DNFP 2019

2019 DECLARATION OF NON-FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF THE DESCOURS & CABAUD GROUP 18 Development and management of our employees The development and management of employees are at the heart of the DESCOURS & CABAUD Group's transformation ambition. For a long time, the Group has been investing in the development of its employees, with an acceleration in recent years in certain areas such as digitalisation, collaborative working and the strengthening of internal and external recruitment practices, to ensure that skills are in line with market trends. The rollout of an external communication policy targeted on the PROLIANS, DEXIS and HYDRALIANS brands naturally led to more significant employer brand initiatives. This external communication policy is essential in order to be able to attract and retain talent and ensure that the candidate promise is consistent with what people will experience internally. In 2018, we indicated that bringing out or discovering new talents, intensifying engagement, developing corporate culture and preparing for the future were the main challenges relating to human resources. This roadmap has been scrupulously respected, with a number of initiatives that will last over the coming years, in particular the implementation in 2020 of an Employee Experience Survey. This survey, developed with an independent external firm, is a means of questioning employees on-line on a significant number of critical themes such as the company’s strategy, the management, their interest in their work. In 2019, we tested this survey among more than 900 employees and a decision was taken to extend it in 2020 to the France scope and also to carry out a test in one of our subsidiaries in Europe. Using an external firm enables us to ensure anonymous data processing but also provides us with an external benchmark on the levels of commitment observed in other companies. This will enable us to obtain quantitative and qualitative data on our employees’ level of commitment and establish Group action plans, but also action plans by subsidiary and even by team. This tool should enable us to act even more effectively on two of the previously identified risks in terms of Human Resources management, namely turnover and loss of attractiveness. The other two risks identified in 2018 still remain at the heart of the Human Resources strategy: the absence of preparation for key and management roles as well as the loss of knowledge or lack of anticipation of changes in business. RISK FACTORS AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES: 1) Limiting the loss of knowledge and anticipating changes in business is essential Being attentive to market trends and customer expectations is crucial in all the trading and distribution sectors. This means ensuring that DESCOURS & CABAUD’s employees are familiar with existing products and services, but also that their knowledge is regularly updated and that we can anticipate the knowledge required for the future. In a very fragmented organisation in France and Europe, being able to rapidly reach out to employees is a veritable practical and logistical challenge. In this respect, the use of e-learning can be a means of rapidlyand simultaneouslydisseminating knowledge, while ensuring a knowledge standard. Accordingly, Tech’up, DESCOURS & CABAUD’s in-house university set up more than 40 years ago, is constantly being updated and has invested significantly in e-learning in order to promote access to training for as many employees as possible. The e-learning platform has been enhanced, with an emphasis on the notion of direct access (self-service) in order to improve the access to training.