Summary:
The Group will have to secure the skills of the various sectors of the energy transition in a job market under pressure to cope with a significant volume of activity, particularly following the Belfort speech of 10 February 2022 (existing fleet, EPR 2, increase in the volume of connections, gain of customers).
Criticality: ●● Intermediate
The EDF group must cope with an employment market where labour is increasingly scarce and increasingly competitive: heavy competition among economic transactors in all industries seeking skills, particularly in engineer, technician and IS profiles; difficulty in recruiting skills in certain technical trades (welders, plate metal workers) as in many industries; and a training supply that does not always meet requirements.
In this new context, the Group, like all its industrial partners, must face unprecedented industrial issues requiring appropriate and skilled resources in the four energy-sector business lines (nuclear, distribution, renewable energy and energy services).
While the action plans hitherto implemented have allowed control of staff career paths, covered risks identified under benefit of strategic workforce planning (GPEC), and secured skills requirements for the coming period, the risk of the mismatching of skills with requirements is nevertheless increasing on account of the extension in the relevant scope in 2022. This is true because the skills issue exists throughout the EDF group ecosystem and affects its ability to call upon external resources: subcontracting and temporary workers.
Risk management is based on matching skills to short-, medium- and long-term needs. In this respect, the main control actions concern:
Summary: The Group may be required to meet significant commitments related to pensions and other employee benefits.
Criticality: ●● Intermediate
The pension plans applicable in the various countries in which the Group operates involve long-term commitments to pay benefits to the Group’s employees (see note 16 to the consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2022). In France, in addition to these pension commitments, the Group also owes obligations for post-employment benefits and long-term benefits for employees currently in service. Pension reform in France may have an impact on the Group’s commitments.
The amounts of these commitments, the provisions booked, the outsourced funds or pension funds set up and the additional contributions required to make up insufficient funding are calculated based on certain actuarial assumptions, including a discount rate subject to adjustment depending on market conditions and, with regard to employee-related commitments in France, on the rules governing retirement benefits paid out by the general retirement schemes, and the amounts to be borne by the Group. These assumptions and rules may be adjusted in the future, which could increase the Group’s current commitments for pensions and other employee benefits and, therefore, require a corresponding increase in provisions.
Furthermore, if the value of pension funds in the UK proves insufficient to meet the corresponding commitments, primarily due to calculation assumptions or developments in the financial markets, the Group may be obliged to make additional contributions to the relevant funds, which may have an adverse impact on its financial position.
In order to cover these commitments, the Group has set up pension funds in the United Kingdom, where coverage of commitments is a regulatory obligation, and outsourced funds in France, which provide partial coverage of the commitments. In the United Kingdom, the pension reform in 2021 (from defined benefit to defined contribution) and the merger of the three existing funds (BEGG, EEGS and EEPS) into one fund (EDFG) from 31 December 2021 will limit future risks.
