Innovative agreements at European level: IDEA and TALK
In 2009, Thales and the European Metalworkers' Federation (EMF) signed a ground-breaking European agreement – known by the acronym IDEA – to improve professional development through more effective anticipation and early integration of changing job requirements. A second European agreement, known as TALK, was signed on 14 April 2010. This agreement sets out a clear framework to guarantee that Annual Activity Discussions (AADs) with each Thales employee are conducted in a climate of transparency and mutual respect as part of a constructive effort to facilitate professional development.
The two agreements, which cover more than 57,000 Thales employees in 11 European countries, build on best practices identified in the countries concerned. To reach the agreements, an innovative framework for constructive negotiation was put in place, bringing together the Senior Vice President, Human Resources of Thales Group, the HR corporate functions, the HR of Europe area and the HR countries involved and union representatives from the various countries under the aegis of the EMF.
The IDEA agreement provides for employee representation in an annual forward-planning process to identify trends in employment and job requirements. All Thales’s European employees will also have access to the professional development tools they need to drive their own careers. The agreement includes 25 specific measures that are progressively being introduced in the 11 European countries concerned.
The TALK agreement follows the 2009 introduction of a redesigned employee appraisal system drawing on existing best practices in the countries concerned.
The agreement sets out four key principles for conducting Annual Activity Discussions: mutual respect during discussions; transparency during interviews and with regard to results; a commitment to enabling employees to benefit from provisions applicable to them; and balanced dialogue between the line manager and the employee. It also includes an appeal procedure – based on procedures already in place in other countries that have signed up to the agreement – as a framework for resolving disagreements over appraisal results or the way an interview was conducted. In addition, an alert procedure has been put in place, without prejudice to procedures already in existence at national level, to flag any significant variances in the ways interviews are conducted in different parts of the company.
Developing people and anticipating change
Developing human resources is one of Thales’s four key values. To be an employer of choice, Thales is continuously engaged in developing the knowledge and skills of its employees. As part of this commitment, Thales signed the Anticipation agreement with employee representatives in France in 2006, and the Europe-wide IDEA agreement in 2009, with the aim of improving professional development through effective anticipation.
To anticipate effectively, Thales needs to be able to identify key changes and innovations in advance, and develop associated action plans, while providing training and support to employees to create more career development opportunities and help them have a richer and more diverse professional experience.
Understanding job families to secure career development
Since Thales’s global human resources policy is based on the principle that individual employees are responsible for driving their own professional development The 2006 Anticipation agreement in France, and the Europe-wide IDEA agreement, strongly support the Thales approach to job family management by providing a framework for forward-looking analysis, which is an essential component of any anticipative approach. The results of forward-looking job family analysis are shared with employee representatives, and employees are informed of relevant trends as part of the commitment to transparency, enabling them to prepare more effectively for their professional development discussions.
Promoting equality, diversity and work/life balance
Thales is committed to taking practical actions in terms of gender equality and promotion of cultural diversity. Indeed, the international nature of the company’s activities requires a special respect for cultural differences within the organisation. In recent years, Thales subsidiaries have adopted an international approach to recruitment and teams are becoming increasingly diverse.
At European level, the IDEA agreement also includes a package of measures to support gender equality in the workplace, with commitments encompassing the full range of related areas (recruitment, career development, equal pay and work/life balance). Countries that have signed up to the agreement are required to produce an annual report assessing gender equality against a number of key indicators and to propose an associated action plan to improve performance where necessary.
To take full advantage of synergies arising from cultural diversity, Thales has launched a diversity awareness and training programme for employees. Newly hired staff members are required to participate in Welcome Conventions and are invited to discuss topics like national, cultural and workplace diversity. In this way, new hires are integrated into a corporate culture where differences are valued and actively promoted.
Finally, Thales played a direct role in promoting the employment of people with disabilities. As early as 1992, a company-level agreement was signed to encourage the employment of disabled individuals. In 2009, Thales continued to support a range of projects for people with disabilities that it has launched over recent years.
Thales University
Thales employees are further empowered by the human resources management system and the training programmes provided by Thales University, the company’s transnational training centre; it has the dual mission to provide training and help build a common corporate culture.
Thales University is at the forefront of the Group’s human resources development programmes, designing and providing training courses tailored to the needs of each employee and the Group’s major strategic challenges.