Michelin signs a new Job and Career Management (GEPP) agreement

• The objective: to support the Group’s growth by reinforcing the professional development and career paths of the 16,000 Michelin employees in France

• Three priorities: to encourage internal mobility, to propose personalized guidance for employees in sensitive positions, and to thoroughly revise end-of-career management

The directors of the Michelin Group in France joined the French Democratic Confederation of Labor (CFDT), the Union Syndicale Solidaires (SUD) trade union group, and the General Confederation of Labor - Worker’s Force (CGT-FO) to sign a new GEPP agreement on November 9, 2023. The three-year contract aims to reinforce the professional development and career paths of the 16,000 Michelin employees in France.

Michelin’s strategy to develop its activities beyond mobility, coupled with profound transformations such as digitalization and automation, will continue to result in a number of changes in positions and professions within the Group. Moreover, the overall extension of working life caused by the French government’s recent retirement reform makes it necessary to provide each employee with new perspectives and possibilities for managing the last part of their career in the best possible conditions.

In this context, five negotiating sessions have made it possible to co-construct an ambitious agreement based on an innovative approach that makes it possible to anticipate the employees’ guidance needs, structured around three priorities.

REINFORCING INTERNAL MOBILITY FOR ALL

The agreement reasserts the priority given to internal professional mobility to guide employees through this period of great transformation in terms of activities and professions. In particular, it establishes the priority given to internal recruitment in filling newly created positions within the Group in France over the next three years.

The contract aims to develop the career path dynamic at Michelin by reinforcing or improving all the internal mobility systems that have been created over the years, and in particular:

• giving free access to newly created positions within the company via a job-posting platform;

• reviewing individuals in a way that makes it possible to gain the perspectives of several pertinent stakeholders to shed light on the realm of possibilities in terms of professional paths and the employee’s potential for development;

• proximity development partners (PDP) who are able to advise and guide the employee in their career development perspectives;

• the Professional Orientation team taking an approach based on a complete analysis of skills and aspirations to assist an employee in envisioning other jobs;

• a comprehensive array of training available online so that each employee may develop their professional, soft, and general skills;

• the Manufacture Des Talents (MDT), an internal training center founded in Clermont-Ferrand in 2021 to train or update the training of the Group’s employees;

• support systems for geographical mobility.

All these resources will be mobilized and reinforced to allow all the employees to embrace a three-step approach throughout their entire careers: knowing themselves, envisioning themselves, and developing themselves.

THE CREATION OF A PERSONALIZED SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR SENSITIVE POSITIONS

The agreement establishes an individualized support system that will be offered to employees in what are called “sensitive positions.” These are jobs that require skill updating or the progressive adaptation of the workforce caused by changes in the work world (whether organizational, technological, or economical) or in the company strategy.

In addition to traditional guidance, and if necessary, the employees in question will have the benefit of a reinforced follow-up with the support of a Specialized Development Partner (PDS) to be given priority in the assignment of a new, stable job within the company.

As a complement to all the support systems for reinforced functional internal mobility, and to provide employees with every possibility to find stable employment, a mobility leave may be established, which will be made available only to eligible and voluntary employees.

IN-DEPTH REVISION OF END-OF-CAREER POLICIES

In the context of the overall extension of working life in France, the agreement proposes an innovative approach that gives priority to the aspirations of the employees in the last five years of their careers. The objective of this approach is to foster employee engagement up to retirement and to show appreciation for the experience of seniors.

In this perspective, the agreement makes it possible to offer each employee an end-of-career path adapted to their situation and aspirations:

• for those who wish to remain professionally very active, the continuation of a dynamic career management;

• for those who wish to gently transition into retirement, progressive guidance into retirement (pension contributions, maintaining the end-of-career allowance, job sharing);

• for those who wish to conclude their professional activities earlier: conversion of the end-of-career allowance into time, company contribution to the purchase of retirement credits, etc.

• for employees of production sites who have worked more than 15 years on rotating shifts: creation of a special contribution system for a time savings account.

Moreover, the diagnosis conducted during the negotiations revealed two conditions for the successful implementation of the contract: a better understanding of career management tools on the part of the industry’s employees, and improved accessibility to training opportunities for all employees. To address these challenges, the agreement includes an innovative equal-representation system in the form of the Initiative Exploratoire Personnel (IEP, or Personal Exploratory Initiative), which will enable the directors and voluntary trade unions to co-construct effective solutions to develop.