Véronique Subileau : La diversité, atout majeur d'une société positive - LH Forum 2016

Hello, so I have a question: what is the link between the Sydney ferries, the little train of Versailles, the electric buses of Eindhoven in the Netherlands, the Black Cars in the United States, and the buses, tramway, and funicular of Le Havre? Well, it's Transdev. I heard 'Bravo Transdev, Trentels!' It's a global player in transport and mobility. Transdev has 13 modes of transport, 83,000 employees in 19 countries, and 57,000 drivers worldwide, in big cities, small towns, the countryside, by the sea, up in the mountains. In France, it's 25,000 drivers who allow your children to go to school, allow us to go to work, to see our friends, to live our hobbies. That's Transdev. But what does all that mean? Simply, it means that Transdev creates connections: connections between countries, between territories, between people. It's amazing. Imagine: what do you do in life? I create connections. I allow people to come together, to meet, to live together. And we truly have a passion for this profession, a real pride in it. And what makes this connection possible? Well, yes, it's our various employees, our 83,000 employees. And I would even say the diversity of the men and women who make up Transdev: diversity of cultures, as you've understood, but also diversity of profiles, diversity of generations, diversity of personal and collective stories. And that makes Transdev a true actor in the positive economy. All this is wonderful, yes, but we can't stop there. Why can't we stop there? Because the world is changing: it's digitalizing, it's accelerating, and new players are entering our market, extremely powerful new players. We talk a lot today about the uberization of the economy, and I can tell you that at Transdev, we experience it firsthand. And this changing world is a tremendous opportunity; that's how we have to see it. We are all very lucky here in this room to live in this period of multiple changes. Moreover, at Transdev, the collaborative economy that we talk about a lot at the forum is an opportunity. It stimulates us, and we legitimately want to contribute to reinventing this world of mobility, to contribute while remaining who we are, that is, creators of connections. So how do we do it? Well, it's simple and complicated at the same time. How do we do it? We rely on what we have most precious. What is most precious? Our employees. We listen to them, and we give them the means and conditions to co-create. In fact, what do we do? We bet on the human. We talk a lot about the human in companies; we put the human at the center. But what does 'human' mean in the end? Well, 'human' means collective intelligence, it means diversity, and it means connection. We have three very deep convictions. The first is that this collective intelligence only makes sense, is only rich, if around the table we bring together different profiles. The performance we talk about so much in companies is not achieved by putting around the table people with the same way of thinking, the same experiences. Quite the opposite: it is achieved by different people who share the company's objectives and values. This performance, far beyond technique and processes, is achieved in relationships, in the creation of connections. So how do we create connections? I even want to say, how do we recreate connections in the company? Well, first, we stop spending our time making PowerPoints and checking our emails, responding to emails, and checking our emails and making PowerPoints. We live, we talk to each other. It seems simple. We exchange, we discuss, we dialogue. In short, we are living beings in living companies. That's the point. And that's what we try to do, and what we want is to infuse this at Transdev. And to infuse it, you can't tell people to be alive, but what you can do, and what we try to do, is create the conditions to allow everyone to be alive in the company. And what are these conditions? Trust, listening, kindness, empathy. All these words are said in companies, but we lose their meaning. Because it's from the moment you truly trust, from the moment you respect, from the moment you listen, from the moment you are kind in the company, that the magic begins to operate, that energies are released, that rich and meaningful connections are created, and that's what we try to do at Transdev, and that's what we are working on. So that these words don't remain just words, I would like to illustrate my point with two examples: diversity and intergenerational relations. Diversity is a subject close to my heart, and as Group HR Director, I am committed to advancing this issue. Working on diversity in companies today often comes down to feminizing. So what did we do? We brought together a number of employees and asked them a question: how can we make diversity a performance lever at Transdev? And that day was innovative in three ways. First, it was the first time, two years ago, that we talked about diversity and made the link between diversity and performance. Second, we took the time to meet and talk to each other. And third, we used collective intelligence techniques and co-created an action plan. The flagship action that emerged was simply to create a diversity club, a club open to all, a club where everyone has a voice. We used social networks to exchange articles and points of view, in fact, to create connections, simply. Then, on intergenerational relations, which is also a subject close to my heart and one we talk about a lot: young people, young people. Yes, to have intergenerational relations in a company, you need young people. At Transdev, we have 10% under 30, and we want more. In France last year, out of the 7,500 recruitments we made, 30% were young people. So we created a nursery to welcome these young people. In the first year of the nursery, these young people train, tour the networks, talk, discuss, meet all the group's employees, so that after a year they are extremely operational in the networks in France. And then these young people, we listen to them. And by listening to them, we decided to create a community that we are going to set up: a community of 75 young people, mirroring our community of 75 leaders. In fact, we are going to do an executive shadow so that together, generations united in connection, we can reinvent the mobility of tomorrow. Well, let's talk about tomorrow. I truly believe that the company of tomorrow will be the one focused, as you've understood, on its ability to create connections: connections between all individuals, no matter how different they are, connections between employees, connections between customers, connections between suppliers, connections between stakeholders, where connection is still very lacking today. And I also believe that the company of tomorrow, the company that will be attractive to all, the company that will be fulfilling, the company that will be high-performing, will be the one that has conscious leaders, natural leaders, leaders who animate this collective intelligence, leaders who give meaning, leaders who reveal all talents in their diversity. The know-it-alls and order-givers of the previous century must now urgently mutate, and we must all be creators of connections. Yesterday, I participated in the marketplace with the young people, and I can tell you there was an energy that truly made me optimistic. And I love coming to this forum, which for me is a true blessing. And that's why Transdev, alongside its shareholder Caisse des Dépôts, is committed, and we are here and we are speaking because these leaders, these leaders of tomorrow, well, we meet them today; they are here, you are here. So to conclude, yesterday morning, Jacques Attali mentioned in his introduction a phrase that resonated deeply with me: he said, 'To be happy, you must make people happy.' Well, to conclude, what I want to tell you is that to be happy, you must create connections. Thank you very much.