InvestigationThe development of teleworking, due to the health crisis, has changed the relationship with employment and management. No one knows where the right balance is. Only one thing is certain, nothing will ever be the same again.
“Evolution is not a long river that takes its time. It proceeds with periods of relative stability or gradual changes interspersed with phases of rapid change: punctuations, or crises. “ The world of work is going through one of these crises, says paleoanthropologist Pascal Picq. The massive deployment of teleworking during the Covid-19 pandemic is a tipping point, notes the researcher and professor at the Collège de France, in his book Chimpanzees and teleworking (Eyrolles, 252 p., € 18). The end of summer does not only mark a return to chaotic face-to-face treatment after eighteen months of health crisis. Back to school will be a moment of truth. In September, companies will lay the foundations for the work organization of the future.
“We were able to switch to telework overnight without too much difficulty. Coming out of eighteen months of remote work is proving to be much more complex ”, summarizes Jean-François Ode, director of human resources (HRD) at Aviva France. To encourage the return to the site of its employees, the insurance company relies on conviviality: free coffee machines and a summer punctuated by grills and racket games in the head office garden. At the start of the school year, employees will be greeted by a speech from the CEO, as part of a breakfast.
“The pandemic has changed the mindset of employees”, says HRD. Some are retraining to have fewer time constraints. Others have a transport phobia. “Still others have given no sign of life since deconfinement. And then there are those who settle several hundred kilometers from Paris. The moves concern, for the moment, ten people out of 3,000 employees, but we have not finished hearing about it. How to react ? Our teleworking agreement allows you to be at a distance for a maximum of two days a week ”, says Mr. Ode.
According to one survey by the National Association of HRDs (ANDRH), published on June 7, 30% of HRDs were confronted with employees who moved during the crisis. “The individual takes precedence over the collective”, worries Audrey Richard, president of ANDRH. How far will hybridization go? Between September 2020 and April 2021, the firm specializing in new work practices LBMG Worklabs conducted a survey of 4,800 employees of large companies, public bodies, SMEs and very small businesses. “On average, respondents want to telecommute 2.65 days a week. But 19% of people go for four or five days a week ”, details Nathanaël Mathieu, president of LBMG.
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