Anne-Catherine Ropers

An HR department at the heart of environmental, digital, employment and societal transitions

Interview with Anne-Catherine Ropers, Deputy General Manager & Global Head of Human Resources at Crédit Agricole CIB.

You recently took on the role of Deputy General Manager & Global Head of Human Resources at Crédit Agricole CIB, what does your job involve?

I started at Crédit Agricole CIB at the end of October 2019.
After 18 years at Société Générale, during which I had the chance to take on different roles in international HR, I wanted to pursue my vocation in human resources within the group at Crédit Agricole. I turned a page in my career to embark on a new people-focused adventure. It was Crédit Agricole’s executive management’ desire to place people at the heart of the strategy and to present the Human Project as a priority that convinced me to join Crédit Agricole Group.
In January 2020 I was appointed Deputy General Manager & Global Head of Human Resources. As a board member, I am involved in all strategic decisions for Crédit Agricole CIB. This gives me the opportunity to participate in making HR challenges an integral part of strategy to really leverage performance.
Lastly, I was recently appointed to the board of our subsidiary in Saudi Arabia: a great opportunity to bring gender and social diversity at the highest level in a country and a region that I have known for years.

What HR vision and strategy do you plan to implement at Crédit Agricole CIB?

In the frame of thegroup’s Human Project, my team has been working for 2 years on an integrated and inclusive HR approach to support Crédit Agricole CIB’s development and ambitions on 3 points:
Preparation for the future by adapting our HR processes to business needs, diversity and skills development. Among other things, we have strengthened our goals for gender and social diversity in our talent pools, deployed a new approach to succession plans, adapted our training and development programs, and deployed new tools to measure our programs’ efficiency and to offer support to managers.
A managerial transformation to encourage empowerment, autonomy and collaboration at all levels of the organization
This empowerment approach is at the heart of our Human Project. It should allow each employee to take initiative to act discerningly and autonomously in the service of all stakeholders (clients, regulators,the society, employees). We decided to work on this dimension at 3 levels over the next 3 years by involving all our staff, our managers and Crédit Agricole CIB’s top management. Leaders, middle managers and line managers will be key players in fostering a culture of empowerment. The HR team is of course with them to support them in this journey. 
Lastly, we are proposing a new deal to support digital, environmental and societal transitions. With this new deal, we are committing to promote diversity and inclusion, ethical and responsible behavior, and the development of our staff’s employability more than ever. Through our NOW (New ways of working) project, we want to offer an enhanced employee experience by changing our culture, our tools, our training and our workspaces.

We are building the future of our employees and of Crédit Agricole CIB. 

The Crédit Agricole group has become the preferred employer in financial services in France among experienced and current students! Congratulations! What are the key actions that HR teams have taken to contribute to this result at Crédit Agricole CIB?

Numerous factors explain our success with young people: the fact that we are on the ground in France and internationally, our very strong presence on campuses, our commitment to employment despite the health crisis with the implementation of an ambitious policy for young people (992 apprentices and international interns at Crédit Agricole CIB in 2020 and 1,012 in 2021) and global dynamic on recruitments (1,700 people recruited at Crédit Agricole CIB since March 2020). In addition, the quality of young people’s management, and their commitment  in empowering assignments, make Crédit Agricole CIB a recognized center of development. Most of our recruitments are actually from within our pool of interns, apprentices and international business interns (VIE). 
We are keen to continue to build bridges between the world of work and higher education. In fact we have just renewed, for the 3rd consecutive year, our partnership with HEC’s M&A Certificate and recently set up an exciting new professional degree program at the CFA DIFCAM for back and middle-office roles in banking, finance and insurance with Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ), from which the first intake graduated in September 2021. We combine theoretical and vocational teaching on key subjects for the financial sector and Crédit Agricole CIB. 

We hear a lot about job transformation, notably in the banking sector, what changes are to come?

I see 3 major transitions at strategic level that are going to come in, and on which we are going to support our staff to provide them with the new skills linked to these changes:
Environmental transition: jobs are going to change because of our desire to act in new markets and to assist in our clients’ transition. We also recently made very significant commitments relating to climate, notably on reducing our fossil fuel exposure.
Digital transition is going to happen across all banking jobs. We will offer training opportunities to develop or acquire new skills to our employees. 
Social and societal transition: we want to be even more diligent about inclusion within our teams. Notably, Crédit Agricole CIB has joined LinkedIn’s “Un réseau pour tous” alliance, which brings together companies and stakeholders from the social and solidarity-based economy to raise awareness of the importance of a professional network and to increase equal employment opportunities.
Our employer barometer gives us an engagement and recommendation reading of 79%, plus 6 percentage points since 2019! This is also because our staff know that we are by their side to ensure their employability and to build the future.

Your company was one of the first to join Financi’Elles, the federation of networks for women in finance and insurance, which restates the need to accelerate gender equality initiatives. We talk a lot about female leadership, do you think leadership has a gender?

Leadership is, above all, an attitude. For me, a leader must have a vision and focus on real life, be both caring and managerial. They must be connected to their ecosystem, offer meaning, onboard, motivate and transmit energy. Many women experience impostor syndrome, which can be an obstacle or lead them to over-invest in order to prove their legitimacy, and this is where HR teams and directors can offer them support. 
If I had to give some advice, I would say that you have to be at ease with your commitment, have a healthy sense of ambition and not be shy about advertising it to management, work on your professional vocation, have the courage of your convictions and make your voice heard. 
I would like to conclude by sharing the very pleasing advice that Christine Lagarde gave us in her speech for the 10th anniversary of Financi’Elles.
She has 3 watch words that have been with her throughout her career:
Dress: project your desired image inside and out.
Address: make your voice heard, have confidence in yourself and show others the way.
Redress: when you see unacceptable behavior in a company, act to rectify it or bring it into the open.
An inspiring message that I have already passed on to my teams.