We are delighted to welcome Veolia Romania to the Romanian Diversity Charter family, celebrating their dedication to fostering diversity and inclusion within both their workforce and corporate culture.
Maria Leonte, HR Country Director at VEOLIA Romania, declared:
Diversity and Inclusion are major topics for Veolia Romania, from both a human and a business point of view.
Why is that? Just because diversity means recruiting unique people, from different cultures and backgrounds, and inclusion allows them to contribute to the business development in an original way possible.
Diversity and Inclusion cannot be tackled separately. They work together: diversity allows employees to feel included, and this inclusion in turn contributes to diversity by creating a friendly, appropriate, and safe working environment for everyone, based on respect, autonomy, cohesion, and solidarity.
Here at Veolia Romania, Diversity and Inclusion guarantee our multidimensional performance.
Both the 2024-2027 Impuls Strategic Plan and the previous Impact 2023 Program are based on the principles of our PURPOSE which express Veolia’s wish to be useful to all stakeholders and to contribute to the progress of mankind, by adhering to the Sustainable Development Goals defined by the UN.
To reach its objectives within the program, but especially to meet the demands of social performance, Veolia requires different people, and their innovation, creativity and productivity.
Without an Action Plan designed to protect our employees from any form of discrimination, without programs allowing the recognition of in-house talents and skills, we will not be able to maintain our status of socially responsible employer.
Here at Veolia, the Diversity and Inclusion Policy is built around three axes:
- Ensuring fair and non-discriminatory HR processes
- Guaranteeing non-discriminatory access to vacancies within the Company (regardless of age, sex/sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, etc.)
- Developing social dialogue and the freedom of expression to encourage employees to join our common project.
And for extra credibility, in 2018, Veolia Romania joined the initiative of the Veolia Environnement Group to create the internal WEDO network.
This brings together women and men who, through their actions, continue previous programs promoting gender diversity and equality in the workplace at local level. Within Veolia Romania, women account for 24% of all employees, and the feminization rate among managers has been stable, at over 30%, for more than four years.
We are convinced that Veolia Romania’s accession to the Romanain Diversity Charter, alongside other companies that have already joined it, will help us become stronger in our common endeavor to promote openness and to bring about changes in the mindset and behavior that will lead to the elimination of racism, sexism, homophobia, and all other forms of social inequalities.
Let’s handle differences without emphasizing our differences!
The Veolia Group aims to be a benchmark for environmental transformation. Operating on five continents and with nearly 220,000 employees worldwide, the Group offers useful and practical solutions for water, waste and energy management to contribute to a radical change in the current context. Through its three complementary divisions, Veolia helps develop access to resources, and conserve and restore them. In 2022, the Veolia Group provided drinking water to 111 million people and sewerage services to 97 million people, and produced nearly 44 million megawatt-hours of energy and treated 61 million metric tons of waste. Veolia Environment (Paris Euronext: VIE) earned consolidated revenues of EUR 42,885 billion in 2022.
In Romania, Veolia provides water and energy management solutions, serving over 2,300,000 consumers. At the end of 2022, Veolia Romania had 2922 employees, 712 of them being women. Moreover, out of the total number of female employees, 55 hold management positions, and the remaining 657 are operational staff. Last year the number of new Company employees was 471, the average age being 47.
In order to ensure a performance and progress-driven culture, in 2022 alone, 122,783 hours of specialized employee training or employee personal development were recorded, with 88% of training hours dedicated to non-management employees. Likewise, the Company is striving to expedite the e-learning process by launching new programs (focusing on training and re-employment, disability, digital passport, etc.), but also through the e-learning platform that has been accessed by over 1400 employees in the last three years (the platform provides over 600 training materials in various fields).
In fact, Veolia is committed to achieving multidimensional performance, with the same level of consideration and expectation given to its economic and financial, commercial, social, environmental and HR performance, through 19 indicators associated with the 18 Sustainable Development Goals set by the UN, in order to build a better sustainable future for all mankind.
The official launch of the Romanian Diversity Charter took place on April 18, 2018, making Romania the 21st country in the European Union to adopt a Diversity Charter and join the European Diversity Platform. Currently, the Charter has gathered 225 signatories, representing approximately 270,000 employees from companies, public institutions, and NGOs. These signatories have publicly committed to upholding the principles of the Charter, aiming to make diversity, equal opportunities, and social inclusion recognized and respected values in Romania. Under the guidance of the Charter, numerous initiatives have been implemented, including experience exchanges, workshops, debates, and learning and mentorship programs. Since 2021, the Charter and its signatories have jointly celebrated the EU Diversity Month, which aims to promote diversity in the workplace and society as a whole.