A responsible employer

Protecting the environment, promoting all diversities, and encouraging a more inclusive society – these are essential challenges in building a more sustainable future. Everyone has a role to play in this, and companies’ contribution is essential. But what does it mean in real-world terms, working and having a career at a Group whose ambition is to become a leader in sustainable finance?

Ethics and inclusion are at the core of our corporate culture 

A healthy working environment, where everyone finds their place

For almost 20 years, we at BNP Paribas have strived to create an inclusive working environment, where everyone can display their talents without fear of discrimination on the basis of their origins, disability, sexual orientation or age. Quite the contrary: the Group is richer because of these diversities; they show how we can see and do things differently!

We strive to meet this ambition through firm commitments (such as the signing of the #JamaisSansElles charter by the Group’s 100 executive managers in 2021 and the signing of the latest Agreement on Diversity and Inclusion in October 2020) or dedicated governance, with Diversity officers present in various Group entities. Most importantly, our ambition comes to life through our employees’ involvement. Thousands of them are active within many internal networks that redraw the boundaries and foster pride through a true sense of belonging. 

More and more women sit on the Group’s governing bodies and count among its top managers and talents, combatting violence against women, signing a new agreement on disability in France in 2020, setting up a global network focused on multiculturalism – there are many such initiatives, and the results are there, year after year. This is a priority reaffirmed recently by Sofia Merlo, Head of Group Human Resources. “We must enshrine this culture of ethics and inclusion in everything we do.”

Cheerful businesswomen elbow bumping each other before a meeting
Credits: Jacob Lund Photography

“Becoming a leader in sustainable finance”: our teams are working on this every day

BNP Paribas strives to ensure that its business has a positive impact on the world around it. With this in mind, it has incorporated social and environmental challenges in its decisions for several years now. Joining us means choosing a committed Group in which each person has a key role to play. “We all have a role to play in order to be a leader in sustainable finance, regardless of our job or our level in the company," explains Sofia Merlo, Head of Group Human Resources. "Sharing this common ambition  is a tremendous challenge for us all! And to ensure that we meet it successfully, a culture of sustainable finance is infused at each stage in employees’ careers – recruitment, compensation, training, career development and so on. These are all opportunities to expand their potential and to address societal challenges.”

FIND OUT OUR 'COMPANY PURPOSE'


15,000

Number of persons hired worldwide by BNP Paribas

23,500

Number of employees who changed positions in 2020 

300

Number of professions at the Group

Environment and working methods: the age of smart working!

The ways we work are being transformed

Remote-working, widespread adoption of digital tools, life/work balance… The pandemic has transformed the “working world” profoundly, and employees’ expectations and aspirations have evolved considerably. The “employee experience” has become a key factor in candidates’ decision in joining a new company and taking part in a new project. 

Through its “smart working” approach to all its business lines, the Group is shifting expectations. 

So, what does that mean in concrete terms?  

  • Remote-working: At BNP Paribas, we have chosen balance and flexibility with our various formats, including remote-working as much as half-time. This new way of organising our jobs is obviously based on agility and enhanced trust between managers and their teams. 
  • Working areas: We work both on the company’s premises (particularly in co-working environments and dedicated teamwork areas) and from home. This “hybrid” way of working is transforming our interactions with our colleagues and requiring that we adjust our working spaces. Our view? Some time at the office is still essential for ensuring team cohesion and maintaining connections between colleagues and between the company and its employees. 
  • "People care ":  How to organise your “living time” between work and personal life when you are working several days per week from home? How to ensure that each person is able to assert their “right to disconnect”? These are issues that affect employees’ well-being and relations with their colleagues and are a special focus of both our HR teams and our managers.
  • Digital tools : it’s not just our customers who have access to the best of tech and digital tools, our employees do, too! Working on a hybrid basis obviously requires suitable digital tools that allow us to work anywhere and with everyone in the Group. 

Employee health and well-being are our top priority

Employees’ occupational health and well-being are core components of the Group’s help and dialogue set-up, including occupational medicine, social assistance in the workplace, external psychological support, etc. We make many dedicated internal and external resources available to assist them on a one-off basis or for the long term. 

Meanwhile, the respect and dignity of individuals is one of BNP Paribas’ guiding principles. The Group possesses a robust programme to prevent moral and sexual harassment, sexist actions and violence at the workplace and to deal with them on those rare occasions when they do occur. The commitments laid out in the groupwide agreement are based on the involvement of numerous persons at all levels to encourage dialogue with, and assistance to, any person who is a victim of, or witness to, such acts.

Attracting new profiles and developing all talents

A responsible employer open to the world  

Job offers, internships, work-study, etc. – BNP Paribas works to persuade new talents to spend some time within the Group while serving its customers. We have implemented an open and transparent recruiting policy based on objective criteria allowing each person to apply on the basis of their desires and career plans. For the purpose of encouraging diversity and inclusion, the Groupe has pledged to bring in a broader range of profiles in its business lines – at HR and Global Markets in particular, as part of the HeForShe programme, in partnership with UN Women. We have also just launched a vast plan to recruit women in IT roles. 

These initiatives and actions have been recognised by various bodies that rank BNP Paribas high in terms of attractiveness and being a “good place to work”. The Group has once again been named a “Top Employer Europe” for 2022. It was singled out in particular for its diversity, inclusion, career development possibilities and well-being.

Cheerful colleagues reviewing paperwork in coworking space
Credits: Hero Images

New skills, new experiences 

Digital, data, artificial intelligence, agility, sustainable finance … Jobs in banking have been evolving constantly for several years. As an establishment committed to these transformations, BNP Paribas has developed its employees’ skills to make them fit customers’ expectations and the Group’s strategy. In this way, BNP Paribas promotes and enables an ongoing culture of learning, which is a strong lever for development within the Group.


A large number of employees have availed themselves of other career opportunities within the Group, changing jobs or even countries, while continuing to develop within BNP Paribas. Several thousand of them each year acquire new on-the-job skills at new assignments lasting a few months or new positions lasting several years – many options are possible! Each person is free to design their own career path at BNP Paribas.


© Jacob Lund Photography, Hero Images

Further insights