Newsletter

VE Training News n°11

Editorial

In order to make our training opportunities even more attractive and effective new technologies and methods are still developed. Preparing now the success of tomorrow, means supporting employees' mobility and developing new skills. Now more than ever, the major challenge is to provide training programs that target motivation, team cohesion and improve performance. E-training, eco-driving, trainings on purchasing topics and on the challenges of sustainable development are just some examples described in detail in this new edition. All are ways to improve performance and efficiency.

In the headline of this edition, the decisive role played by Henri Proglio in the challenge issued by the French President to France's leading companies to become involved in work-study training and youth employment. Our Chairman's lead confirms the far-reaching commitment of Veolia to face the challenges of training and employment.

The campus network continues to produce synergies through exchanges of resources and innovative projects, like the skills development plan proposed to the local sewage water managment authority of Muscat in the Sultanate of Oman.

The network also acknowledges its key figures and confirms its growth and development potential encouraged by the first signs of recovery in the global economy.

Christian Dapilly, VE Director of Human Resources with responsibility for Training.

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Laying the first stone of the Veolia Nord Campus

On 11 May 2009 at Lomme in northern France, Henri Proglio, CEO of Veolia Environnement, and Bernard Lecomte, Regional Delegate for Veolia Environnement, laid the first stone of the Nord Campus, which is scheduled to open its doors for the September intake in 2011.

To mark the occasion, Pascal Decary, Human Resources Director of Veolia Environmental Services and sponsor of the Veolia Nord Campus, assisted by four apprentices, planted an emblematic oak at the site. The first stone of the Campus was actually, therefore, a tree, which - as Pascal Decary added - "symbolises strength, wisdom, learning, and professional development". The ceremony was held in the presence of Daniel Percheron, Senator for Pas-de-Calais and President of the Regional Council, Martine Aubry, Mayor of Lille and President of the Lille Metropolitan Area, Yves Durand, MP and Mayor of Lomme, and Bernard Dubreuil, Rector of Lille Education Authority and Chancellor of the Universities.

Situated on 7 hectares of land at Tournebride, Lomme, the Campus will consist of a vocational training centre with the capacity to take 350 apprentices and a continuous training centre where 6,000 people a year will come for courses. It will include ten or more high environmental quality buildings with 10,000 m² of usable floor space, comprising technical areas, classrooms, a 175-seat lecture hall, a canteen, and accommodation facilities for 80 live-in students.

Sultanate of Oman

An innovative training solution for a local context: to address a national skills shortage in the sanitation sector, Haya Water (the state-owned company that manages the sanitation system in Muscat) called on Veolia for assistance in building a training centre and supporting the development of its personnel.

To ensure the success of this ambitious project, Veolia has set up a skills management process within the company and provides training programs for the specific requirements of the customer. Implemented in several phases, the aim of the project is to train every Haya employee on the basis of their existing skill base and the know-how required for their position (from assessment to the design of a personal development plan) in order to equip them to fulfill their present and future responsibilities. Veolia is putting together a training catalogue for Haya Water, creating a genuine made-to-measure training solution. The medium-term objective is to create a training centre for water and environment skills, open not only to Haya employees, but to all professionals in the region who want to deepen their understanding of the sector technology. As Sandrine Foucault, skills and training manager at Haya Water, underlines: "this will be the first time that Veolia has collaborated on the opening of a training centre to address the needs not of its own employees, but of one of its customers". An innovative offering, one that illustrates the Group's expertise in the field, and the trust placed in the Group by its Omani partners.

Annual Seminar 2009 - 2010

The year 2009 has been rich in training events and opportunities at Veolia, in an economic context where innovation and the creativity are more important than ever. This year's seminar will showcase a number of highly original projects and feedback reports, from campuses or training teams in countries where VE's main focus is on skills development.

The now traditional annual seminar will be held probably at the end of the Year. We will let you know as soon as the date and venue have been finalized. The number of collaborations and synergies between the various campuses and the core of the network has increased, thanks mainly to new experiments and practices such as inter-campus resources exchanges, closer customer relationships, and design of ambitious engineering projects. Meanwhile, the campus network has stepped up the pace of consolidation, aided by the 2008 London seminar, which sketched out a new organizational framework. These latest developments will be feature naturally in discussions about "best practice" and debates about the meaning and missions of our training network. Participants, notably campus and training centre managers and their teams, as well as training staff in the various business lines and firms are henceforth invited to send in their suggestions for initiatives that might be of interest to the whole network.

The Network's Key Figures

Thanks to the strong involvement of all the Campus teams in compiling the 2008 report on their training activities, it is becoming clear that the Campus network, which took its first steps in 2004, represents today a reservoir of projects for the Group.

The "Campus Network - Training Data 2008" has just been published, offering a overview of several broad dimensions of training (volumes, specialisations, facilities, personnel) as well as data about each Campus and training centre. It provides a picture of the resources assembled for our customers. For example, the 17 entities (6 in France and 11 in other countries on 5 different continents) taught 1,297,523 hours of basic and continuous training to a total of 235,340 trainees in 2008. "We need to continue with this significant advance, but that already accounts for 35% of all training provided for the customers with whom the Campuses work in the various countries" says Christian Dapilly. Overall, 30% of training was dispensed for Veolia Transport, 28% for Veolia Water, 24% for Veolia Environmental Services and 16% for Veolia Energy. On a per-country basis, the French regional campuses account for 60% of hourly training volumes, followed in turn by the Veolia UK Campus, the Veolia Transport training centre in Sweden, the Campus in the Czech Republic, and the Gabon Campus. In the "core business" field, the most heavily subscribed courses relate to "specialist techniques" (39%) and "management" (18%), while the most popular support function courses are in the areas of "customer development / contractual relations" (9%) and "human resources / legal / communication" (7%). The Campus network is operated by 315 employees, including 111 permanent faculties; it has a total of 117 classrooms and 61 technical platforms. It provides 1,321 active work-training courses (rolled out in 2008), and its know-how is relayed and disseminated by more than 1,600 Veolia contributors (from all of the divisions). And there's more to it than training alone: the campuses and training centres guide and support their customers in their missions to secure contracts and boost cohesiveness. Some have spearheaded major achievements, others organise key events, such as the creation of "manager induction days" (Germany, Czech Republic and Morocco), reinforced learning (UK and Gabon), the label "employer of the year" conferred upon Veolia by a public employment and training partner in the UK, the support for the implementation of training in the Middle East (Veolia Water) and the assistance with international calls to tender (Veolia Transport).

Promoting work-study training in France despite difficult economic circumstances

Nicolas Sarkozy has entrusted Veolia Chairman and CEO Henri Proglio, Martin Hirsch (High Commissioner for Active Solidarity on Poverty) and Laurent Wauquiez (Secretary of State for Employment) with a mission to involve the leading French companies and secure "their commitment [...] to signing an work-study training charter containing quantified targets". Henri Proglio has faced the challenge by bringing 50 of France's largest employers onboard.

As a result of the mission entrusted to Henri Proglio, the French President met with representatives of 51 companies that have pledged their commitment alongside Veolia Environnement. The reception at the Elysée Palace on July 15 also involved 400 young people already on work-study training courses. Together, the 51 company heads have agreed to invest in providing training for more than 100,000 young people in 2009/2010.

This initiative is being implemented to face the background of an economic climate that is making life particularly difficult for people in the 16-25 age group. Henri Proglio has made it clear that he intends to promote this particular method of learning and integration: "Far from being a burden on companies, work-study training and training in general represent a fantastic investment opportunity, and perhaps the most profitable of all."

The "Purchasing" Training Program

For over 5 years now, at the request of the Purchasing Department, the Veolia Environnement Campus has provided "Purchasing" training in the Veolia mould for the Group's buyers.

Twice yearly, in May (in English) and November (in French), buyers from any business line, especially recent recruits, have an opportunity to get together for 3 and a half days at Jouy-le-Moutier to learn about "Group Purchasing Practice". Whether they come from France, Europe, or even Asia, this program gives them a chance to share their purchasing experience with other colleagues from the Group.

The launch of the 2010 efficiency plan, with its 25% savings target and the gradual rollout of the purchasing function worldwide, has spurred different divisions and areas to run training courses on their own territory to address these specific challenges.

At the head of the network, true to its vocation, the Campus supports Group Purchasing in thinking about the future development of the skills required by its buyers. Depending on the needs of the divisions or areas, training can be provided at one or more of the network's 15 campuses.

Proactiva creates E- Learning Programs

Proactiva has trialled a new formula for its second corporate training plan targeting employees working in different Latin American countries, notably Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela.

Moving employees from these countries around to follow training plans is a considerable drain on resources. For this reason, a "virtual classroom" has been adopted. The virtual course has a common content, applicable to a large number of establishments - such as legislation or corporate social responsibility - and puts the priority on practical exercises, twinned with theoretical presentations. For the moment, two programs of this type have been organised, with 15 and 23 participants respectively from a variety of countries. The results so far are positive. The participants have shown great interest in this approach at the end of each session and the technical bugs that naturally beset the first course were quickly ironed out. This type of training is particularly appropriate to the concept of sustainable development and to the three aspects of the philosophy: environmental, economic and human. Environmental, because the "virtual classroom" diminishes our carbon footprint by reducing the number of car or plane journeys to near zero. Economic, in that this type of approach reduces our training program rollout costs, meaning that we can spread our budget further to meet more of the company's training needs. And human, finally, because we can provide more programs to meet the growing training needs of our employees, thereby improving the skills of greater numbers of the company's men and women.

The 50 companies that have given their commitment to recruiting young people under work-study training contracts in 2009 and 2010 are now working on promoting and developing this form of training. Over 40 human resources managers from France's largest companies are now preparing proposals to improve program quality and simplify funding arrangements. Henri Proglio has appointed Véronique Rouzaud (Senior VP, Head of the HR) and Christian Dapilly (VE Deputy Director of Human Resources, Head of Training) to lead, through the inter-company working groups, the efforts being made to secure the commitment of companies sharing employment risk in France (2009-2010) and examining proposals to promote and reform work-study training. Henri Proglio wishes to submit a report containing these proposals to Nicolas Sarkozy by the end of October.

A New Campus Training Product: Sustainable Development at Veolia

At the request of the Sustainable Development Department, the VE Atlantic Campus launched recently a course for operating managers and sales engineers, entitled "Sustainable Development: Adding Value for our Customers".

The aim of the new training course is to enable customer-facing employees to acquire an essential new skill: that of integrating sustainable development into the services we offer. The course is structured around 2 days, spread over a period of several months. The first day sets out to bring together employees from all 4 divisions within the framework of a shared culture around the theme of "sustainable development": clarifying the major social and environmental challenges, identifying the main global and national initiatives. The second day is organised along division or business unit lines. It enables participants to get to grips with the sustainable development issues (technical, regulatory, financial and contractual) specific to their activity, and to take ownership of the relevant tools and "best practices".

This course is designed to be rolled out and adapted nationally and internationally, through the campus network in France and worldwide.

To provide additional support, an e-learning training tool is currently under development. It will also be available in English at the beginning of 2010.

VE Managers around the World

Our induction programs for managers, familiarizing them with Veolia's delegated services business and activities, are a key lever for promoting the cohesiveness and culture of our enterprise. At the various campuses around the world, the "Veolia Induction Programs", are now a major milestone, frequented by Group employees exercising shop-floor management responsibilities.

Germany

The twice-yearly program has an intake of about twenty managers, from all of the various divisions. Organized on a proactive model, the participants gather and share information on Veolia's organization, activities and projects in Germany: for example, about a Dalkia biogas generation plant, possibly followed by site visits, such as a visit to Berlin's biggest drinking-water production plant. There is also case study, for example about public-private partnerships, focusing on questions of public communication strategy. The next session will be held from October 28 to 30.

Czech Republic

For the next session, scheduled for 23 to 25 September, the directors of the Veolia divisions and the Czech Campus teams will be on hand to welcome managers and young talents recruited within the last 5 years and operational in the Czech Republic or Slovakia. To give these trainees a clear overview of the Group's commercial, technical and functional approaches, both locally and internationally, top Veolia managers and heads of local companies contribute their own insights on values, history, priorities and contractual obligations.

UK

The latest "Management Induction Program" events were held in Staines on 13 and 14 July, and on 14 and 15 September. Based on group exercises and debates, with speakers invited by the top management, and a formal meeting with all of the participants, the program gives participants the ability to describe the Veolia services offering, to explain the Group's culture, goals and values, to promote winning mindsets and behaviors, and to network productively with the Group's other businesses. The next session is going to take place on 14 and 15 December.

USA

The 2nd Half session, took place on the 16th and 17th September at the VE Campus in Lombard (Illinois). It has brought together some thirty plant units managers from all the divisions of the Company. Already, upstream of the meeting, they are using a distance learning tool on the fundamentals of Veolia, so that everybody can come to the seminar with a similar level of knowledge about the Group's activities. From 2010 onward, the aim is to organize four induction sessions per year.

A future issue of VE Training News will highlight our training activities in Morocco and China.

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