"Employee Shareholding at AXA: A Legacy and an Ambition for the Future"

You are the employee shareholder representative on AXA's Board of Directors. How do you view your role?

Having first been elected in 2020 and then renewed for a 4-year term in 2024, I have been the employee shareholder representative on AXA's Board of Directors for more than 5 years now. Like all other directors, I have a duty to act in the interest of our shareholders, including employee shareholders, but also more generally in the interest of all other stakeholders. The same is true for the two employee representatives, Martine Bièvre and Bettina Cramm, from AXA France and AXA Konzern AG, respectively.

The role of the Board is primarily to decide on the Group’s strategy and oversee its implementation, while ensuring that the Group has in place the necessary procedures and processes to comply with its legal and regulatory obligations. In practice, I see my role as being a bridge between the company, the teams and the Board. On the one hand, I guide the teams so that they bring the required information to the Board in the most useful and effective manner, and on the other hand, I help inform Board decisions by providing background to the external Board members about the entities, operations, projects, people and culture of the organization.

It is a fascinating mix of technical and strategic matters, and I feel very fortunate to have earned the trust of so many employees over the course of my two mandates.

How is employee shareholding an integral part of AXA Group's corporate culture?

Shareholder representation at AXA dates back to 1993, when Claude Bébéar decided that employee share ownership was an important way to thank employees for their contribution to the development and success of the Group and involve them in the Group's performance and decisions for the future.  He did this by implementing the first Shareplan, which offered shares to employees at discounted rates compared to the market value of the shares, so that employees could benefit from the discount and any increase in the share price over time, in addition to receiving annual dividends paid out of the Group’s annualprofits30 years later the spirit remains the same. By participating, employees are aligning themselves with the Group’s strategy and long-term choices and showing their confidence in the Group’s future performance. Ultimately, as employee shareholders, we are sharing in the value we create through the implementation of our strategy. As an illustration, this year over €190 million in dividends were distributed to employee shareholders. 

But Shareplan also gives our employees a voice – with every share comes a vote at the Annual Shareholders’ Meeting, where important decisions are made, and every four years, an employee shareholder is elected at the Annual Shareholders’ Meeting to represent this special category of employees at the Board. This is the role I am grateful to hold.

The success of employee shareholding at AXA speaks for itself - we represent 4.26% of the share capital and 6.25% of AXA’s voting rights, the largest aggregate percentage in terms of votes, after the Mutuelles.

This represents almost 42,000 employees in over 40 countries (circa 30% of all staff). The growing participation rate reflects our collective confidence in the Group’s strategy and vision and symbolizes our commitment to this Group.

Shareplan has been an annual event for thirty years without fail, showing how important both Henri de Castries and Thomas Buberl also believed this aspect of our culture to be as they grew and transformed the Group.

What actions have you taken to encourage employee participation and why?

As Shareplan is principally a long-term investment which can be very beneficial financially over time, I wanted to make it as understandable and accessible as possible to all employees who would like to become shareholders, regardless of their investor profile and how much they had to invest. To be honest, I did not find Shareplan very easy to understand initially and so during my first mandate we organized a survey to get feedback and see if we could make things simpler. To my surprise, more than 5,000 employee shareholders replied and there were some great ideas that we have endeavored to implement.

Firstly, we wanted to make Shareplan more understandable, so we redesigned our dedicated website EmployeeShareholding to centralize useful information (including FAQs) onto a single platform, simplified the documentation and the subscription tool, and implemented a simulator. Then, we increased the number of local webinars at entities to give people the chance to ask lots of questions and have local support. They seem to be a great success, so thank you to everyone who has contributed along the way!

Through the survey, we also realized that our employees were very keen to improve their financial and investment know-how and so, with the Human Resources Team, we decided to launch the Invest in You program in June 2024 to give our employees the means to educate themselves on different aspects of financial planning, including, but not only, Shareplan. The success of the program last year convinced us to offer it once again in June of this year.

Starting last year, we also adjusted the timing of the Shareplan launch to be in September, instead of during the summer holidays, so that everyone has time to consider the best investment decisions for them at this particular point in their life/career, and in the right conditions – not easy at the beach!

Every year, we want to make things simpler and better, so all ideas are very welcome.

Could you tell us more about the 2025 Shareplan program, which also celebrates AXA’s 40th anniversary?

2025 is an important year, as it marks the 40th anniversary of the AXA brand and so to celebrate this milestone and the Group’s legacy of employee shareholding, we wanted to add a special dimension to our 2025 Shareplan. We decided to match employee investments in the Classic offer by gifting one AXA share for every share subscribed, up to a maximum of 20 shares. 

The Classic offer provides employees with the opportunity to buy shares at a 20% discount to the market price, and to benefit directly from annual dividends and any share price increase.

However, as usual, we also offered the Guarantee Plus offer which guarantees to employees that their initial investment will be repaid and that they will receive a minimum return, thereby ensuring that employees do not bear the market risk of share price movements in the same way as in the Classic offer. By having these two different offers, we can propose a choice adapted to all employees at different times in their careers - some employees are looking for a secure saving product, with no risk of capital loss, while others are ready to take market risk in exchange for an annual dividend.

This year’s Shareplan is still ongoing. The subscription period closed a few weeks ago and the final subscription prices will be announced at the end of the month, when we will all have a few days to finalize our investments, in either or both of the two offers. The final results will be announced in December, and we hope it will be a resounding success!