Training Crédit Agricole managers on environmental issues

Making a strategic commitment an operational reality

Today, it’s more important than ever for organizations to overhaul their strategies to face the challenges of sustainable development. However, doing so requires extensive knowledge that can only be achieved through specific training. So, when Crédit Agricole’s Consumer Finance (CACF) and Leading & Factoring (CAL&F) teams approached such sustainable transformation, they knew that the managers of the latter would benefit from a clear understanding of the impacts it would have on their processes.

Doing so would require offering a common base of knowledge to an international group of around 120 people. By extension, the teams would need to align the approach and decisions of these managers so that they could collectively function as a driving force on sustainability within the organization and their teams. And considering the seniority, limited availability, and diverse responsibilities of this target audience, the education program would pose a significant challenge.

“There is an urgency to take action and this training will help us to spread this urgency to innovate throughout the company in support of our corporate and individual clients, who are facing a complex world, or to offer them solutions so that they achieve carbon neutrality and can turn to more sustainable products.”

Cédric Postel-Vinay
HR Director, Crédit Agricole Consumer and Personal Finance

A tailor-made program, combining academic knowledge and professional expertise

Building a tailor-made training program called for two distinct sets of expertise, both of which would require partners. First, Crédit Agricole engaged  Capgemini Invent, in order to anchor the training in the reality of banking professions based on professional expertise. Second, the company worked with the ESSEC Business School in order to provide an academic background and offer a high-level certification course.

Together, the three organizations worked together to co-create the “Sustainable Leaders” program, which would then run over a six-month period. Among the themes covered were sustainable development, climate risk, net zero strategies, banking sector regulations, mobility, and the circular economy.

“We were really keen to launch an innovative program in a fairly complex international environment. We tried to build impactful training adapted to the target audience of leaders with very constrained agendas. We led the community of learners for six months with moments of collective exchanges and co-development sessions.”

Aurélie Scharff
HR Project Manager, Crédit Agricole Consumer Finance

The starting point for widespread education

By the end of the program, many participants expressed very positive feedback, emphasizing that they had become aware of the scale and urgency of environmental issues. The educational program armed this group of managers with a broad array of knowledge, concepts and vocabulary related to ecological transition, and a clear understanding of the issues and their impact on different roles. In the aftermath of the program’s completion, some participants formed a dedicated community to extend their knew awareness into business roadmaps.

Based on the favorable response, the program has already been replicated for other teams within the Crédit Agricole Group as an accelerator of the organization’s CSR strategy. As a result, Crédit Agricole will expand the company-wide awareness of its sustainability objectives as well as the impact they will have.

“We have designed our program according to a “head/heart/body” philosophy, which means that we provided elements of knowledge (head), elements that aroused emotional engagement (heart), and elements linked to practices (body).”

Alexandre Regat
Managing Consultant for Sustainable Finance, Capgemini Invent