#UnexpectedJobs: BNP Paribas Gives 190,000 Employees a Voice

Marco> We started with an insight: banking jobs are difficult to explain, and with a challenge: to demonstrate that they have changed, by finding a way to tell the story that is not boring. Also, we wanted to launch more than just an advertisement for the bank, and more than just an employer branding campaign. That’s why we decided to create a collaborative campaign, embodied by the employees of BNP Paribas around the world and to turn them into brand ambassadors. After all, who better than them to talk about their job!

 

Elise> We began by acknowledging that banking communication is traditionally quite a formal and top-down affair. For example, we have all come across the somewhat stilted images of the customer sitting in front of their financial advisor. It’s an image which, powerful as it may be, lacks a certain “proximity”. So we wanted to flip this image around, to let the employees speak their truth and in so doing, lift the lid off the bank just a little.

There are over 300 different types of roles within the bank across 65 countries. It's a wealth of backgrounds and experiences that can tell a powerful story about the DNA of the bank and our aspirations for the future. Those are the stories we wanted to tell.

 

Marco> There is a huge variety of professions: more than 300 jobs make up the bank today! We had to find the right creative angle, and as stated above, we had to do it in a way that will be out of the box. To do so, we decided to focus on authenticity, by giving a voice to employees and asking them to imagine a title for their job and share it on LinkedIn, along with a post about their daily life.

 

In addition, we had to find the right balance between letting employees speak freely and the editorial part. Beyond the pure description of the jobs, it had to be impactful. Hence the fact that we asked the participants to choose their own storytelling. And of course, we partnered closely with BNP Paribas’ project team, to select the right people for this campaign, as all “bankers” are not the same and do not do the same job. We have shown a balanced representation of the type of missions and profiles you have within the bank today.

 

 

Elise> The best way I could describe it would be “eye opening”. I have only been with the bank since 2022 and took the project over from my predecessor Bertrand Cizeau, who had the inspiration to launch #UnexpectedJobs. 

One of the things I learned throughout this process was the sheer diversity of our employees and how committed and dedicated they are to being of assistance to their clients and, more broadly, to the economy and to society. 

We conducted 100 workshops between March and April 2023, training nearly 30 ambassador communities with participants at all levels of the organisation to enable 3,000 employees from different backgrounds to come up with their #UnexpectedJobs even before the official launch of the campaign.  We discovered some truly remarkable stories and surprising ways in which our employees see themselves within the bank. 

 

 

Elise> The many ways of the people themselves surprised us. From the beginning, we wanted something real, real histories,  real struggles and the successes of real people, so there were no scripts, no guidelines or rules - we let everyone express themselves and speak their truth. 

What we got back was all the more poignant. We discovered individuals who truly embody the bank’s transformation and demonstrate how in touch we are with the realities of society. 

People like Heike, who works in our compliance department, who used to be a checkers world champion, who studied criminology and could have had a career with Interpol, but instead chose to work for us, to help us monitor and identify suspicious transactions, such as those that could be linked to money laundering, corruption or the financing of terrorist activities. 

Or people like Mark who works with farmers to advise them on the leasing and hire purchase of agricultural machinery and wakes up every morning at 6am to go inspect farms all over the countryside.

 

 

Elise> We couldn’t have been happier. Internally the project was a real hit. We concentrated initial internal communications via LinkedIn by asking all those wishing to change their job title on their profile and after only five days we had 1500 respondents, with both hilarious and thoughtful responses by people across different countries and different business lines. 

Because we wanted to embody our diversity, and especially our commitment to our climate targets and “net zero” engagements, this “view from within” communications exercise was vital. 

Our communications challenge, beyond the simple exercise of presenting our commitment to energy transformation in a clear and concise way, is that we contend with a significant onslaught of fake news, approximations, and ideological misconceptions, whose dissemination across social media is fast and unfiltered, and therefore not easily corrected. 

Our employees are a wonderful resource to help us put our message out. They are on the front lines of making a real concrete difference in the energy transformation, and they can articulate this more concisely and convincingly than any corporate top-down communications. 

Take the example of our “Low Carbon Transition Group” comprised of 50 bankers dedicated to accompanying clients at every step of their transition towards a low carbon economy. Or our “NEST” team, a great resource composed of experts in energy transition, biodiversity and the circular economy. These are the roles which we want to grow in the future and these are the ambassadors that will communicate our commitment in this crucial area and help us rise above the fake news, misconceptions and agendas.