INTERVIEW WITH FRANÇOIS PINTE

By the editorial staff

What is your role at Synergie and what were your expectations when you start ed? I am currently the General Secretary of Synergie Group, since 2003. At that time, when I joined the company, this role did not yet exist. I began to define the Secretary General’s scope of responsibility based on tasks that our President and our Executive Board were willing to entrust to me as we went along.

In addition to the normal administrative and legal duties usually associated with the role of Secretary General of an organisation or company, one of the first requests I made was to be the point of reference for CSR policies.
In addition to obviously being a personal aspiration, it seemed essential to me that the direction of CSR be entrusted to a transversal and cross-functional function within the company, since CSR affects all areas and concerns all departments and functions.

However, I was aware that a CSR policy is not imposed from above. I am well aware that it is more effective if you build a work plan that involves all your colleagues, so that as many people as possible adhere to it.
On the other hand, in other offces in France, both public and private, these activities were already underway and in our subsidiaries and also abroad, particularly in Italy, under the management of Giuseppe Garesio.

My role was to complete what had already been started, consolidating what already existed and building a roadmap with all the actors in the company. The path would inevitably be consistent with our business and shared by all the branches.

In fact, every year we organise two meetings with the CSR committees, to compare ourselves with all the corresponding local CSR managers.
This is an opportunity to assess our progress, share our best practices and set new goals through a progress plan.

What are the main strands of your CSR policy?
Our CSR policy has been built around a rationale of respecting the diversity of job seekers. These are the three priorities of our CSR policy:
• Ensure non-discrimination in hiring for all our candidates.
• Ensure upskilling to meet the expectations of our clients.
• Ensure the safety of our temporary workers, in jobs they sometimes ‘discover’ for the first time.
These values are also shared by an increasing number of customers. Our ambition is to be the point of reference in terms of ‘responsible’ temporary work.

What does diversity mean to you?
For us, diversity is a principle of non-discrimination in recruitment. A principle that we must guarantee for candidates who come to Synergie. This allows us to offer incredible opportunities to our clients: to come into contact with a pool of candidates, each of whom is capable of bringing the greatest added value. Sometimes we must help companies overcome certain prejudices, but our consultants are trained to do so and know how to highlight the objective capabilities of our candidates. In these times of economic recovery and a shortage of candidates, this is a formidable talent pool that is available to the most open and challenging companies.
At Synergie, we are particularly committed to the inclusion of people with disabilities. But before suggesting our clients
commit to this path, we wanted to commit ourselves. After all, this is what we are doing: as many as 7% of our permanent staff are disabled. Credibility is also earned by example.

Has this culture influenced your growth?
A recent survey by Ethifnance showed that the publicly traded companies most committed to CSR are also the ones with the strongest growth. This result is basically pretty easy to understand:
• Not only do our employees fnd more motivation in their work and are more engaged, but they also remain loyal to the company.
• Our customers are reassured that they have a partner committed to inclusion.
• More and more investors are choosing engaged brands because they are consistent with their values.
CSR is therefore a driver of growth and longevity.

How do you evaluate your performance?
Every year we have our CSR policy evaluated. Our efforts have been well rewarded. We have received several important recognitions: from the world of investors with our entry into the Top Ten of the Gaïa Rating ranking of the 230 most effcient SMEs in CSR, listed on the Paris Stock Exchange (with a score of 86/100). Or, to cite another example, we obtained another important result from the international auditor Ecovadis who, for the frst time in our history, awarded
us the Platinum rating reserved for the 1% of our sector with the best CSR ratings.

Where do you see Synergie in five years?
Synergie is currently the fifth-largest European player in the temporary work and recruitment sector. Our ambition is
clearly to be among the top 10 in the world.
To achieve this goal, the roadmap of the Chairman of the Board, Victorien Vaney, is clear: to offer our clients and candidates increasingly effective digital tools, while retaining what has made Synergie strong: human and local support to ensure that placement remains a very accurate and reliable affair. Indeed, at Synergie, we never forget that behind every candidate, there is an important life project.