Building a culture of trust: the key role of social dialogue at Clariane
At Clariane, social dialogue is a cornerstone of our corporate culture and an essential tool for building a lasting climate of trust with all our employees. Because it is based on listening, respecting each other and finding pragmatic solutions, social dialogue provides structure, improving teams’ daily lives and supporting transformations. Because it is based on listening, respecting each other and finding pragmatic solutions...
Social dialogue rooted in local communities
At Clariane, social dialogue takes place at the local, regional, national and European level. This is how it can fully play its part, highlighting needs experienced in the field, promoting discussions and ensuring more informed decision-making to continuously improve working conditions.
Social dialogue: driving and relaying our policies
The social dialogue we carry out in each facility is a crucial tool for ensuring good working conditions. Clariane aims to have 95% of managers trained by 2026, illustrating its desire to make local management a key player in quality of life at work. Listening to teams, valuing their feedback and taking their viewpoints on board are at the heart of our approach.
Our annual C-Pulse survey, sent to all of our employees in Europe, feeds into this process of continuous listening. In 2024, the participation rate reached 70%, a figure that is steadily increasing. We analyse the results at all levels of the company so we can identify concrete areas for improvement that are directly linked to working conditions. For example, feedback from the survey helped us accelerate the development of Clariane Universities within countries and promote local initiatives such as creating more appropriate break areas and holding team-building events.
At the national level, discussions held within each country with representative bodies in line with regulations mean that representatives can be involved in the company’s decisions.
This is a prerequisite for rolling out our HR policies and organisational projects in the field in consultation with staff representatives. In France, collective bargaining is very active and resulted in an initial agreement on how social dialogue is organised in 2019, an agreement on health and safety at work in 2021 and an agreement on employing people with disabilities as well as an agreement on managing jobs and career paths in 2024.
Social dialogue in Europe affords an opportunity for effective joint work with our social partners on key topics including risk prevention, reduction of absenteeism, CSR strategy and training. Dedicated working groups are producing tangible results with growing impacts.
For instance, in 2024, the social partners helped to draft of a best management practice guide to reduce absenteeism at the European level. The most recent example is from this year, when Clariane engaged in discussions that led to a Europe-wide agreement on health and safety at work.
It reflects our shared commitment to creating a safe, sustainable and respectful work environment in all countries where we operate, while also driving progress in health and safety practices for the benefit of all our employees and the people we support.
Creating a culture of trust means listening and then taking action. At Clariane, every discussion supports the continuous improvement of working conditions. Social dialogue drives progress, supporting the company’s strategy and employees’ well-being at work. This is one of Clariane’s priority commitments as a purpose-driven company.