Of course the Kerviel case in January left traces

"All the crises are opportunities," said Anne Marion-Bouchacourt, Director of human resources of the Société Générale Group. Of course, the Kerviel case, in January, left traces. And the Bank of 151.000 employees does not escape the current financial storm. However, the General view out rather well: social, 20,000 recruitment provided (including 5.5 in France) this year and growth, particularly in the international. And the context is also, for HRD, the opportunity to submit certain practices flat.

An air of déjà vu

For Anne Marion-Bouchacourt, events have an air of déjà vu: it compares craze blind of finance in the heyday of the Internet, when companies forgot the fundamentals of the economy for the drive for new technologies. "How could it leave some brokers distribute real estate credits then they knew nothing at risk" How have the rating agencies they worked ", wondered now this former of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Today, yet the world of finance is, according to her, not the lessons of the crisis: "is it wise to large-scale layoffs, as the Anglo-Saxon banking The Bank financing and investment is a recent trade. Most of the employees are young and have never known of a serious crisis. It was an opportunity for them to be confronted and acquire professional reflexes both sustainable and beneficial to their employer.

Protected by the variety of its functions and its model of universal bank, Société Générale has been relatively spared. The General, whose size has tripled in ten years, also retains its ambitions internationally. "In Romania, for example, we open an agency a week", said the Manager.

Even in the Bank Finance and investment (12,000 employees around the world), its recruitment continues. In 2008, a thousand hirings are always planned in this branch. However, the searched profiles change: "We now prefer experienced candidates, representing, this year, 50 of our recruitment on all our trades." Five years ago, the part of the "seniors" was not a quarter of the hirings. This action confirmed profiles already practiced to fill 1,500 departures retirement planned each year, between 2009 and 2013. The trend is accentuated with the crisis.

In addition, the Bank does not appear to suffer from a deficit of image. In late September, his recruitment operation "sogélive" has attracted more than 4,000 candidates to the defence. "We received a lot of experienced profiles of quality that is usually found by hunting heads or rarely found because they are reluctant to change position," says Anne Marion-Bouchacourt.

The financial storm would therefore not have changed If it encourages management of human resources to questioning. And first to be more of employees and trade unions listening to all that the crisis has helped spread the more crazy rumors. "The role of a HRD is also to allow everyone to understand what is happening to our businesses in this tormented environment," said Anne Marion-Bouchacourt. As the recruitment and staff development process, they have been strengthened. Identical assessment grids for all have been developed.

Rationalization of costs

Given the context, the General is yet caution. It has undertaken to streamline costs, with a "plan of operational efficiency." Objective: increase the gross operating income of 1 billion euros by 2010. So far, major investments are maintained, in training, for example. But adapt content: all the employees of the group will, inter alia, awareness of operational risk. Similarly, side remuneration, packages will not be reviewed downwards, ensures Anne Marion-Bouchacourt. But the variable part will be adapted to the results of each trade. And unsurprisingly, the bonus will be in the image of the market .