Crédit Agricole Pyrénées Gascogne: amplifying the voice of 2,100 employees with Zest

The context

Crédit Agricole Pyrénées Gascogne is the leading lender and bancassurance provider in its region, operating in a highly competitive banking market. With 2,100 employees, the bank has relied on an enhanced customer listening program for the past four years. This program has steadily improved its Net Promoter Score within the Crédit Agricole group.

In the midst of a transformation, leadership wanted to apply the same standard to internal listening. They set two clear objectives. The first was to capture the signals that influence employee engagement more quickly, between two major barometer surveys. The second was to scale up collaborative initiatives and gather ideas and suggestions directly from the field.

That is when Pyrénées Gascogne discovered Zest.

Four practical use cases

Zest’s Listen module met these needs. Four use cases were put in place:

1. Mood check, run once a year, provides an intermediate listening point between two engagement and recommendation index surveys.

2. Local listening surveys are fully managed by managers. They can launch a survey whenever they choose, based on their teams’ needs. These surveys offer a close-up view of employee concerns and of what needs to change. They also highlight positive feedback, which employees share in large numbers.

3. The SOS button is a more confidential feature, but HR teams consider it essential. Any employee can use it independently and confidentially to seek help when needed, beyond the actions HR already has in place.

4. The engagement barometer is a use case nobody anticipated at the outset. The bank’s formal employee engagement and recommendation index survey is now run directly through Zest.

A revealing indicator: public or anonymous response rates

Among the indicators available on the platform, one stood out. Teams can track response rates in real time, and employees can choose to respond anonymously or publicly. This choice is seen as a clear indicator of how much employees trust the company.

The benefits

✅ Full internal autonomy to launch any survey, on the chosen timeline and scope.

✅ Instant, actionable results, with ready-to-use presentation materials.

✅ Simple, concrete employee feedback that clearly identifies the issues to address.

✅ Collaborative initiatives scaled up at field level.

Support from Zest

The teams particularly valued the quality of the training and technical support from the very start of the partnership, which enabled a fast and effective rollout. They also highlighted the value of having dedicated contacts who understand the company’s culture. Insights shared from other clients and industries also helped shape their own thinking.

L’accompagnement Zest

Les équipes ont particulièrement apprécié la qualité des formations et de l’appui technique dès le démarrage de la collaboration, permettant une prise en main rapide et efficace. Elles soulignent également la valeur d’avoir des interlocuteurs dédiés, à l’écoute de la culture de l’entreprise, ainsi que les retours d’expérience partagés par d’autres clients et secteurs d’activité, qui ont nourri leurs propres réflexions.

-Véronique Reclu, HR Director, Employee Experience, and Anne-Marie Cesari, Head of Customer and Employee Excellence, Crédit Agricole Pyrénées Gascogne