At the Equator, the Earth spins at 1,666 km/h (a little over 1,000
MPH) and, at the same time, around the Sun at about 100,000
km/h (62,500 MPH). Our star itself orbits the center of the
galaxy at 850,000 km/h (approx. 531,000 MPH). As for our own
Milky Way, it races through space at 2 million km/h (1,250,000
MPH). In other words, the world is on the move. This is nothing
new and it will not stop for some five billion years, give or take.
Let's come back to the corporate world. To understand the
future of work, this must be part of a dynamic perspective that
integrates all the characteristics of society, be they emerging
or installed. In this, inclusion is a decisive key to adaptation.
We will also see it, that is both a lever for societal change and
a powerful growth factor.
More than yesterday and less than tomorrow?
On July 10, 1987, a law was passed in France. It mandated
companies with more than twenty employees to recruit at least
6% of people with disabilities. Thirty-four years later, the needle
at the national level is only 3.6%, indicates Anne Revillard in
her book "Handicap et Travail" [Disability and Work]. But for the
Agefiph, the French Fund management association for the
professional integration of disabled people, the situation is
improving. Going back ten years, only a third of companies
employed at least one person with a disability compared to
nine out of ten today. Do note that about 80% of people have
a non-visible disability. However, 65% of persons in a situation
ofdisability do not still have a job in France.
General mobilization
Today, the inclusive business is at the heart of the societal and
environmental concerns. The policy of inclusion aims to fight
discrimination linked to disability, of course, but also to those
because of age, gender, social, cultural, ethnic or sexual
orientation. The health crisis has increased this sensitivity
to otherness in a notorious way. Taking the Other into account
in a context where solidarity is expressed puts into focus the
thinking about inclusion. In 2019, during the G7 in Biarritz,
34 large companies gathered around the "Business for
Inclusive Growth" coalition. The idea: to offer a more egalitarian
model within their organizations. An important initiative that
invites companies, whatever their size, to go with the flow.
For their part, more than 100 large branch managers signed
the "Inclusion Manifesto" while some ten subsidiaries of
multinationals published an article in favor of the employment
of young people and migrants.
Where are the women?
But hell remains paved with good intentions and many points
remain to be settled. The pay gap between men and women
for example. In France, it stagnates at 24%, it was 25% in 2002.
Same "pain point" in terms of employment. Some sectors are
far from representing the half of the population formed by
women. In tech, for example, they are only 10% of workforce.
For airline pilots, Air France, with a few 300 women out of
around 3,800 pilots, ranks rather above average, between 6
and 7% at the world level. Globally, only 14.3% of companies can
showcase a Board of Directors with parity. On their side, the
executive committees of the SBF [French Stock Exchanges
Society] 120 index companies only account for 15% of women.
Yet studies have documented that a balanced proportion
between men and women within a company, is a factor for
better operations. It is the same in the Boards of Directors,
where the increase in performance is noted as well.
Neurosciences explain this fact by the fertile supply of diversity
in the development of the company.
Everything to be gained!
Beyond the in-out or quotas logic, what does the inclusive
business tell us? The Deloitte study tells us that a company
pursuing this policy generates 30% of additional turnover per
employee. They even have 60% more chances than those not
pursuing inclusive policies or implemented CSR [Corporate
Social Responsibility] policies to see their profits and their
productivity increase. Reading this survey reveals that for the
HRDs and managers surveyed, the societal impact (including
diversity and inclusion) is now considered the primary
assessment factor for success and performance of an
organization.
Almost 80% of them consider that diversity and Inclusion turn
out to be competitive advantages. In passing, let’s note that for
Apple in 2021, 10% of the bonus of its leaders will be correlated
to social and environmental criteria. Already in 2016, a France
Stratégies study showed that the CSR approach increased the
performance of a company by 13%. For the International Office
of Labor, inclusive businesses enjoy a better reputation,
attracting more talent to generate more creativity and
innovation. In these COVID times, the imagination has focused
its effects on reorienting the production of these companies.
Such as Decathlon which has reconfigured its breathable diving masks into medical PPE.
The real challenge
David Mahé of Human and Work underlines that the real challenge of inclusive business is not so much compulsory recruitment as is the issue of inclusion in the workplace.
Inclusion generates motivation, enriches strategies and creates
social links. This human resources specialist invites us to rethink
the perspective of the HR profession. Should we focus on the
selection of champions thus worsening the consequences of
talent wars and create ever more shortages? With wage inflation on increasingly rare and volatile but always identical position profiles. These non-mixed and single-colored recruitments ultimately boil down to creating a clones factory, further exacerbating pre-existing inequalities. For Stéphane Roussel, "not to work on the inclusion of various profiles means depriving oneself of skills and individual talents, but also not understanding the way how the collective intelligence of a company works", points out the CEO of GameLoft. Adding: "To imagine a video game intended for a large audience requires the building of team composed of talents who think differently and complete each other".
New criteria
To include is also to invest in soft skills, these behavioral,
emotional and relationship competences, which help people to
work better together and to feel good throughout their careers.
David Mahé lists the skills that are so useful to inclusion and
therefore to the efficiency of the company: "emotional
intelligence, empathy, stress management, autonomy in
learning, the ability to solve problems...". An inclusive business
therefore creates the conditions so That people can develop
their potential by relying on about the differences they bring.
Witness to a deep societal mutation, is the school. In the past,
students were asked to adapt to the institution. Now, even if
much remains to be done, the school often gives itself the
means to adapt to the student penalized by disability or illness,
for instance. In other words, the company must reflect social
diversity to be in phase, move forward with society and be
attractive.
To conclude, the inclusive business brings about changes in
increasingly shared paradigms. This undercurrent, at the
diametral opposite of a fad, leads to refocusing more than ever
on humans considered as a whole, including the person, the
others, work and health. It's through human relationships
energized by new inclusive impulses that employees will be
able to develop a sense of belonging, shared motivation and
confidence in their organization.
Sources : France Inter, Lemonde.fr, Humanandwork.com, Maddyness, France3 Région, Novethic.fr, Umontpellier.fr, Revue Visa Platinum Business
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