Our HR policy
Sodiaal is a cooperative of 15,295 farmers and 9,018 employees committed to promoting the best of dairy regions and firmly focused on the future.
Our challenge is to transform ourselves to take up the challenge of new consumer expectations and promote family farms and sustainable farming.
At Sodiaal, we encourage the empowerment of every employee and we give them the means to participate in the collective challenge. We offer individually tailored careers in all our trades and sites.
Key figures
We want to give everyone a place, regardless of gender, background, or disability. Diversity is our company’s strength and wealth. We have two main ambitions: to be a disability-inclusive company and to advance gender equality at work.
Be a disability-inclusive company
Our proactive policy covers two areas: promoting the recruitment and integration of new employees with disabilities and keeping our employees who develop a disability during their career in employment. Our actions are part of our Group Disability Agreement signed in 2020. Our goal is to keep the employment rate of people with disabilities above 6%. It was 6.0% in 2020*. RECRUIT, INTEGRATE Since 2021, we have participated in the Salto scheme, which aims to promote the professional integration of people with disabilities into the industry, through work placements and work-study contracts. It puts applicants and host companies in touch. We are present on the
I have retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic eye disease. My field of vision is reduced to tubular vision and I am hypersensitive to light. I’ve always wanted to work like everyone else and go unnoticed, until the day my eyesight dropped and the fatigue became more noticeable. Since 2006, I have benefited from an RQTH (official recognition of a person’s status as a worker with a disability) which has allowed my workstation to be adapted. It was a morally difficult step, but today I am delighted. My colleagues became aware of my disability, my commute was made easier and I was given more visual comfort. So I feel better understood and less tired. This adjustment is therefore more positive than I had imagined.
Magali Lecocq
Assistant to the Director of the Bassin Laitier Relais Formations Sodiaal Union
Advancing gender equality at work
We want to improve the diversity of our teams and decision-making bodies. Women make up about a third of our total workforce, our goal is to achieve this percentage in decision-making bodies, which, for some of them, means doubling the number of women.
Our actions primarily target certain particularly gendered activities or trades, with over 90% of men or women. These actions concern all levers: • recruitment, • occupational mobility, • training for managers and human resources experts, • communication and awareness.
Gender balance is a guarantee of team performance. Having gender balanced teams allows different points of view and sensitivities to be expressed in order to tackle topics and thus make the best decisions for the group. It should not be just a wish, it should be reality.
Florence Monot
Upstream director and sponsor of the gender balance project.
Index of gender equality in the workplace
The calculation of the index of gender equality in the workplace has been a legal obligation for companies with over 50 employees since 2018.
This score, calculated on 100 points, takes into account the gender pay gap, the gap in annual pay rises and promotions, pay rises on return from maternity leave, parity among the ten highest remunerations.
In 2021, 75% of our businesses had an index above 75% (83% in 2020 and 93% in 2019).
Community engagement & pride
- In 2020, the cooperative’s share capital was opened up to employees.
- At the end of 2021, 1,530 employees became members, i.e. 20% of eligible employees.
- An employee representative elected to the Board of Directors
- 70% of employees say they are proud to work at Sodiaal.
The opening up of the share capital to employees has already enabled over 20% of us to demonstrate our involvement in Sodiaal’s development and our wish to contribute to a project of shared destiny with the community of farmer members!
The Salariés Associés des Terroirs Sodiaal (SSATS) section groups these member employees. Throughout the year, the board of this section, made up of 24 representatives elected by the members works to develop the employee shareholding and manages the relationship with the cooperative’s governance and the farmer members in the region.
Blandine du Haut Cilly
Employee board member and Director of the Eurosérum plant in Quimper
Skills development is at the heart of the Sodiaal Group’s HR policy. Each year, over 2/3 of employees follow at least one course.
Our six in-house schools
Internal training is part of the group’s identity. Sodiaal relies on these six in-house schools to sustain and pass on its knowledge and expertise to the group’s employees. Internal training provided by our experts therefore represents almost a third of the training hours used by our employees.
Personal training account (CPF) policy
In 2022, Sodiaal launched its CPF policy, which aims to promote this scheme to employees and support them in using the hours available for training through a catalogue and an incentive bonus.
OF SI Qualiopi certification
Sodiaal has its own training organisation hosted within the group’s holding company. This organisation provides long and certified training courses such as professional qualification certificates (CQP). It was recognised for its professionalism and the quality of its training by Qualiopi certification, in early 2022.
Parcours Trajectoire
The Parcours Trajectoire is one of Sodiaal’s iconic training courses. It is intended to train the Group’s future plant managers. This course was designed and provided in partnership with ENSAIA (Engineering School in the area of Agricultural and Food Sciences in Nancy) and awards a university degree entitled Manager of an industrial site in the food industry. The class of 2022 was the sixth year of the course.
Our LXPs
Sodiaal offers its employees unlimited access to two remote training platforms. An in-house platform that offers training on the group’s business expertise and an external platform dedicated to soft-skills and cross-functional skills.
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