ales, at the forefront of gender equality

25 February 2013

In a high-technology company with a workforce made up largely of engineers, maintaining gender diversity is always a challenge. Thales is tackling these issues proactively through a policy of anticipation and a set of concrete, realistic measures, backed by constructive social dialogue in France and across Europe, aimed at ensuring that women achieve their full potential in the Groups future development.

Women are underrepresented in scientific and technical disciplines from an early age, said Anne de Ravaran, VP Legal & Human Resources, who is responsible for gender equality at Thales. Our proactive approach to the employment of women at Group companies in France is designed to help correct this imbalance, and, as a minimum, to maintain the overall proportion of female employees at the current level of 24%. Further to the Group-wide framework agreement signed in June 2012 in France, local agreements now specify the minimum number of young women to be recruited over the next few years based on projections of the number of women expected to leave the workforce over the same period.

In 2012, women accounted for 28.5% of new hires in France and 27.5% worldwide. In addition, the Group is supporting substantive measures to encourage even more young women to choose careers in science and technology.

Thales is also paying particular attention to women's career development and is conducting studies within the Group to identify the glass ceilings which can prevent women from advancing to more senior positions. Specific training and mentoring programmes, and support measures including individual coaching and co-development schemes, are being put in place with Thales Universit, the Groups in-house training centre.

This policy of active engagement builds on the Europe-wide agreement signed in 2009 and the framework agreement signed in France in 2004, which was significantly expanded in 2012. The latest agreement includes a range of new measures to further promote the recruitment and career development of women, and to help all employees to achieve a better work-life balance.

The global recruitment strategy for the Group remains steady with a projected figure of approximately 4000 new staff-hires worldwide across 2013.

--

LINK:	http://www.thalesgroup.com/Press_Releases/Group/2013/Thales,_at_the_fo...
	See more stories from thales

Most recent headlines