Key takeaways from L’Effet A at Boralex
- Women’s ambition flourishes best within a clear, structured, and openly embraced framework
- Managers play a critical role—provided they are properly equipped and held accountable
- Programs are most impactful when embedded in an overall talent strategy
- Measuring, tracking, and adjusting efforts turns intent into sustainable results
What invisible barriers still limit diversity in organizations?
One significant barrier for us is linked… to growth itself. We are a rapidly expanding company operating in a highly competitive and historically male-dominated sector.
Over the past three years, this reality has led to a high volume of external hiring. In fast-paced environments, a “speed bias” can emerge—making it difficult to slow down, reassess practices, or broaden talent pools.
We also observe an affinity bias. Our employees are highly engaged and often refer people from their own networks. While positive, this can sometimes limit the diversity of candidates.
- To address these barriers, we revisited our talent attraction commitments and redesigned our talent acquisition process to deliberately broaden perspectives and candidate pools.
How can managers have a meaningful impact on team development without increasing their operational workload?
We chose to institutionalize L’Effet A programs by fully integrating them into our Talent governance framework. This helps harmonize practices, clarify expectations, and streamline coordination.
We also clarified managerial accountability. Managers are responsible for identifying candidates for the programs, and we expect them to translate participation into concrete actions—whether through temporary assignments, organizational projects, or promotions.
As most of our managers are men, we introduced enhanced support. Each cohort benefits from three internal discussion sessions attended by members of senior leadership—often male leaders—to embody the importance of their role in advancing female talent.
What mechanisms are in place to support these talents on an ongoing basis?
We implemented a structured mentorship program. Program graduates may choose to be supported for approximately nine months by a leader within the organization, offering practical guidance aligned with their development objectives.
Based on your observations, which lever has the greatest long-term impact on women’s progression within the organization?
The first key lever is the program’s ability to build a strong female talent pool and an active community.
This community is regularly engaged on topics such as bottom-up innovation and management practices, and it also serves as a feeder for other initiatives—organizational projects, social responsibility roles, or the mentorship program.
The second lever is bias mitigation, enabled through our talent management practices. We systematically review performance during calibration sessions to ensure multiple perspectives.
We have also developed measurement tools to reduce unconscious bias, including:
- a Sustainable Performance Spectrum that clearly defines expectations;
- development indicators aligned with our internal career paths (managerial, expert, support, technical).
Each session includes awareness-raising on evaluation bias, and dedicated training is also provided.
What indicators do you use to measure the concrete impact of these actions?
We track several key metrics:
- the proportion of women in management and among new hires (with targets and disclosure);
- gender-based indicators such as turnover, internal and external hires, and total compensation;
- our La Gouvernance au Féminin – Silver Level certification.
We also analyze trends across four cohorts (2022–2025):
- 48 graduates to date (37.5% in France, 62.5% in North America);
- a positive trajectory for women in management, increasing from 30% in 2022 to 32.5% in 2025;
- a growing number of women benefiting from promotions, assignments, special projects, or mentorship.
The ideal Environment to Flourish in the Renewable Energy Industry
At Boralex, gender equality is a deliberate, proactive commitment. Programs like L’Effet A allow us to turn this commitment into a collective driver of performance and innovation.
- It is a long-term dynamic—one that opens the door to meaningful, evolving career paths aligned with each individual’s aspirations.
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L’Effet A is an initiative designed to support and make women’s professional ambition more visible within organizations. It is not a traditional training program, but a structured framework that combines development, networking, and recognition of potential.
Acting as an accelerator, L’Effet A helps participants better position themselves, broaden their perspectives, and access concrete opportunities. Its ambition is also collective: to evolve internal practices so that women’s ambition can be expressed sustainably—without having to conform to existing models that are not always inclusive.
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L’Effet A primarily targets women, as it addresses specific barriers they still face in their career paths. However, its success depends on broader involvement.
Managers and leaders—both women and men—play a key role in identifying talent, providing support, and creating an environment that fosters equal opportunity. The initiative is not about exclusion, but about rebalancing. It promotes shared responsibility, where everyone contributes to evolving practices and mindsets across the organization.
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Boralex relies on concrete indicators to track progress on gender equality. These data points make it possible to assess representation at different levels of the organization, career progression, internal mobility, and certain structural gaps.
The objective is not simply to produce numbers, but to understand trends and guide actions over time. This fact-based approach helps move beyond individual perceptions and enables more objective decision-making, while ensuring progressive transparency on the progress achieved.
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Equal opportunity directly contributes to organizational performance and long-term sustainability. By enabling everyone to fully develop their potential, organizations expand access to skills, ideas, and talent.
More diverse teams are also better equipped to navigate complexity, innovate, and make balanced decisions. Beyond results, equality strengthens employer attractiveness by sending a clear signal about the organization’s values and its ability to offer fair, motivating career paths.
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Improving gender equality requires a combination of concrete actions sustained over time. This includes questioning existing practices, equipping managers, and creating development spaces tailored to the realities women experience.
Listening, measurement, and continuous adjustment are essential to avoid symbolic actions. It also means acknowledging that career paths are not always linear and that equality cannot be decreed—it is built progressively through clear, intentional organizational choices.
Photo credit : Xavier MC