Société Générale prepares for the worst

Citation

(2006), "Société Générale prepares for the worst", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 38 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/ict.2006.03738fab.004

Société Générale prepares for the worst

Today every company must prepare seriously for crisis management – including the optimum handling of people needing need immediate sympathetic and knowledgeable help. Staff at the City of London offices of Société Générale, the French corporate and investment bank, have trained with Rhema Group to high levels of crisis-help-desk management skill and readiness, and participated in City-wide tests of the financial markets’ reaction to a “major operational disruption” (MOD).

Société Générale now has Rhema training its operational human-resources (OHR) advisers in call handling. These people would be at the front line of the bank’s handling of any serious incident, taking calls from staff and families and acting as the interface between the staff and the bank’s crisis managers.

This customized, instructor-led course covers the OHR role and responsibilities at Société Générale, in terms of the type of calls that might be received and best practice in handling the calls. It uses likely situations and role play to deal with: anticipating the challenges of the call; striving to reduce the caller’s anxiety; developing communication and building rapport; and listening, questioning and summarizing skills.

Rhema director William Burton said: “While the intensely stressful nature of such calls cannot be simulated to anything like the level that would be experienced in reality, Société Générale London is asking Rhema to deliver training that will really make its OHRs think about, and work at, the skills that must instantly come to the fore when crisis hits and very anxious people have to be managed calmly and firmly.

“The Societe Generale London approach to crisis-management training – which has seen the company avoid quick fixes in favour of rolling out planned, tailored courses to a gradually extending range of staff, needed to bring the whole crisis plan into action quickly – is admirable and meticulous, and showing excellent results.”

“The training we are running with Rhema is proving to be extremely valuable in developing our crisis-management capabilities, as well as providing staff with skills and awareness that have real benefit in their day-to-day work,” said Emilie Billault, of the business-continuity team of Société Générale in London.

Société Générale staff have invested a lot of time and effort to achieve a high level of crisis-management skill and readiness. Preparations have included a range of internal training workshops and exercises, along with participation in an exercise that tested the financial markets’ reaction to an MOD.