SMCPeople - SMCP

The ambition of the SMCPeople pillar of our CSR strategy is to enhance the well-being and professionnal fulfillment of each and every employee by promoting internal mobility, developing training and establishing a culture of diversity and inclusion focused on gender equality, parenthood, disability and social inclusion.

To facilitate and promote an open feedback culture, the Group has implemented several formal mechanisms. On an individual level, through the annual performance review process, employees are invited to share their expectations and needs. On a collective level, through its engagements survey, SMCP collects the global opinion of its employees on various subjects. The results of these feedback processes are analyzed and used to implement appropriate development actions.

With a rising recommendation score, increasing from 7.1 to 7.3/10, the Group’s employees acknowledge a commitment to improving their daily experience in a creative and inspiring environment—one that is first and foremost respectful of its values, then challenging, and conducive to professional growth.

Committing to diversity and inclusion

Policy on diversity and inclusion

Structured in 2023, in alignment with the ILO recommendations and conventions, the policy is based on 4 pillars with objectives to be achieved by 2025 and 2030:

To ensure the proper deployment and monitoring of measures underpinning the Group’s D&I strategy, D&I committees are set up in each region and at Group level. The members of these committees reflect the diversity of profiles and professions within SMCP.

In addition, SMCP is committed to eliminate all forms of discrimination based on personal characteristics such as age, gender expression, sexual orientation, parental status, origins, disability, religious beliefs, social background or education (non-exhaustive list).

Women representativity at all levels of the company

A large proportion of the Group’s workforce are women. They are in the majority in operational teams, in head offices, and also in management bodies. The objective is to maintain a representation of more than 50% women on the Company’s management. In addition, an analysis of the gender pay gap between women and men will be carried out by 2025 throughout the world, in order to identify any unexplained situations and, if necessary, to correct them.

Agreement on professional equality, quality of life at work and diversity

In June 2022, an agreement was signed for France with our social partners on professional equality, quality of life at work and diversity.

The Group is committed to concrete actions marking key moments in the lives of employees in France and beyond:

Firstly, during recruitment with recruitment campaigns without CVs to open up our opportunities to as many people as possible and with training on bias-free recruitment techniques for recruiting employees;

When managing careers, with the implementation of training and awareness-raising actions on the challenges of diversity and anti-discrimination measures; with the promotion of internal mobility worldwide and the deployment of HR development tools, providing guidance to aid objectives decision-making.

At key life events, such as accompanying our employees in their daily parenthood.

In France, 100% of employees are covered by collective bargaining agreements

Disability policy

The disability mission of the SMCP Group was launched in 2024 with the recruitment of a disability project manager and the signing of disability agreements with UES SMCP and Société FURSAC in France.

Disability ambassadors are identified and trained to support disabled workers in their day-to-day work at our offices and brands.

A monitoring committee for the disability agreements signed with our trade unions will ensure that measures set out in the disability agreement are properly applied.

The Group’s disability mission will also support the North America, Asia, and Europe regions in the deployment of a disability policy through recruitment, awareness, and disability training initiatives.

SMCP Retail Lab

The Group is committed in social inclusion actions, with the launch, in 2023, of the first class of its SMCP Retail Lab academy. With EMA Sup and Institut Français de la Mode as partners, SMCP Retail Lab is offering a innovative and certifying omnichannel training course for sale advisors. The course takes place over a year in the form of work-study programmes offered within our four Brands. SMCP has chosen to welcome candidates from all backgrounds, with the only selection criteria being their motivation and interest in fashion.

Recruiting, motivating and developing talents

Recruiting and onboarding our new employees

The Group offers an onboarding experience to all its employees. For head offices and warehouses, SMCP offers an onboarding program composed of meetings in our Brands and warehouses to provide a variety of opportunities for discussion and give new employees an overview of the Group. This process enables each employee to immerse themselves in the Group’s values, history, organization, Brands, and functions. For retail employees, the integration process is staggered over time, thanks to on-the-job training by the store manager and trainings on our MyLearning platform. For store managers, a specific 3-month on-boarding is provided, with personalized support from an expert store manager.

Training all our employees

We engage all our employees by providing access to digital training via the MyLearning international online training platform, which offers specialized training depending on the position. In this way, we make training accessible to 100% of our employees worldwide, at any time and on any device. This e-learning platform gives all our employees access to training in Strategy, Culture, Products, Sales Ceremony, Management, Sustainability, Diversity & Inclusion, Languages, etc., helping to make them ambassadors for the Group and its Brands.

In 2024, more than 161,000 training hours (+44% vs 2022) were delivered to our employees.

Encouraging internal mobility

We offer our employees a dynamic career path, in an inclusive environment that encourages mobility and internal promotion, giving everyone a chance to succeed and express their potentiel. Thanks to our Brands and business units, the diversity of our functions, and our international presence, we offer genuine career prospects to our employees. This policy is embodied in the sales force teams, where the Group encourages internal mobility for all positions, particularly those of store managers. By the end of 2024, 69% of store managers had been recruited through internal mobility.

Demonstrating solidarity

Support from associations and community actions

For the sixth year in a row, our four brands have partnered with a high school from the Apprentis d’Auteuil network to enable young people experiencing major social difficulties to integrate into the fashion sector. We contributed to the opening of an educational store and participated in sales training to maximize their chances of success.

In 2024, all of the Group’s brands selected a priority area for societal engagement. Each brand then identified a key partner association aligned with its chosen cause; the coming years will focus on strengthening or sustaining these commitments.