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BlogTV: a springboard to employment – the Mirly-Solidarité Association

Isabelle Palsky — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 13:39:09 +0000

The aim of the Mirly-Solidarité Association is to assist job seekers in finding work by providing them with support, job training and social skills.
Located in the 5th and 9th districts of Lyon, Mirly-Solidarité organises social and professional activities in the form of workshops and “breakdown services” (low-cost assistance with DIY repairs from a list of services).

For example, the “Atelier Bois” (Wood Workshop) is a professional woodworking programme that accepts the long-term unemployed as employees under government-subsidised contracts for periods of 6 months to one year.

It’s one way to help everyone to find or to re-establish his or her place in society.

Mirly-Solidarité association is a beneficiary of the BNP Paribas Foundation’s Projet Banlieues, a project that provides support to underprivileged neighbourhoods.

BlogTV: A weekend study session with Proxité

Isabelle Palsky — Mon, 09 May 2011 16:11:15 +0000

On this week’s BlogTV, head out for a study-intensive weekend with the Proxité association!

Once a year, this organisation, which aims to close the gap between young people from working class neighbourhoods and the professional world, organises a weekend of review in the Yvelines region, not far from Paris.

Young people get involved with Proxité when they need a push in the right direction, whether with their schoolwork or in their search for a job. Each student is carefully matched with a mentor. The mentor-student pairs take part in this weekend review session together, to focus on work—and to have fun—in a relaxed environment right before spring exams.

Proxité is supported by the BNP Paribas Foundation’s Projet Banlieues programme.

Alex Webb: Women Driving Change

Isabelle Palsky — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 15:22:10 +0000

Alex Webb, born May 5, 1952 in San Francisco, is an American photographer who has been working with Magnum Photos since 1979. He studied history and literature at Harvard, and at the same time took courses in photography at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts. He began working as a professional photographer in 1974.

Webb’s photos have appeared in magazines like Geo, LIFE, the New York Times and National Geographic, and he has published seven books. He has been recognized by a number of awards, including the Lucca Photo Festival Award, the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and the David Octavius Hill Medaille.

For BNP Paribas’ 150 Years in India celebration, Webb has documented women who work in unconventional professional milieus in India: as security guards, taxi drivers, gas station attendants, publishers for an independent publishing venture…His photographs, displayed in the Women Changing India exhibit, help capture the balance these women strike between their jobs and their lives at home.

Looking Good and Feeling Good

Scott Gerace — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 18:13:58 +0000

“Looking Good and Feeling Good” was the idea behind the BNP Paribas Women’s Business Networking Group’s latest event held on July 22, 2010 in New York City. Employees donated new or up-to-date and lightly-worn business attire, including interview-ready suits, blouses, and new or unworn shoes to benefit Dress for Success, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the economic independence of disadvantaged women.

Founded in New York City in 1997, Dress for Success offers services designed to help women find jobs and remain employed. Each Dress for Success client receives one suit when she has a job interview and can return for a second suit or separates when she finds work.

Since 1997, Dress for Success has served more than 550,000 women around the world, helping more than 50,000 women annually across the United States, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands, Mexico, Poland and the West Indies.

To meet the need for services that would help women both find and keep jobs, the organization also established the Professional Women’s Group (PWG) program, which offers women ongoing support as they successfully transition into the workforce, build thriving careers and prosper in the mainstream workplace. Once a woman joins the PWG she is a member for life, able to attend meetings at any affiliate throughout the world, and can benefit from additional employment retention and mentoring programs.

Dress for Success also has developed Career Center, an initiative that promotes confidence and professionalism by providing women career guidance, the chance to acquire technology skills and assistance in their job searches.

Celebrating Workplace Diversity in Canada

Anaëlle Guist'hau — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 15:25:12 +0000

With over 26 nationalities represented, BNP Paribas (Canada) can be proud to have a staff hailing from all the corners of the globe. We took advantage of the 21st of May, World Day for Cultural Diversity, to launch a series of “employee portraits” of some of our international co-workers. We wanted to pay tribute to the richness of culture and tradition that exists right here in the workplace.

The series began with Guadalupe Lepine from Client Services, representing Mexico. A week later, Youssef Jaafar of Accounting gave us a taste of Morocco. Here are some excerpts from the conversations that followed.

What impressed you the most when you first got to Quebec?
Guadalupe: A native of Mexico City, I was used to growing up in a big city. When I got to Montreal 30 years ago, I felt like I was living in a really small one.
Youssef: It was the love that Quebecois have for Quebec and even more so for the French language. I think it’s great.

Tell us about a custom from your country that doesn’t exist here.
Guadalupe: At school every Monday, the students of private and publics schools alike salute the national flag and sing the national anthem before going to class. The idea is to teach civic-mindedness, a love of our country and our flag, and to remind us of where we come from.
Youssef: Going to the Hammam baths. They represent a social venue where we relax and discuss. Even if we find spas and saunas here in Montreal, they don’t replace the Moroccan Hammams.

What binds your country and Canada together?
Guadalupe: In Mexico, family is of the utmost importance, and I was surprised and very happy to find that the same is true in Quebec. When I got here, married, my husband’s family really welcomed me, and the whole family circle took me in with open arms, accepted me, respected and loved me without trying to change me, and helped me to get acquainted with the customs here, in turn learned my country’s customs.
Youssef: I think it’s the French language and the passion for our local sports: here for hockey and in my country for football!

Thanks, Guadalupe and Youssef!

Traditional recipes, photos and advice about each featured country were presented and exchanged among colleagues throughout the respective weeks.

Following the success of the first two employee profiles, others are sure to follow…Stay tuned for Romania, Gabon, Italy and France!

Socompetent.fr, a completely free person-to-person internet job site

Stephane Retterer-Maspero — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:54:56 +0000

SoCompetent is a public-spirited, person-to-person employment website – and it’s completely free.

We created SoCompetent because we believe that each of us has many skills that are all-too-often underused. Our talents can be put to good use in all fields (plumbing, babysitting, mechanics, gardening, cleaning, consulting, short courses, etc.) and this is true regardless of our level of experience, our age, whether we are men or women, retired, employed, independent professionals, unemployed or students.

Each member of the community can either offer their skills, or request the services of a “skilled” person in relation to a specific task. These tasks and skills are organized by areas of activity (home, food, health, etc.) and specify level (beginner, intermediate, expert), location, duration and availability.

Now available in English, Spanish and French, SoCompetent is open to everyone. The project to make the website available in German, which is supported by the BNP Paribas Foundation, in the framework of the program Coup de Pouce (Helping Hand) will provide greater ease, flexibility and accessibility for minorities who have not yet mastered the language of their host country and who want to become more effectively integrated through work.

Read the interview of Stéphane Retterer-Maspero, Founder of SoCompetent

The balance between family and work

Naomi Kawase — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 13:04:44 +0000

Cardif Japan recently acquired the next-generation mark “Kurumin”, given to certified companies by the Health and Labour Minister. This certification is based on the Act for Measures to Support the Development of the Next Generation. The goal is to promote a society where an individual can work with motivation and a sense of fulfillment and discharge his/her responsibility at work, while at the same time leading a diversity of living styles in his/her family and community life in accordance with each stage in life, such as raising children.

A large part of the program is aimed at creating an employee-friendly work environment for child-care: enhancing the system for maternity or child-care leave, reducing the working hours for employees who have children less than 6 years of age, implementing a program that promotes paid leave, reinforcing that employees take off holidays… Cardif Group has proactively worked to achieve an environment with a healthy work-life balance that enables employees to fulfill professional and private lives.

The ongoing objective is to enrich the working environment that enables all employees to demonstrate their abilities to the fullest. This will include an environment that is conducive to both working and child-rearing.

The anonymous CV makes a comeback

Isabelle Palsky — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:23:51 +0000

Will the anonymous CV finally take off? The French Commissioner for Diversity and Equal Opportunity, Yazid Sabeg, has launched a test of the anonymous CV in which BNP Paribas will participate, alongside 48 other companies. The kick-off was on 3 December, and the test will run until April 2010.

The concept of the anonymous CV was first floated by M. Bébéar in 2004 to promote diversity in the recruitment process and to fight against discriminatory hiring practices. The CVs have been wiped clean of names, ages and addresses of the candidates, leaving only their training and career history, in order help the candidates breach the barriers that stand between them and the initial interview. It should also reduce self-censorship.

The anonymous CV is not an end in itself, insists the Commissioner for Diversity, Yazid Sabeg, but “is a useful measure for breaking down the walls barring entry to the first interview, and makes it possible to neutralise prejudices. For a company, this is a very strong symbolic position to take.”

Prepared by Yazid Sabeg’s team, this experiment will take place in Paris and in six other départements, or counties, in France: Seine-Saint-Denis, Nord, Rhône, Bouches-du-Rhône, Bas-Rhin and Loire-Atlantique. The experiment is open on a voluntary basis to all companies regardless of size, from listed CAC-40 enterprises to Small and Medium Enterprises.

The results and tangible effects of this experiment will determine whether or not the anonymous CV will become obligatory for companies of more than 50 employees.

BNP Paribas has made the fight against discrimination a priority by defining discrimination as one of its key operational risk factors.

Job Care in the Czech Republic

Alzbeta Zizlavska — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:20:10 +0000

To assist clients who have recently lost their job, Cardif Czech Republic started an original and effective progamme called Job Care. Job Care aids individuals with a step-by-step process in finding a new job. The programme, which is free of charge, helps build and improve relationships with its clients who have recently lost their job.

This programme is provided in three steps. First, a client who has recently lost his job contacts the Cardif call centre and makes a claim. Over the phone, he can discuss his current situation and basic needs. He is also given information and advice how and where to seek a new job, how to write a CV, how to prepare for an interview and get ready for the first day of a new job. This information can be difficult to find at times, especially for individuals who have trouble or are not accustomed to using the Internet as their primary job search tool.

After working a job for many years, it can be challenging and stressful to start the process over. Cardif’s clients greatly appreciate the help that has been provided for them to get back on their feet.

The second step in the programme is the opportunity for the client to attend a special seminar where they can discuss their situation with the specialists and gain valuable experience as well. This seminar is provided by the partner of the programme, the global HR agency Manpower. After attending this seminar, Manpower’s regional office cooperates with the client on seeking a new job for him. This entails sending out CVs and arranging interviews, which is the third step of the programme.

Cardif Czech Republic had already launched this programme in November 2007. After two-year operation, one of the Cardif’s biggest partners – Ceska sporitelna bank (part of Erste Group) – has decided to participate on this programme. So since September 2009, Ceska sporitelna, as the partner of the project, has been compensating the costs of the seminars for its clients. With such good feedback from participants, Cardif plans to continue this altruistic initiative.