Responsible Business Practices

Culture of customer satisfaction

ALD Automotive puts the customer at the center of all its concerns and projects.

The desired Customer Experience is the starting point in everything a company does. And ALD Automotive considers that all starts from the employee. Customer can’t be satisfied by top-down instructions, employees need to be empowered and agile to deliver the best customer experience. Employee Centricity is a key component of our strategy of customer satisfaction. A change management program called One Ready Smile supports the different entities in the review of customer touch points to understand how to improve the “moments of truth”. This program includes a focus on employees. This program created in 2017 is still active today.

Since 2019, ALD Automotive also launched several new initiatives:

  • Friday Pulse tool deployment: Friday Pulse gives employees a voice by asking them to rate their experience of work, and share their weekly successes and frustrations. This allows senior leaders to know what’s happening and take meaningful action, but also to stimulate the culture of measurement, feedback and continuous improvement. Core values to ensure our clients satisfaction.
  • Global training in Design Thinking methods: allow ALD Automotive to start from the customer experience to define new offers or improve existing services. The use of continuous customer feedback is studied using a flexible methodology so that countries can implement continuous and autonomous improvement action plans.
  • The Net Promoter Score (NPS): the measurement of customer satisfaction based on their likelihood of recommending the brand, products or services. The NPS is calculated based on satisfaction surveys filled out by drivers and fleet managers/decision‑makers for the direct sales channel, B2B and for full‑service lease vehicles. The overall NPS reached +27 points in 2022.
  • The ALD Customer Advisory Board: set up two years ago, this Advisory Board meets twice a year, and consults major international customers on strategic decisions, particularly regarding product or commercial development. This initiative has also been replicated in 26 countries in which ALD Automotive is present. These Customer Advisory Boards pay particular attention to energy transition issues (electric vehicles, charging solutions, energy market and costs).

Ethical and Responsible culture

Initiated in 2016, the Culture and Conduct program aims to build stakeholder confidence by putting values, quality of leadership, and behavioral integrity at the core of its business activity to achieve the highest standards of quality of service and ethical behavior.

As a subsidiary of Societe Generale, ALD conducts its development in accordance with the values and principles set out in various texts and founding commitments for Societe Generale:

  • the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its complementary commitments;
  • the fundamental conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO);
  • the UNESCO World Heritage Convention;
  • the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises;
  • the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

The Group Code of Conduct is available to all stakeholders on Societe Generale’s website 

Fight Against Corruption

ALD is an integral part of the Societe Generale’s system of anti-corruption obligations (based in particular on the Sapin II law) and of those stemming from the law on the Duty of Care, which require the establishment and implementation of a vigilance plan to identify risks and prevent serious violations of human rights, fundamental freedoms, personal health and safety and the environment. In this regard, all previous commitments made by Societe Generale apply de facto to ALD. Since 2000, Societe Generale has made commitments under the Wolfsberg Group and, in 2003, the Global Compact.

Environmental and Social policies

Our Environmental and Social (E&S) policies establish a general framework for the respect of fundamental human rights and the environment. The 12 E&S policies cover the sectors which are considered to be potentially sensitive from an E&S or ethical standpoint. E&S risk management is fully integrated into our decision-making process; before entering into a relationship with a new customer, and during the renewal of dedicated credit lines, the identification and exclusion lists are systematically examined by the local functions in charge of the Know Your Customer processes.

Responsible Purchasing

Sourcing is a major component in ALD’s business model and consequently, in ALD’s Corporate Social Responsibility strategy of ALD, reflecting its values and working to ensure that the Environmental and Social commitments are achieved.

We aim to involve suppliers in the implementation of measures to ensure human rights, proper working conditions (health and safety), environmental concerns, supply chain transparency and the fight against corruption.

Since April 2017, ALD preferred suppliers and all suppliers invited to tender receive the Responsible Purchasing Charter that details all the Group's CSR commitments and obligations, and the expectations of suppliers in terms of compliance with sustainable development standards.

In addition to the Know Your Supplier analysis, for a targeted scope of contracted suppliers, a non-financial assessment of environmental, social, business ethics and subcontracting performance by an independent third party is required.

Since 2018, a CSR clause has been integrated into all new contract templates. It refers to the Societe Generale Code of Conduct and Responsible Purchasing Charter.

To minimize and manage the risks when purchasing products or services related to categories of greater risk, the Group includes environmental and social criteria in all major tenders.