Why has ENGIE implemented a mentoring program aimed at women?

It's my belief that our group, that every group, should not only mirror society but lead social change and social thinking. To develop gender diversity requires daring, courage, and a certain level of determination. These are values that our group nurtures and wants our female employees to contribute to, and developing these values is in our interest, in the interest of our women, and in the interest of our men. Studies demonstrate that gender diversity and equality of opportunity can increase our overall performance as a company. In order to succeed in achieving these ends, we not only need a solid strategy but also to recruit a good mix of men and women, and a mix of different talents, but also to appoint a similar mix in our managers, and to elect such a mix to our board of directors. Of course, there are still cultural and historical difficulties, and this is why, with Valérie Bernis, ENGIE executive vice president, we agreed, in 2008, to an ambitious and global policy aimed at supporting and promoting women throughout the group. In 2008, we also launched a program called Women In Networking (WIN), an international network of ENGIE women whose goal is to help women throughout the group become stronger and more visible. Then, in 2010, when we became aware of the fact that women encounter difficulties to break through the glass ceiling and access more senior positions, we launched the program Mentoring at ENGIE. This program, specifically designed to respond to women and their aspirations, provides structures and/or mentors to support their professional development. The program has been welcomed by our male employees and by senior managers who have accepted the challenge and proved themselves excellent and engaged mentors.

What can we learn from this program, and what are the outcomes?

What we've noticed, now that the third round of mentoring has finished, is that mentoring has been an incredible way to build employees' self-confidence and to introduce different perspectives—the two, of course, being closely linked. Each mentee has been able to reflect on her role, and, thanks to her mentor, to develop her career. The rate of satisfaction is very high (close to 100 percent), both on the part of mentees as well as mentors. It's important to underline this, since mentoring not only benefits the mentees, but it also provides great benefits to the mentors. Our mentors are senior executives who can, through mentoring, understand more clearly the aspirations of our high-potential women, and develop their skills. For both sets of participants, mentoring is also a way to discover and understand the group, something that is essential in our current and changing business environment.

What would you like to see happen after this experience?

In addition to the very positive impact on women in our group, the success of our first three rounds of the mentoring program has also enabled us to establish mentoring as a key part of the group's culture, and to include it in our management style. With the support of the Steering Committee, we decided to extend the program and, in spring 2014, we launched a global mentoring initiative, which aims to mentor a thousand young managers—both men and women—from all business sectors of the group. As far as young, high-potential women are concerned, round four of the ENGIE mentoring program was launched at the end of 2014 with a strengthened international dimension. I am keen that we continue with our initial goal: to develop mentalities, and change opinions on gender diversity and equality of opportunity: it's the essence of WIN, the goal of mentoring, and the reason behind every action we've undertaken since 2008. Thanks to this remarkable movement of men and women, the ENGIE group is particularly well-positioned in this important arena of gender diversity, and we will continue to develop and to implement concrete actions to support women in our group: it's in the interest of all of us.

Content, Issues, and Aims

When they hit the glass ceiling, high-potential women in ENGIE were either not breaking through or were leaving the group. To rectify this situation, ENGIE's one-year mentoring program addressed a number of issues:

• To mark the group's commitment to women
• To highlight women's talents internally
• To achieve more women directors and senior managers
• To involve both men and women in gender diversity

Mentoring is based on a culture of generosity, respect, and sharing. Helping mentees to develop requires the achievement of several goals determined by the mentor and the mentee. Their relationship is based on mutual exchange.

For the mentee, the advantages are

• Learning to “decode” how the company works by learning from the experience of a colleague within the group
• Receiving advice on career choices and career path
• Receiving support to take on a director or senior management–level post
• Developing knowledge and networks

For the mentor, the advantages are

• Becoming aware of, and making others aware of, the challenges that women face
• Being enriched by the relationship with another person (the mentee)
• Strengthening internal cohesion

Keys to Success

For the mentoring program to succeed, it needed mutual trust, confidentiality, integrity, honesty, professionalism, rigor, and respect for diversity. In addition to these values, certain rules were established to ensure the program's success. These included: having the mentor and mentee come from different departments, clearly defined objectives from the beginning, equal involvement in the relationship, regular meetings, confidentiality, defined parameters to frame the relationship (e.g., career development), rigorous follow-up of the mentoring by the program team, and problem-solving processes in case of difficulties in the relationship.

Program and Selection

In order to have a representative sample for the pilot, ENGIE set up 45 mentoring pairs. The mentees selected were high-potential women and members of the WIN network. As for mentors, they were more experienced males and females at director or senior management level, with no direct line management to the mentee, who could help their mentees to progress via their experience and their networks.

For the selection process, all candidates wrote a paper explaining why they were motivated to join the program, and detailed topics they wished to discuss. The mentors were chosen mainly for their commitment to gender diversity, but they also had to be able to give constructive feedback; be open-minded, patient, attentive, and tolerant; have a strategic vision of the company; display leadership qualities; and know how to take a step back and evaluate the mentee's progress. As for the mentees, they had to be motivated to progress and break through career steps, eager to understand and analyze their strengths and the possible obstacles hindering their progression, open to another's point of view, and able to hear other people's advice. They were selected on the basis of an analysis of their motivation to be mentored, and then by a matching of their needs with the areas offered by the mentors.

Preparation of the Participants

A key factor in the success of the mentoring program was the very detailed and thorough preparation of the mentors and mentees. The mentors followed three collective training sessions. First session: stages of the pilot program, mentor behavior, application, mentoring tools (arbitrage, self governance, positioning, etc.), semantics, and ethics. At the end of this session the pairs met each other for a first “get to know you” session. Second session: the mentors were provided with additional tools and reading on behavior and attitudes. Third and final session: how to adjust to the mentoring situation. Finally, an individual coaching session enabled the mentors to prepare for their mentoring relationship.

The mentees participated in a session to prepare them for meeting their respective mentors. At the end of this session, they had a good idea of the objectives and limits of the program, their roles as mentees, and the steps in the mentoring relationship.

Animation and Follow-Up

The relationship between the mentor and mentee, key to the success of the program, required monitoring to avoid any potential difficulties. To do this, the quality of the mentoring relationship was assessed via a questionnaire from the beginning of the program. This meant that any readjustments could be quickly made in case of problems. Then two meetings were scheduled to follow up the development of the mentoring relationship. The mentees were able to share their experiences, exchange good practices, and learn how to revitalize their relationship if needed. Finally some benefited from an individual follow-up to adjust the mentoring pair, especially when the pair lacked dynamism.

Feedback

To assess the success of the program, each participant was asked to complete a questionnaire, and the mentees were also interviewed. This showed that the mentoring relationship was seen as serious (98 percent satisfaction rate by mentors and mentees); 84 percent of mentees and 91 percent of mentors thought the objectives had been achieved and that the mentors paid attention to the quality of the discussions. Meetings to put issues into perspective were considered useful by 60 percent of the mentees, with comments that these meetings allowed them to take some distance and to share their experiences. The mentors thought the training was useful (96 percent) and necessary to understand their role and acquire mentoring expertise. The program's virtuous circle had, in addition, strengthened mentees' loyalty and increased their pride in the company. As for the mentors, they had become more aware of the issues, problems, and levers helping and hindering women's career progression in the company.

Outcomes

Thanks to the mentoring program, the mentees were able to continue the work themselves and become aware of their positioning in the company. Other benefits included an understanding of the company and the way it worked, the ability to put things into perspective, and the acquisition of tools and good practices. At the end of the program, 37 percent of mentees progressed in their careers; some changed their posts and took on more responsibilities, while others became role models in their departments. The mentors acquired mentoring skills and strengthened their managerial abilities. Some even re-assessed their own career progression! Their discussions with the mentees in effect made them look at their own pasts and futures.

The program was run again in March 2012 with 61 mentoring pairs of whom 8 were international, then again in Autumn 2013 and by the end of 2014. The second and third mentoring seasons confirmed the considerable impact the program has had on the mentees' career development and the awareness of directors and senior managers around the issues of gender diversity.

Finally, the program was transformational within ENGIE, not only for the mentors and mentees, but for all colleagues. Mentoring has led to a change in mind-sets by creating a snowball effect, which has moved quickly beyond the players immediately involved in the program. This virtuous circle has generated a positive image on the Internet, and mentalities have changed, with more men now aware of women as leaders.