From a diversity charter to a Europe-wide equal opportunity agreement

In 2004, we illustrated our commitment to cultural, ethnic and social diversity in business by signing France's Diversity Charter along with about 40 other French companies.

To broaden our focus to encompass our European operations, we signed an equal opportunity agreement in 2005 with European labor federations. The accord aims to ensure equal opportunity in recruitment, training, career development, mobility, compensation and work/life balance.

To track progress in achieving these goals, in 2006 we created the first European human resources scorecard, covering ten countries and more than 50 European subsidiaries. Updated annually, the scorecard lists all the equal opportunity initiatives undertaken at Total

Diversity Council

Created in 2004, our Diversity Council is responsible for ensuring that we continue our efforts to increase the percentage of non-French, local and women managers in our workforce, including at the most senior levels.

To accomplish this, the Diversity Council has produced guidelines and instructions covering every step in the Human Resources process, including recruitment, career management, training, selection of high potentials, resource planning and other human resources management-related issues such as job mobility and dual career management. To make sure that we put our commitments into practice, each major Total unit must have its own diversity plan.

Indicators and precise objectives for gender diversity and a more international management corps have been set through 2015, so that we can track progress closely and take appropriate measures should it stall.

Gender diversity  (2006 – 2012)

Non-French nationals (2006 – 2012)

Increasing Gender Diversity

Total is committed to employing more women in all of our professional disciplines and especially to facilitating their access to positions of responsibility. Although Total is not in favor of quotas, we always stress skills and capabilities. Recruitment is a key driver of this policy, and we have set a goal of hiring women in proportion to their numbers in the graduating classes of the schools and universities from which we draw our employees.

Other drivers include attentive career management and the involvement of all stakeholders.

We also offer training to help women better manage their careers.

The main obstacle to gender parity in hiring is the relatively small percentage of women enrolled in technical programs, especially at engineering schools. Consequently, our efforts to increase the proportion of female hires must focus on priming the pipeline and target girls and young women, to stimulate their interest in these areas, encourage them to pursue technical degrees, and introduce them to the wealth and diversity of professional fields and careers in the oil industry.

Making management more international

In 2012, 73% of the managers we hired were non-French nationals, from more than 90 different countries. Efforts to make management more international must reflect this diversity. The proportion of non-French nationals among senior managers and executives is still fairly low compared with our international reach.

To foster a more international management mix, Total has introduced specific measures intended to:

• Standardize our HR practices concerning recruitment, annual performance reviews, job levels and criteria for identifying high potentials.
• Increase the number of expatriate positions filled by non-French nationals, to facilitate their access to senior positions.
• Decentralize training courses and open up more French seminars to non-French employees.
  
  

Moreover, we also believe that it is important for the long-term viability of our operations to implement a "localizing" strategy to promote host country nationals to positions of responsibility in their home subsidiaries, an objective of increasing importance to governments in the countries concerned. In response, we have stepped up our training and mentoring programs in some subsidiaries, including in Indonesia and South Africa.