French corporations progress in their quest for effective digital communications

The 19th annual edition of Webranking by Comprend, the leading in-depth research into the status of major listed companies’ online communications, found that French companies have made progress towards offering their corporate audiences the information they expect in digital channels.

The 19th annual edition of Webranking by Comprend, the leading in-depth research into the status of major listed companies’ online communications, found that French companies have made progress towards offering their corporate audiences the information they expect in digital channels.

In the study, which covered 803 corporate websites from 36 countries, 77 French companies were assessed on the basis of 100 criteria that summarise the information expectations of investors, analysts, business journalists and job seekers.

Investor relations: in need of improvement
Although investors tend to trawl corporate websites for valuable information such as financial targets, analyst coverage or debt data, French companies do not pay the same attention as their northern European peers to addressing financial stakeholders' information needs.

Corporate governance: underperforming
France lags behind in the provision of useful corporate governance information as evidenced by the average 30.9% score on this very important topic. Two instances of this are the lack of information on insider dealings and the scant information on remuneration.

Careers: in need of more attention
Information on skills development is an item that 94% of job seekers consider important. French companies seem to be aware of this as three out of four companies surveyed provide this kind of information. Yet there are still major gaps related to life at the workplace or career opportunities.

Access from mobile devices: still a way to go
As people increasingly use mobile devices to visit websites, these should enhance user experience by offering responsive design and high load speed. While half of the companies surveyed provide a responsive website, 37.7% only of their websites achieve acceptable load speeds for mobile devices.

Webranking by Comprend 2015-2016 – France
By achieving a final score of 61.4 points in 2015-2016, Michelin made a successful bid for the top spot, to which it rose from last year's 4th place. AXA came in second, or one place higher compared with last year. With its newly-developed website, LafargeHolcim, the company that resulted from last summer's merger of Swiss cement-maker Holcim with last year’s French winner Lafarge, managed to achieve a podium position. The absence of Sanofi, STMicroelectronics and Vallourec from this year's Top 10 table made room for the rise of Vinci, Orange and AirLiquide to Top 10 positions.

All French results here

Commenting on the French results, Miguel Cruz de Oliveira, Director for Portugal, Spain and France, Comprend, said:

"French corporate websites raised their profile last year even tough quite a few weak spots remain. Investor and governance themes still need substantial improvements along with corporate social responsibility, which also has a way to go. Also, to compete for the best candidates, companies will have to upgrade their digital communications offering to potential employees."

Webranking by Comprend – est.1997
Webranking by Comprend is Europe’s leading survey of corporate websites. It is the only research that has every year since 1997 ranked over 800 websites according to how well they address the information requirements of corporate stakeholders.
Read more about the ranking here.

For further information, please contact:
Miguel Cruz de Oliveira
Director - Portugal, Spain and France
+351 919 935 833
miguel.cruz.de.oliveira@comprend.com