An interview published in the Le Parisien newspaper supplement on 6 February 2019 (in french only)

Why is life-long learning so important?

Our business lines are changing at lightning speed, with a considerable impact from technological shifts, changes in regulation and competition from newcomers. Against this backdrop, it is vital for staff to be able to adapt and have access to the resources they need to keep on enhancing their expertise while also developing new skills, particularly in the digital arena. This is fundamental to safeguard their employability and also ensure the company’s performance over the long term.

In practical terms, what steps have you taken?

Each year, staff draw up an individual development plan with their manager: this is an excellent way to identify skills that need to be developed based staff’s on career goals, as well as the steps required to achieve them, particularly in terms of training. In 2018, almost two thirds of our staff took a training course at Natixis.

Beyond standard training courses, we also provide staff with new systems that make the most of technological progress to help them learn and grow independently. We have also rolled out platforms that are available to all employees, with hundreds and even thousands of pieces of educational content and tutorials covering several themes. Our online digital familiarization platform “Think Digital” creates a games universe based on a gaming approach, and has attracted more than 4,000 employees since it was launched in late 2018. We also offer smartphone apps, for example for English learning.
Lastly, we also pay particular attention to the development of our managers and leaders, who are the key drivers of our transformation and our strategy’s success. We have a whole range of tailored programs available to them via our Purple Academy in-house university.

Does skills development only involve training?

We now know that only 10% of the skills we learn comes from what can be called traditional training, while 70% comes from practice and experience and 20% is derived from our interaction with colleagues. So at Natixis, our goal is to foster a culture of learning that permeates right throughout our staff’s working lives. A knowledge-sharing platform SPEACHMe is used by around fifty in-house experts who have already created around a hundred items of learning. We have a huge community of in-house trainers, and we also encourage staff to take on new assignments and projects, as tackling a new project is the best way for us all to grow on a daily basis.