Nos engagements et la charte RSE Meanwhile

Our commitments and the company's CSR Charter

CSR is part of efforts to respect people and the environment in a sustainable development approach. The aim is to improve the quality of life of employees and all those who come into contact with the company.

For the company itself, there are concrete advantages to CSR:

A responsible company is more attractive to customers and prospects. Candidates are also attentive to these criteria, so a company with a strong CSR policy has a better chance of attracting talented profiles. A strong CSR approach also promotes the involvement of employees within the company.

Beyond simply wanting to display an ESG score and/or a CSR Charter, it is because we have fundamental values that stem from the company’s raison d’être that we are moving towards this approach.

Here is an example to understand how the Meanwhile company approaches CSR:

To proclaim that we are driving at the right speed on the highway is one thing. To reveal that we are driving at 130 km/h, dial in support, on a motorway limited to 130 km/h is another. To decide to drive at 120 km/h on a motorway at 130 km/h because, after studies, we have understood that with this speed and with our vehicle, we have the best efficiency in travel time, consumption and risk: this is the ideal.

1. Definitions

CSR: Corporate Social Responsibility is an approach aimed at integrating the environmental issues of sustainable development, but also the social, economic and ethical issues in the medium and long term, into the vision and strategy of an organization.

This is a voluntary process on the part of the organizations. Since its publication in 2010, the ISO 26000 standard has been the reference framework in this area. It gives guidelines but does not provide a framework of requirements for certification.

ESG: This acronym designates the Environmental, Social and Good Governance criteria that are used to analyze and assess the consideration of sustainable development, but also the economic and social aspects of activities, and long-term issues in business strategy.

    • CSR and ESG are linked because CSR is expressed in the form of a charter, while ESG is a score established by companies, which is displayed, which we will make available and or its evolution. will be monitored so that this score is improved each year. In one sentence, the criteria and the ESG score make it possible to evaluate the CSR approach of a company
  • environmental criteria: they measure the direct or indirect impact of the company’s activity on the environment (for example: CO2 emissions, electricity consumption, waste recycling, impact on biodiversity …)
  • social criteria: they take into account the conditions in which all the company’s workers find themselves without exception, in particular employees, customers, suppliers, etc.
  • governance criteria: these relate to the way in which the company is run, administered and controlled (relations with shareholders, its board of directors and its management, the transparency of executive compensation, the fight against corruption).

2. The 4 core values of Meanwhile

Meanwhile is a company created around a common vision: the consideration of women and men, their experience and their know-how as well as all the value they represent within the company.

A company that empowers

At Meanwhile, there is a climate of trust and recognition of employees in which everyone is responsible and free to take their own initiatives.

“ For Humans ” solutions

We are convinced that technology is nothing if it is not human-centric. It is for this reason that we place the well-being of people at the heart of our solutions.

Passion for technology

We are all passionate about new technologies and we capitalize on the knowledge of each member of the team to build our solutions.

“Impossible” is not Meanwhile

Ambitious and daring, we love challenges. We take charge of our projects in a responsible, dynamic and positive manner, in a spirit of conquest that allows us to surpass ourselves.

Why display our CSR charter?

First of all, it is because we have the will for the future to commit ourselves to the well-being of employees and beyond, for all those around us, that we are moving towards this path and that we are going to deploy our CSR charter.

Then, if tomorrow the company Meanwhile wishes for example to respond to public contracts, it is also important to have a real written and displayed CSR charter. Indeed, otherwise Meanwhile will be prohibited from responding.

Finally, if Tomorrow, for example, the company Meanwhile wishes to carry out a major financial transaction, it will be important to have a monitored ESG score which will show that it is improving.

3. The societal pillar

The societal pillar of CSR can be divided into two axes: an internal axis and an external axis.

The internal axis concerns the taking into account of the well-being of all the employees of the company, in an environment which requires a strong commitment. Indeed, Meanwhile being a very innovative company where the innovation reiteration cycle is very short.

It is therefore the responsibility of the company to ensure the well-being of these people, inside the company, but also outside it. This includes giving employees the opportunity to express themselves in their personal time in order to create a caring and collective environment, and this from the birth of Meanwhile so that it remains one of the cornerstones of our management.

It is with this objective that Meanwhile carries out daily work on the creation of a healthy, benevolent environment, where employees cultivate benevolence towards each other.

Gender parity

There is no discrimination within society Meanwhile, neither negative nor positive. Beyond simply respecting a balance, we make it a point of honor to hire talented, passionate people with strong expertise in their field. We also favor people whose personality is in line with the strong values of Meanwhile.

Thus, we have found that selecting talented people naturally forms a balanced environment in terms of the parity of men and women.

The company that empowers employees

When the company was created, we defined one of its values as “liberated enterprise”. We later realized that this term, on the one hand, was the subject of controversy. Indeed, it has regularly been used in the form of a posture in order to make a society more attractive, for example.

On the other hand, we think that this term raises the following problem: it can be misinterpreted by young recruits or people wishing to join Meanwhile.

Following this, we therefore took advice from colleagues and questioned ourselves internally about the use of these terms. We have therefore decided to use the term “empowering company”.

Why this choice ? The empowering society is for Meanwhile the culmination of a model of society: empowerment.

Examples:

  • Field example: Anyone hired on a permanent contract at Meanwhile, regardless of their age and position, is given a “business” payment card from the company. Each person thus takes on board both the responsibility and the mutual trust of the company and the employees.
  • Governance example: Created 4 years ago, Meanwhile now has 9 people on permanent contracts. This year, on the one hand, we are setting up a Steering Committee and, on the other hand, we have voted to allocate free shares to all employees on permanent contracts, up to the legal maximum of 10% of shares of the company. As a result, all the people who are today in a contract of indefinite duration, become shareholders of the company and will be able to participate in the general meeting of the latter to express their points of view.

These two examples demonstrate the full consideration of corporate social responsibility.

Concerning the external axis of the societal pillar, the raison d’être of the Meanwhile company “Innovation only has place on the condition that it is at the service of Being”, since the creation of society, allows us to stay the course, without compromise.

Meanwhile designs, manufactures, and deploys technology solutions so that, meanwhile, women and men can achieve something much greater.

Innovation can be divided into 3 phases: the idea, the creation, the placing on the market. It is everyone’s responsibility, for each of these phases, to reflect on how their innovation impacts their Social and Environmental Responsibility.

The positioning of the Meanwhile company with only “For Human” technological machines, inspired by the reflections of Charlie Chaplin in particular, allows us to prepare the most beautiful of humanities.

4. The environmental pillar

Meanwhile employees attach importance to the environment, particularly through daily actions. In fact, more than 70% of the workforce travels daily to their place of work by bicycle or public transport. But despite everything, Meanwhile continues to regularly educate teams to improve every day.

Examples:

  • Field example: As of 2021, many employees have benefited from the “sustainable mobility” package thanks to their daily commitment to travel to the workplace by “sustainable” transport (for example by bicycle, scooter or public transport). People who do not hold a permanent contract, i.e. people on work-study and internships, were also able to benefit from this “sustainable mobility” package. This package will be renewed each year as long as it is put in place by the government.
  • Strategy example: We had the honor of being asked by the Auvergne Rhône Alpes region within the framework of the PERL (Potential Enterprise to Real Leader) agreement to re-sign this agreement once again, for a period of 3 years on the date of May 24, 2022.

This agreement, because the Auvergne Rhône Alpes region considers us to be a company with high potential at the national level (see at the international level in the coming months), encourages us to give priority to territorial economic players. Indeed, since its creation Meanwhile has continued to favor these regional and territorial actors to the detriment of extraterritorial actors, outside France and Europe. It is for this reason that we were asked to sign a first PERL agreement on November 21, 2018.

The Meanwhile company therefore initially favors collaborations with actors in the Auvergne Rhône Alpes region, then national, European and finally international actors (in the event that they are the only ones able to provide us with certain equipment, certain materials or still some technological bricks).

Meanwhile is currently putting in place a process which, in the years to come for some and the months to come for others, will make it possible to limit the call to non-European actors to the strict minimum.

What's next?

We will initially establish a formal CSR charter. This will be displayed on a dedicated page of our website. We will then set up internal scoring first, with the aim of calling on a certifying body in the coming months to provide us with objective ESG scoring.

It is then on the basis of this initial score that we will set objectives and that we will put in place other actions in order to make it evolve annually and in a significant way our ESG score.