Diversity, inclusivity, opportunity: putting our people first

Interview with Paul Peterson, Chief HR Officer, Atos and Caroline Brunellière, Deputy Chief Human Resources, Atos.

How did Atos perform as an employer during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Paul Peterson: The highest score we received in the Great Place to Work? survey in 2021 was for our response to the pandemic. While our overriding priority was the safety of our people, our approach aimed to encompass compassion, empathy, flexibility and trust. At times about 90% of our people were working from home and there was tremendous trust between managers and their employees. We will remain flexible until the end of the pandemic. Different countries will return to the office at different times and the key going forward will be balance.

How is Atos responding to today’s challenging employment market?

Caroline Brunellière: Despite the current difficulties recruiting talented individuals, we are pleased to have recruited more than 25,000 people in 2021 which represents 50% more employees than in any other year in the history of the company. Our successful partnerships with universities led to more than 7,000 graduates joining Atos around the world. We are adding new partnerships and reinforcing existing relationships to support our target of recruiting 10,000 graduates in 2022.

Paul: Our employer brand is evolving all the time. We are known as a company that treats its people well and invests in their skillsets, digital certifications and their careers. We are acting rapidly to reduce attrition, improve the retention of our people and retain our top talents. More than 60% of job opportunities at Atos in 2021 were filled internally by our ambitious employees who take the time to invest in their careers through developing key digital skills and competences. Atos is a place of opportunity.

How diverse and inclusive is the Atos workplace?

Caroline: We have an incredibly diverse workforce in terms of geography, with more than 140 nationalities represented. In Atos, 31.5% of our employees are women, up from 30.9% in 2020. In 2021, 35.7% of our hires were women and we aim to increase this proportion. To support gender diversity, we have expanded our Executive Mentoring Program for women and launched Gender Diversity Hiring Boards. In 2022, our target is for 40% of candidates hired to be women.

Paul: We are an all-inclusive employer. Our clients are multicultural and diverse, and we are the same. As an IT leader it is also our obligation to advocate for and deliver accessible IT. Our Accessibility and Digital Inclusion program supports all of our employees and enables them to excel at Atos regardless of any impairments. Our program and practices have gained recognition internationally for mainstreaming disability inclusion. We’ve been recognized by Springboard Consulting in 2020. We were awarded the Zero Project’s Best Practice award in 2022. And the UK government also recognized us as a Disability Confident Leader in 2021.

How is Atos preparing its people for the opportunities of the future?

Paul: Our employees achieved more than 100,000 digital certifications in 2021 in areas such as cloud, security and digital ways of working. We are giving our people new skillsets and laying the foundations of our future growth. Our new Cloud Boost program trained more than 2,400 of our customer-facing teams on the fundamentals of cloud, giving us an enormous advantage in the market.

As we continue to evolve as a company, our Leap program will play an important role in reinforcing the characteristics that we value in our people such as being inclusive, curious, audacious, responsible and united. We held over 100 live events, meetings and workshops involving more than 13,000 employees as part of Leap in 2021. In 2022 we will increase participation in Leap sessions at all levels so that we can embed this culture refresh into the DNA of our company.

Discover examples of Atos action and innovation in the?2021 Integrated Report.