As Chairman of Groupe Adéquat’s Supervisory Board, how do you perceive CSR?
A.B.: The men and women on the Supervisory Board are all convinced that the company must have a positive impact on people, the planet, and society in order to grow. CSR can really boost performance, provided that we keep in touch with reality in the field and in our business.
Our CSR strategy is applied proactively in a way that is useful to our temping employees, our customers, our partners, and our suppliers. Our powerful impact comes from collaborative efforts, strong commitments, and tangible results, a philosophy that made the company successful since its early years.
Your father founded Groupe Adéquat in 1987 – how did the adventure begin?
A.B.: My father founded Adéquat in Lyon from scratch, and was far from imagining just how successful the company would be later on. He was an easygoing, people-focused man, and for him, success was based on work well done and respect for others.
CSR has always been one of the core parts of our identity and a driver of development. Since then, we have grown, branched out, and remained loyal to our four values: respect for people, customer satisfaction, a results-focused approach, and compliance with legislation. Our employees use these values daily in their work and help us achieve a higher level of performance than other market players.
So is it the human-focus that makes Groupe Adéquat stand out from the crowd?
A.B.: Absolutely. The people who join us are proud to belong to an independent family group, which has succeeded in preserving its original, unassuming yet ambitious mindset, an ethos that transpires in our customer relations: long-term partnerships based on trust, simplicity, and customer focus. As a major player in the employment sector, we have a strong regional presence and are building lasting relationships with our local public and private partners. Our Group’s core mission is to foster the development of companies and individuals, empowering them to take action.
A Group of this size requires a structured CSR strategy. What are your priority projects?
A.B.: Our commitments naturally arise from our core business and the urgent challenges we face, such as preserving our planet and building a more just society. The human and social dimension of our business is the first priority of our CSR strategy. Our role is to ensure inclusion for everyone through employment. We can change people’s lives by finding a job that suits them and contribute to the development of a company by providing it with the right skills at the right time. Our second priority is protecting the planet. We do not face the same challenges as an industrialist, but we are duty-bound to reduce our ecological footprint as far as possible, both for ourselves and for future generations. The third priority reflects our desire to have a positive influence beyond the company, to build a fairer society. Our professional ethics and the exemplary nature of our business practices contribute to achieving this aim. We go the extra mile by supporting many citizenship projects led by associations or sports clubs, and we are proud to be building lasting bridges between the world of sport, education, culture, and business.
Groupe Adéquat is also developing internationally. How do you see CSR in Groupe Adéquat in the future?
A.B.: Groupe Adéquat brings together companies that share the same values, focusing particularly on the human aspect of recruitment. Our CSR actions are enriched by local cultures. Countries today are encouraged to commit to issues they consider as priorities, from the fight against cancer to the professional inclusion of LGBT+ people. Commitments know no borders. In the future, I am confident that our social and environmental performance will play a key role for our customers and for all those who make the choice to work with us.
Download the full [2023 CSR Report PDF]
