CELINE GAXATTE EN

How long has TF1’s Disability Mission been in existence and how is it organised ?

The Disability Mission has existed since 2007. It is attached to Human Resources within the Talent Development directorate in the Diversity division.

What is its mission ?

Implementation of the Group’s disability policy, based on commitments made in our disability agreement (we signed our 5th disability agreement in 2020 and it runs until 2022). The aim of the agreement is to encourage the recruitment of disabled workers, support their continued employment, raise awareness and train staff about disability.

Gilles Pélisson, Chairman & CEO of the TF1 group, and Martin Bouygues, Chairman & CEO of our main shareholder Bouygues, signed the Manifesto for the inclusion of disabled people in 2019. It includes 10 commitments around areas like recruitment, continued employment, outsourcing to the supported employment sector, and digital accessibility.

These various commitments confirm our determination to be an inclusive company.

This is integral to our human resources policy and our mission to “positively inspire society”.

What does that involve in practice ?

The Disability Mission acts on various levels.

First, on encouraging recruitment. We work with dedicated platforms and recruitment agencies specialising in disabled workers, who help us recruit more disabled people. These tools are made available to HR recruiters. We raise awareness within our HR recruitment unit via a weekly update, which enables us to monitor current recruitment and put forward CVs. We also take part in special forums. Finally, under the TF1 Campus employer brand we visit colleges to raise student awareness, explain what actions the Group is taking on the issue of disability, and confirm that all our posts are open to disabled people.

At the present time on TF1’s Careers site, every job advertised by the Group includes my e-mail address (cgaxatte@tf1.fr). Throughout the recruitment process I am available to recruiters, managers and applicants to answer their questions and clear any obstacles.

Another important focus of the Disability Mission is continued employment. Statistically, 85% of disabilities occur during a person’s life, rather than at birth. Our objective is to offer maximum support to any of our staff who become disabled. We have created a Continued Employment Unit whose aim, depending on each person’s needs, is to mobilise support from HR, managers, the training department, the Disability Mission occupational health professionals, etc.

There are three ways the Unit can do this. Physical or organisational adaptation of the employee’s job may enable them to continue working in it by compensating for their disability. If that’s no longer possible, we can help them to retrain by co-funding a skills assessment so they can find an alternative job within the Group. Finally, we can support them to retrain for a job that doesn’t exist within the Group, in particular by helping to fund their training.

Awareness-raising is also one of our missions; this involves general education for all staff, training for managers, tutors, HR staff, and employee reps, and specific support for managers of people with disabilities.

Finally, we are developing our use of the supported employment sector in tandem with our purchasing department. This involves inserting a clause in calls for tenders encouraging our suppliers to work with supported employers themselves, for example for IT services.

Who are your particular partners within the company ?

The recruitment department, HR managers, the medical department, support workers, Facilities Management (who help adapt workstations), and the IT department which installs tools and makes them accessible.

And we all have a part to play as fellow workers!

What is the current percentage of disabled employees in the Group ?

We have gone from 3.01% in 2019 to 4.59% now. Of course our ambition is to make further progress and to reach the statutory requirement of 6%. We do encounter difficulties finding the profiles we are looking for, given that what we do requires a certain level of expertise. That’s why in recent years we have put the emphasis on work/study arrangements to support youngsters in their training and help them get a foot on the ladder. In September 2021, 14 disabled workers were recruited under work/study arrangements.

What are the main obstacles to recruiting disabled people ?

We sometimes face difficulties caused by the mismatch between the level of qualifications required for many of our jobs and the CVs of disabled people, who often have fewer qualifications because access to education has been complicated (premises, teaching materials, etc). They can also lack confidence in themselves and think that posts in the TF1 group are not for them.
Moreover in France, 59% of the people who could register as disabled don’t do so. Either because they don’t know how to, or because they don’t know what counts as disabled (80% of disabilities are hidden, such as dyslexia, diabetes, cancer or cardiovascular disease), or because they are afraid of how others will perceive them or about the impact on their career. Hence the importance of raising awareness, but it takes time to change mindsets! At management level there is still prejudice. So we have set up a training capsule for all new managers, and we provide support to all managers of disabled people.

We recruit in light of needs and competencies, and in order to reflect society.

All the studies show that teams representing diversity are more effective than teams with similar backgrounds.

We still have a lot of progress to make, but we are convinced that together we can bring about change.

#inspirons positivement la société

Find all our job offers here, and find the round table on disabling diseases led by Fabien Chadeau, journalist at TF1, here.