Societe Generale’s first presence in Asia dates back from the 19th century. Today, we have offices in 12 locations across Asia Pacific: Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. With our regional headquarters in Hong Kong – a core hub of the worldwide Societe Generale Group – our expertise here ranges from corporate and investment banking to asset management, securities services, global transaction banking and specialised financial services.
WORKPLACE POLICIES AND PRACTICES
New Ways of Working
In 2018, we completed the “New Ways of Working” project at our office in Hong Kong. They include renovation of our office (removed most of the private rooms in exchange for more collaboration area in the office and rooms for other purposes, e.g. Nursery Room and Staff Club), hot desking initiative, new IT set up (switching room desktop to laptop for most of our staff and corporate Wifi) and provision of fruits in our pantry. We believe all these efforts and initiatives will bring a more collaborative and more cohesive working environment to our staff.
Flexible Work Arrangement
To achieve better quality of life for the employees, more flexibility in the company and sustainable development, SG has launched flexible working arrangement since 2017. The scheme comprises Work-from-Home arrangement (our staff is entitled to work from home up to one day each week, subject to manager’s approval), Flex-day benefit (to enjoy a 2-hour shorter working hour on one day each month) and revamped Part-time Work policy. By putting these policies and benefits in place, we give our staff the flexibility and support in addressing their personal needs whilst contributing to the bank in their professional lives.
Diversity & Inclusion
In Societe Generale, we believe all our employees must be treated equally, irrespective of gender/sex, marital status, pregnancy, family status, differently-abled status/disability, race or LGBTI, status and expression. In 2017/2018, we strengthened our Equal Opportunity Policy and incorporated onboarding activities with new joiners. The aim of the policy is to ensure that our staff are aware of the Company’s criteria for the recruitment, promotion and remuneration of staff and to educate them of anti-discriminatory practices. We have also developed e-learning modules on anti-discrimination, anti-harassment and Equal Opportunity policy for each of our office location in APAC.
Career Development
Promotion as a recognition of staff’s contribution to the bank is an important milestone in their career development journey. In 2018, we introduced a leadership potential assessment tool to our Director promotion process. This enhances the objectivity and transparency of the process and help our staff identify the areas for long-term benefit of his/her career development. Though the promotion process for corporate grades could vary, they all share one mission in common, to make sure all promotions are considered and undertaken fairly and objectively.
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS
Our benefits program ensures that the contributions of our people are valued and recognized. We care about the people we employ and want to ensure we are supporting them. We recognize that each of our employees has different needs, and we have policies that are designed to support them whether it is their pension, medical benefits and leave, or wellbeing at work. Through benchmarking with market practices and taking feedbacks from staff and internal stakeholders, we strive to continuously improve our benefits offerings. In 2018/2019, We have increased the scope and entitlement of Family-Friendly Leaves, including maternity leave (from 16 weeks to 20 weeks), paternity and partner leave (from 5 to 15 days) and marriage leave (extended to civil partnership and same-sex marriage).
Employee Engagement
We value highly feedbacks from employees as they are essential to reflect on our achievements and to explore the progress we have to make in all aspects. Every year, we launch our “Employee Barometer” to all our staff in the APAC region. The results are analyzed with other offices in the Group and benchmarked with other players in the industry. It is also important to make changes to the set-up based on these feedbacks and suggestions. In 2018/2019, we launched a staff community named “iNfluencer”, which provides employees a regular forum to exchange, participate, and/or lead projects addressing SG’s challenges. They are supported and work under the direction of the senior management to implement various initiatives across the region. The community showcases our staff’s engagement in contributing to make a difference for themselves and Societe Generale.
Talent Acquisition and Retention
Whilst making huge efforts realizing our Employee Value Proposition to our internal staff, we have made equivalent efforts in communicating the same values to external stakeholders through various ways, such as industry events, sponsorships and Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives. In 2017 and 2018, we organized Hackathons on FinTech topics, where talented university students can use as a platform to hone and apply the skills learnt in schools and to network with professionals in the banking industry. Every year, Societe Generale organizes our Asia Pacific Bike Ride, where our staff have the chance to raise funds for our local charity partners by participating in sports events. The events also showcased our commitment in improving the health and wellness of our staff and their team spirit in making positive impact to the society.
