historical agreements or applicable regulations.

Profit-sharing: in France, EDF and Enedis employees benefit from a profit-sharing scheme, introduced more than 20 years ago for EDF and for Enedis when it became a subsidiary. Most of the Group’s European subsidiaries have similar schemes. EDF and Enedis employees can choose either to receive payment and/or to invest it into either the Group Corporate Savings Plan or the Group Collective Retirement Saving Plan. In a constrained economic context, a policy of matching contribution is maintained. EDF's profit-sharing agreements, usually three-yearly, have been concluded for a one-year period in 2020 and 2021. EDF and Enedis require the profit-sharing amount payable to be set based on the meeting of national objectives reflecting the different components of the companies’ performances (economic, business lines, social and environmental).

Professional training on compensation issues: EDF and Enedis pay special attention to the professional training of their managers on issues of remuneration.

3.3.3.7.3 Employee savings policy

It is open to employees of EDF and of the Group’s French companies in which EDF owns directly or indirectly at least 40% of the share capital and which have signed up for the Group Corporate Savings Plan (PEG) and/or the Collective Retirement Savings Plan (PERCO).

Group corporate savings plan

A full range of diversified mutual funds is available for subscription, including conservative funds mainly invested in bonds and money market investments, balanced funds and dynamic funds, mainly invested in shares, including shareholding funds invested in EDF shares. A dedicated, solidarity-based, low-carbon fund aims to invest in the energy transition while respecting agreements that limit CO₂ emissions. Profit-sharing, as well as individual payments and transfers from the Time Savings Accounts, are matched by the Company under conditions negotiated within each company.