We Care, AXA's HR program rolled out by Karima Silvent

There are HR programs that remain just slogans. And then there is "We Care," the program rolled out by Karima Silvent, HR Director of the AXA Group, in 51 countries for 170,000 employees. The difference between the two lies not in the name but in what is genuinely funded behind it.

A program born from personal experience

Karima Silvent does not speak on this topic from an abstract office. In 2018, the year she took on the role of HR Director at AXA, she became a family caregiver for her sister who was battling cancer. This experience directly informed her decision to provide ten paid half-days off for employees who are caregivers, along with psychological support. The "We Care" program then extends to parenting, caregiving, illness, domestic violence, menopause, and andropause.

This is not a trivial detail. It is precisely what distinguishes a credible HR program from a decorative one: the person championing it knows, from the inside, why it matters.

The disturbing number that illuminates

Silvent acknowledges it directly: one-third of employees are caregivers, whether for an elderly parent or a child with a disability. This is a major source of stress and disengagement, which she has chosen to address as a central HR issue, rather than as a marginal exception.

HR analytics as a management argument

Her logic behind HR analytics is equally clear. For her, data serves three purposes: to anchor HR in the business with real indicators, to corroborate or contradict intuitions, and to anticipate. Her conviction, supported by the figures she monitors at AXA, is that customer satisfaction and employee engagement are strongly correlated. This is not a philosophical coincidence. It is a management argument.

Why this resonates directly with Mauritian leaders

In many SMEs and mid-sized companies in Mauritius, the topics covered by "We Care" (caregiving, mental health, difficult life periods) continue to be addressed on a case-by-case basis, without formal policy. The result is predictable: employees who are absent without notice or who leave without explanation.

What Silvent demonstrates on the scale of a group of 170,000 people holds equally for a company of 50 employees. A leader who formalizes support, even modestly, during challenging life moments is not just making a social gesture. They are securing retention and productivity, indicators that can be tracked concretely.

This is precisely the type of subject we address in LEADER LAB when discussing human corporate culture in Mauritius: not the communication around culture but the concrete mechanisms that make it real.

Internal mobility, treated differently

Silvent also champions an idea that diverges from rigid HR policies: career management should be individualized. She rejects the automation of "a promotion every three years," advocating instead for tailored follow-up for each career path.

This stance requires more rigor, not less. Because individualization without a framework becomes favoritism. Individualization within a framework, however, becomes a powerful retention lever for talents who do not see themselves reflected in standard career paths.

Signed Claudine, for MeetYourJob.