Ubisoft 2016 Annual Report Download - page 98

Corporate social responsibility
4Societal indicators
4.4 Societal indicators
❙ 4.4.1 DEVELOPING LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIPS WITH STAKEHOLDERS
The Group considers all people and organizations directly or indirectly affected by the Company’s business activities to be stakeholders.
Ubisoft engages in dialogue with each stakeholder to foster a positive long-term and mutually benefi cial relationship. The Group’s
decentralized organization can be adapted to each local situation. On this basis, the main methods of dialogue with these stakeholders
are presented below:
Stakeholder Methods of dialogue
Customers
♦ Online communication (for online games)
♦ Consumer get-togethers (focus groups)
♦ Publication of information about our products
♦ Networking events during promotional tours
Suppliers ♦ Buyer/supplier meetings
♦ Supplier selection process
Shareholders and investors ♦ Telephone conferences for presentation of results, meetings and plenary meetings
Employees ♦ Biannual employee satisfaction surveys
♦ Dialogue with employee representation bodies (if applicable)
Research and development centers ♦ Collaborative approach, creation of and participation in R&D programs, university chairs and
professional integration associations
Communities, NGOs ♦ Social programs
♦ Partnerships with local NGOs and/or non-profi ts
State, public organizations,etc. ♦ Participation in working groups and local and international organizations on the challenges facing
our industry
❙ 4.4.2 ENCOURAGING LOCAL
DEVELOPMENT
Entertaining and enriching the life of its gamers is an integral part
of the Ubisoft Group’s mission. As a company which is fi rmly rooted
in its local environment, Ubisoft prioritizes local job creation and
initiatives primarily aimed at learning through gaming and access
to technologies.
In 2015, 38 subsidiaries
(1)
were involved in partnership and/or
sponsorship initiatives, an increase of 22% in the number of sites
involved compared with the previous year.
Employment and regional development
Ubisoft contributes to the development of local employment primarily
by creating jobs due to the fact that it uses very few subcontractors
and by choosing to set up its business in neighborhoods that are ripe
for regeneration. For example, the Canadian production studios are
located in two strategic neighborhoods which, just a few years ago,
were very run down. Siting the business in Mile End in Montreal
in 1997 and in the Saint-Roch area of Quebec in 2005 has had a
signifi cant impact on the urban fabric of these neighborhoods.
Today, the fact that there are a large number of employees in these
areas generates signifi cant economic, social and cultural energy.
At the end of March 2016, local employees accounted for 81.2% of the
workforce, more or less the same as in the previous fi nancial year (2).
In line with its diversity policy, the Ubisoft Group also encourages
multiculturalism within its subsidiaries by locally recruiting different
nationalities and sending employees on international mobility
assignments (see section 4.2.3.1). This only happens in the case of
rare skills not available locally.
Among the initiatives that contribute to local economic development,
the Montreal studio, in Canada, supports young entrepreneurs
through targeted actions and the Malmö studio, in Sweden, is
involved in a collective promoting return to work:
♦
in Canada, the Ubisoft Montreal “Les créatifs ♥ le futur Mtl
inc.” project aims to encourage entrepreneurship within the
creative technology sector in Montreal. The studio has joined
forces with the Montréal Inc. Foundation to seek out and bring
together partner companies to commit to offering support to
young entrepreneurs for an 18-month period, in the form of
coaching in different fi elds via their employees (development,
human resources, marketing, communications, legal, etc.).
(1) Accounting for 95.7% of the Group’s workforce at the end of March2016
(2) Local employees represented 81.1% of the Group’s workforce at the end of March2015
- Registration Document 2016
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