SPIE becomes a signatory to the #StOpE act of commitment to fight against everyday sexism

Cergy, 25 January 2024 - SPIE France, a subsidiary of the SPIE Group, the independent European leader in multi-technical services in the areas of energy and communications, has become a signatory to the #StOpE act of commitment to fight everyday sexism at work. This is a natural step in the company's approach to workplace inclusion. The signing of this act, which took place at the initiative's annual ceremony on 25 January, will enable SPIE France and its subsidiaries to strengthen their commitment to equality between men and women.

SPIE France commits to the #StOpE initiative
The #StOpE initiative, created in 2018, is a collective of over 200 public, private and academic organisations that have come together to fight everyday sexism in the workplace and spread action and best practices in this area. The initiative is placed under the High Patronage of the Minister Delegate in charge of Equality between Women and Men and the Fight against Discrimination. Since 2021, #StOpE has been supported and led by the AFMD (Association Française des Managers de la Diversité, the French Association of Diversity Managers).

#StOpE - In signing this guiding act of commitment, SPIE France is committing to deploy eight key actions
By becoming signatories to the #StOpE initiative, SPIE France and its subsidiaries are committing to roll out at least one of the eight priority actions each year:

• Display and apply the zero-tolerance principle
• Raise awareness of sexist behaviour (acts, words, attitudes) and their impacts
• Provide targeted training on obligations and best practices related to fighting everyday sexism
• Circulate educational material to help employees address sexist behaviour in the company
• Encourage all employees to contribute, i.e. prevent and identify sexist behaviour, and respond when faced with everyday sexism
• Prevent situations involving sexism and provide individual support for victims and witnesses so that they can report sexist behaviour, and for decision-makers so that they can address it
• Punish reprehensible behaviour and communicate on the associated disciplinary measures
• Measure and introduce indicators to monitor progress and adapt the policy to fight against everyday sexism
  

#StOpE, a natural step in the SPIE France approach to workplace inclusion
This new commitment is part of the efforts undertaken by SPIE France and its subsidiaries to address the key issue of workplace inclusion. For several years now, the SPIE teams have been working daily to ensure equality between men and women through numerous initiatives, including:

• The signing of a diversity charter in 2008 to promote greater diversity in the teams;
• The implementation of the So'SPIE Ladies programme in 2015, which enabled progress to be made in terms of the number of women in its teams. Its role is to inform and raise awareness among employees of key issues such as the workplace gender mix, unconscious bias and the fight against sexism and sexual harassment;
• The partnership with the Elles Bougent association in France, which seeks to break down stereotypes and promote awareness of engineer and technician career paths among young girls;
• Activities for women undergoing retraining, in particular thanks to operational preparation for employment schemes;
• Mentoring programmes, which bring together an employee with a member of the Executive Committee;
• At group level, the aim to increase the proportion of women in key management positions by 25% by 2025 compared with 2020.

"We are thrilled to be joining the #StOpE collective to fight everyday sexism. Signing this act of commitment is a natural step in the approach to workplace inclusion that we have been pursuing for several years. At SPIE France, and its subsidiaries, we firmly believe that initiatives such as these are essential to support cultural change and amplify its impact," says Arnaud Tirmarche, Managing Director of SPIE France.