the risks of the HRD profession have increased with the Covid-19

“Animal experiments have shown that a mouse that knows when it is going to be abused is less depressed than one that does not know when it will be. The uncertainty effect is what depresses a person, like the mouse in the laboratory, because man is a social animal ”, explains Raphaël Gaillard. The professor in psychiatry and president of the Pierre-Deniker Foundation illustrated, by this example, the potential impact of the crisis due to Covid-19 on employees. He thus introduced the RH Meetings, the monthly topical management meeting, organized by The world in partnership with ManpowerGroup, which brought together around ten HRDs in Paris on April 6 to discuss the risks of their profession.

“HRDs are both subject to psychosocial risks (PSR) and bearers of PSR responsibility for the entire company. Mental health, we always forget how important it is: one in five working people are likely to be in distress related to a mental disorder. And the longer the depressive period, the greater the surface area of ​​the brain affected ”, explains Professor Gaillard. However, the health crisis has reinforced the main factors associated with mental disorder: the imbalance between private and professional life, uncertainty, lack of support from colleagues or his superiors and finally communication difficulties at work.

Since the Covid, “We are in permanent adjustment mode, which is very stressful for everyone, testifies Marc-Henri Bernard, Group HR Director of Rémy Cointreau. We have a lot of humility in trying to find solutions, without ever being sure of the result. We tried to be in permanent over-communication, to give meaning, to maintain the social link, starting by reassuring about the maintenance of employment and remuneration. The objective being that employees can say to themselves “The company has not forgotten me” ”.

“Keep your distance”

Because the company has taken a disproportionate place in the lives of employees, including that of HRDs. It has become a place of affirmation of the social bond and “The role of the HRD is to strengthen the notion of social body, says Jean-Marie Lambert. For the past year, many have only had the business and the house. The role of the company as a social link has become more important ”. Veolia Environnement’s HRD notes “That a certain number of employees are in arrears. It is not for us to treat them, because we are not a doctor, but we must take them into account. We take the subject seriously. But as a HRD, it is essential to keep your distance. The real difficulty is to listen without feeling responsible for all the suffering of the company ”.

In most organizations, taking into account the psychosocial risks of employees has resulted in the establishment of telephone platforms for listening to psychologists. ” There is a stake in being proactive so that suffering is expressed, because the earlier the treatment, the more effective it is. The worst would be to play the ostrich ”, warns Professor Gaillard. “We also recalled the roles of each, emphasizes Marion Azuelos, global HRD at BNP Paribas Asset Management. When an HR takes over the mental load, afterwards he is not doing well. You have to know where your role ends and know how to refer to occupational health or the social worker. “

For Professor Gaillard, “It is essential to think in terms of social bond” Not to fall “In the culture of personal responsibility, which is particularly difficult to live with”. Social network users are not mistaken when they launch the #BalancetonDRH campaign which attempts to focus on the one person of a HRD all the managerial policy of a company. “I am not sure that the HRD is more exposed since the Covid, Relative Rémi Boyer, the HRD of Korian, but it has moved considerably closer to the operational one, which is very positive. And it carries more of the values ​​of the company. “

Resurgence of violence

Seen from his security SME, the HRD of Panthera Alexis Berthel observes, for his part, an upsurge in violence against human resources personnel: “All societal changes fall within the company, including incivility and violence. Any HRD has experienced incivility or physical assault during his career. But for a year now, people have been in the instantaneity of violence, he said. We receive murderous emails. They do not differentiate between the function and the individual and no longer hesitate to take action. A human resources employee was thus threatened with death for having put an employee on partial employment. ” Jean-Marie Lambert confirms that “People no longer hesitate to denounce on social networks. But the most difficult for the HRD remains the moment when it is necessary to separate from someone, the dismissal ”.

The risks of the HRD profession have increased with the Covid, because the health crisis has on the one hand reinforced the responsibility of the company’s social link, while this link was weakened by digitization, and on the other hand caused profound changes in the organization of work brought about by the human resources function. “The HRD has also become more visible”, notes Mr. Bernard.

But “The HRD is only the conductor”, recalls Dominique Brard, Managing Director Talent Solutions at ManpowerGroup. “Its two main fields of action are the control of uncertainty and that of the social bond”, concludes Professor Gaillard: a suggestion to escape the fate of the laboratory mouse.