Committed to changing the world together for a better future
Your decision to work for BNP Paribas means more than a diverse workplace and opportunities for professional development or an international career. As an open and responsible group, we create a unique working environment, in which our colleagues can share their knowledge and work together to help shape the changing world. As a potential team member, you are at the centre of our actions. Choose BNP Paribas, choose a vision of sustainability, responsibility, innovation and sharing, which you will experience every day, even outside the scope of your job description. You choose. It’s your choice.
We lead the way – by taking responsibility on a global scale
As a strong and committed Group in the financial services sector, helping our employees to be proactive and to make a difference in the world is part of our mission. Together we can overcome boundaries, act sustainably and do good.
Our approx. 193,000 employees come from 68 different countries – a diversity that is reflected in the breadth of our strengths and capabilities. In full awareness of our global scope, we foster resiliency to ensure that we can remain a strong employer even in times of crisis. That is because we can only reach our goals if our Group rests on a sound foundation. In 2020, we won both the ‘World’s Best Bank for Corporates’ and ‘World’s Best Bank for Financial Inclusion’ awards from Euromoney.
To us, overcoming boundaries means more than simply working together internationally. We also surmount social boundaries: in Germany, for example, BNP Paribas employees also spend some of their working hours supporting non-profit organisations. These activities include the ‘Joblinge’ mentoring programme, which helps young people in difficult circumstances to successfully enter the job market.
We follow a clear sustainability strategy that helps shape our financing and investment projects in various sensitive industries.
In addition, since the end of 2017 our business operations have been entirely CO2-neutral, and we have been working through the ‘Green Company for Employees’ initiative to avoid the use of plastic and promote sustainable mobility.
We are activity pursuing numerous climate protection measures and have massively expanded our investments in renewable energy projects. The BNP Paribas Group has pledged to increase the volume of credit extended to companies and projects that demonstrably contribute to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) either directly or indirectly by €10 billion annually until 2021. The credit volume currently amounts to €180 billion. Start-ups specialising in the energy transition are provided with support or financing from the ‘Energy Transition Capital Fund’, which has an endowment of €100 million.
In addition, as a signatory of the voluntary commitment of the German financial sector to support efforts to combat climate change, we strive to align our lending and investment portfolio with the targets of the Paris Agreement on climate change. We have already announced a date by which we will entirely cease using thermal coal and end our financing of unconventional oil and gas.
In 2018, BNP Paribas was designated as ‘Europe’s Best Bank for Sustainable Finance’ and as ‘Europe’s Best Bank for Corporate Responsibility’.
We put our weight behind non-profit organisations and lend our support to selected fundraising campaigns. Our employees in Germany, for example, participate in a variety of activities, including taking part in nationwide reading days, organising financial education workshops for disadvantaged young people, and help improve schools as part of social days. With its mantra ‘create opportunities – overcome boundaries’, the BNP Paribas Foundation places particular emphasis on helping social institutions that have dedicated themselves to ensuring equal opportunity for children and young people.
You, too, can help to make a difference – as part of the ‘1MillionHours2Help’ programme, you can devote some of your working hours to supporting charities. Even conventional donations have a role to play: with the ‘Rescue & Recover Fund’, for example, we finance both emergency deployments and long-term reconstruction and development programmes as part of our efforts to help people who have been impacted by crises.
We are also very active in the field of sports. Our favourite sport: tennis. Not only do we sponsor approx. 550 professional and amateur tournaments every year, but we also lend our support to educational and social events that are related to the sport of tennis.
We learn – together as a group
Wanting to move forward is an important driver of growth at BNP Paribas. Developing skills, expanding competencies and accepting new developments – all of these things are best done as part of a team. It is to this end that we have made it our goal to learn from one another and to grow together.
In Germany our twelve units comprise an organisation that ‘learns from one another’ and ‘grows together’ on a daily basis – and we are very proud of this fact. We create the conditions that foster personal development and regular dialogue with one another. Right from the start, new employees are given the chance to get to know all our business units at our two-day ‘Getting Started’ seminar. In addition to insights into the business activities of each unit, employees are also afforded opportunities to network with one another and get to know the members of the Management Board Germany in a relaxed atmosphere.
Opportunities to network and come face to face with other development fields are also on offer at our three-day ‘Acceleration Workshops’ – a significant component of the ‘Leaders for Tomorrow’ programme. This professional development tool of the BNP Paribas Group offers further chances for individuals to discover the right training and professional development opportunities for them personally: employees can apply for and complete training courses at ‘My Development’. Be it in-person events or e-learning, the tool is available as an app and offers an overview of mandatory training and personalised suggestions for professional development seminars.
Every year, BNP Paribas conducts a Group-wide Global People Survey (GPS) in which it gives employees the opportunity to express their views on all significant aspects of their employment relationships, including their personal well-being, management culture, how people treat one another, transparency and communication. The findings of these surveys are then used to identify and implement ideas for continuous improvement.
In addition, BNP Paribas actively supports its employees’ mobility: in Germany, there have been approx. 500 internal job changes within the company in each of the past two years, with ten percent of these moves taking place from one country to another in both years. The company also holds annual ‘Mobility Days’ worldwide to promote mobility.
We are open – to new ideas
Equal rights are a foundational principle of the corporate culture at BNP Paribas. From diversity and inclusion to female leadership – the principle of openness is practised in every area of the Group. In this way, we create the opportunities necessary to promote innovation and new ideas.
Diversity and inclusion are topics with a long tradition in our company’s history. Today, they are amongst our greatest strengths, because our initiatives give rise to a wealth of fresh perspectives – they are tangible drivers of innovation. BNP Paribas welcomes people and all their unique attributes, nurtures their talents, and uses their differences to forge a stronger whole: we are part of BNP Paribas’ global ‘MixCity’ network, which promotes the equality of women and men in the field of professional development.
In addition, in July 2017 we launched PRIDE Germany: this is an internal professional network that brings together employees of the BNP Paribas Group regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, creating a working environment in which the LGBTIQ* community feels welcome and respected. As part of the ‘JamaisSansElles’ initiative, we collaborate with more than one hundred companies from a variety of industries to promote women’s rights. As signatories of the Charter of Diversity, we also take part in ‘Diversity Day’ every year.
Our corporate culture places a great deal of emphasis on living diversity, and this is put into practice at BNP Paribas with a holistic approach featuring diversity in its visible and invisible forms. For example, the BNP Paribas Group is a signatory of the ‘Global Business and Disability Network Charter’ of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The goal of this charter is to support people with disabilities and integrate them into the labour market in order to secure the best talents and create a diverse and inclusive working environment. The Group undertakes to implement at least one of the charter’s ten principles regarding the provision of support for employees with disabilities in each of its business units throughout its international network. The charter’s core areas of emphasis are ‘collaboration’, ‘equality of treatment and opportunities’, and ‘confidentiality’. In addition, with our ‘Women’s Impact Programme’ we encourage women to take up leadership positions. Our commitment to the equality of men and women is also demonstrated by our public-service solidarity campaign ‘HeForShe‘. Launched in 2014 by Emma Watson, this campaign works to gain boys and men as supporters for achieving a transformation that will make equal rights for men and women a reality. This encourages them to fight for greater rights for women and to actively work to combat inequality.
We offer space – for working differently
We are striving to create a new culture of work. This includes collaborative working methods, new processes, new structures and a positive leadership culture. The well-being of its employees is particularly important to BNP Paribas. To ensure their well-being over the long term, we remain open to new ideas on a daily basis and exercise our responsibility.
At BNP Paribas we strive to exercise responsibility and to create a working environment where our employees are encouraged to be creative and stay flexible. We have every confidence that personal well-being and a positive leadership culture are essential prerequisites for this. Measures undertaken to increase the well-being of our employees in Germany include individual and shared sport and health programmes, flex-office models and remote working. In Germany the BNP Paribas Group maintains partnerships with the Qualitrain and Urban-Sports-Club sports networks that open up a wide range of opportunities for physical fitness for our employees – in addition to fitness and yoga studios, there are also swimming pools, bouldering halls, wellness programmes and courses on offer.
BNP Paribas also organises numerous sports events over the course of the year where employees of all business units in Germany have the chance to take part. These include the ‘BNP Paribas Football Cup’, the ‘We Are Tennis Cup’, participation in the ‘JP Morgan Corporate Challenge’ in Frankfurt – Germany’s biggest company run – and many other running events throughout Germany. As a result of the pandemic, however, it will not be possible to hold these events until circumstances change.
We also conduct an internal company audit known as the ‘berufundfamilie’ (job and family) audit within the BNP Paribas Group in Germany – a major step towards reconciling work and private life. In addition, our partnership with the ‘pme Familienservice’ family service allows us to offer our employees childcare services for emergencies and during school holidays. We even help our employees out when it comes to caring for the elderly – something that often becomes necessary quite suddenly and without notice. Our partner, WDS.eldercare, provides valuable support in the form of advice and care with its trained and tested care personnel.
We want to think outside the box, because that lays the foundation for agility, team spirit and sustainable value creation. We work collaboratively – be it when trying out new methods of collaboration or through other team-based initiatives. Here, BNP Paribas places particular emphasis on promoting digital transformation: as a co-founder of the ‘Fintech Europe’ initiative, we help start-ups focused on the banking sector carry out pilot projects in established financial institutions. The company also maintains a strategic partnership with the international innovation platform ‘Plug and Play’ and conducts ‘BNP Paribas Hackathons’ on a regular basis – all with the objective of working together to develop new solutions.
We never cease in our efforts to create a work environment that allows each and every individual to become aware of their own skills and capabilities and to continuously develop these. With ‘About Me’, BNP Paribas provides all of its employees with a platform where they can contribute their individual strengths while simultaneously furthering the pursuit of the company’s strategy: ‘About Me’ offers each employee the chance to highlight their own personal competencies and experiences, obtain personalised professional development measures and job offers, and obtain proactive support for the pursuit of their own career. The platform also fosters interaction between employees and managers to facilitate continuous feedback, a personal development plan, and an annual appraisal.
Your decision to work for BNP Paribas means more than a diverse workplace and opportunities for professional development or an international career. As an open and responsible group, we create a unique working environment, in which our colleagues can share their knowledge and work together to help shape the changing world. As a potential team member, you are at the centre of our actions. Choose BNP Paribas, choose a vision of sustainability, responsibility, innovation and sharing, which you will experience every day, even outside the scope of your job description. You choose. It’s your choice.