Posted on Dec. 2020 at 7:10
Last spring, it was fashionable among philosophers and consultants to discuss the “next world” and the major transformations that the pandemic was going to generate in our societies. Nine months later, the soufflé has largely fallen back… Except at PSA. The automaker is not known to be a den of utopian dreamers, but it has nevertheless given kick off in early May , even before the end of the first confinement, a radical transformation of its functioning.
Based on the experience of generalized teleworking imposed by the health crisis, the company decreed that remote working would henceforth be “the reference for all activities not directly linked to production”. With the objective for the 40,000 employees concerned worldwide (including 18,000 in France) a time spent in the office reduced to 30%, or one and a half days per week on average. A new organization deployed in record time, even if it means finding the right settings for use.
“Agility” and real estate costs
With this “new era of agility” (NEA, the name of the project), PSA wants work more efficiently , plan its carbon footprint and improve the quality of life of its employees, who will reduce their time spent in transport, particularly in the Paris region. But Carlos Tavares, the boss of the group, also and above all wants to save on his real estate costs.
The one who defines himself as a “performance psychopath” had compacted factories when he arrived in 2014, he obviously intends to do the same with offices, to reduce rental costs (the group has no less than 400 addresses in Europe). Management refuses to provide a figure citing trade secrecy, but according to an expert in the sector, the potential savings are calculated at the very least in tens of millions of euros.
Generalized deployment from September
And, when the Portuguese boss sets a goal, it is usually implemented step by step. Announced in early May, massive teleworking rolled out across the group from September . Several sites, in France and abroad, have been designated to be the subject of feedback, but these tests are carried out at the same time as the deployment for all the personnel concerned.
For the unions, the management is going too quickly: “It is moving forward like a steamroller,” laments for example Benoit Vernier, of the CFDT. “We don’t have the right to slow down. The expectations of the employees oblige us ”, advanced in July the HRD of the group, Xavier Chéreau, to justify this eagerness. According to an internal consultation carried out in June, 79% of the employees concerned are in favor of the principle of teleworking, and 76% believe that their activity can be carried out remotely more than three days a week.
Adjust as you go
“We did not wait to find the ideal device to move forward, confirms Estelle Rouvrais today, who is leading the project in the human resources department. We know there will be an inevitable ‘test and learn’ period, adjustments are made as you go. »A network of 90« NEA leaders », in 23 countries, takes stock every fortnight to report difficulties or disseminate good practices.
It is in Poissy, in particular, that the search for the right settings is made. In the town of Yvelines, the manufacturer has an assembly plant, but also an imposing tertiary building which has accommodated no less than 5,000 employees since the start of the school year, including those at the head office, previously located in Rueil-Malmaison (Hauts-de -Seine). On the fourth floor, a 2,000 square meter plateau was chosen to experiment with the upcoming redevelopment of the premises.
No question, of course, of assigned workstation. The flex office, which was already widely practiced, in particular at headquarters, remains more than ever the norm (in the building sector, only Carlos Tavares and Louis Gallois, the chairman of the supervisory board, still have an individual office with a door ). At the entrance, a battery of red, white and blue lockers allows employees to relinquish part of their business. But they are no longer registered as was the case until now.
15% of individual positions
In the new organization, visits to the premises should primarily be used to work in a team and to meet colleagues. The layout of the top reflects this: the classic open space, with individual workstations, only occupies 15% of the space. The remaining 85% are separated into two types of collective spaces of approximately the same size. The first are open and non-bookable, with a cafeteria area alongside high tables, and a few alcoves with low tables and armchairs for three or four meetings. The place is obviously designed to preserve informal meetings and maintain social ties. A little further on are the bookable meeting rooms. They are large enough to accommodate up to 20 employees, who can then be divided into sub-groups. Most tables have casters for easier movement.
At the beginning of October, a thousand employees coming from marketing, IT or R&D have started to break in these new premises, in an operation giving the first to teleworking, and provided feedback through a questionnaire. Several avenues for development have already emerged.
The ratio of 15% of individual positions should be revised upwards, because employees do not stay in meetings all day and occasionally need to isolate themselves to send an urgent e-mail or make phone calls. And, in non-reservable spaces, members of the same department sometimes have trouble finding each other (even if the meeting rooms do not have a door so that we can more easily have a look) and come together. The project team is considering setting up areas dedicated to a particular service to promote regroupings.
Operate by objective
These first steps also highlighted the need to deeply review work habits . However, PSA was not starting from scratch: the first agreement on the subject was signed with the unions in 2014, and last year, 18,000 employees around the world worked remotely, regularly or occasionally. A useful warm-up, but insufficient in the face of the paradigm shift demanded by the “new era of agility”.
“The first week, the groups arrived without rethinking their agenda,” reports Estelle Rouvrais. Employees isolated themselves in a corner to make audio meetings with collaborators located in the same building! They are now asked to reserve these audios as much as possible for home work phases, which is not easy when a project concerns several entities obeying different attendance schedules. Employees also need to better prepare for meetings, so that they are more effective. The objective is to limit their duration to forty-five minutes at most.
The shock is even more severe for field managers. While familiarizing themselves with the new room reservation tools, they should in theory devote the time spent in person to their role of team leader, which can end up making the days quite long. Above all, they need to learn to manage from a distance most of the time, by trusting their employees, and to operate by objective. On this subject, as everywhere, “there are those who are convinced and those who remain to be convinced”, summarizes a framework.
Difficulties put under the rug
The training courses for managers, which were being redesigned, were equipped with new modules. But, to judge the evolution of practices, we will have to wait: the experimentation period, already brief (two months), was shortened to four weeks due to the re-containment at the end of October. PSA has since switched back to precautionary teleworking, with employees having to spend as little time as possible at the office. In Poissy, only a handful of them are present on the plateau.
This situation helps to numb sensitive issues for the moment. Starting with that of the goodwill of employees: in France, teleworking cannot be imposed. And all employees do not necessarily want to work 70% at home, especially because they do not have the opportunity. “I am married to a childminder. Bad pick for teleworking! »Testified an employee in an investigation conducted by the CFE-CGC.
With the reconfinement, the subject is today put under the carpet. The management wants to be reassuring, however: “People who cannot or do not want to work at home, we will always welcome them,” says Estelle Rouvrais. Not necessarily in their home premises, but also in “third places”, which could be other sites of the group, or co-working spaces, the subject remains to be deepened.
Material and financial support
The unions admit mezza voce: overall, the employees are rather demanding. It is therefore mainly on safeguards (respect for volunteering, right to disconnect, management of schedules, etc.) and financial support for employees that their demands are made. After several consultation meetings since May (all in audio, of course), the management officially opened negotiations on December 1 so that this conversion to massive teleworking be the subject of an amendment to the “well-being and motivation” agreement. at work ”signed in early 2020.
During this meeting, “the company finally admitted that employees could benefit from financial and material assistance, whereas it had refused to do so until then”, welcomes Franck Don, of the CFTC. But the costed proposals will not be revealed until the next meeting, in early 2021. “To work properly at home, employees need at least to have an ergonomic chair, an additional screen and a helmet ”, Anh-Quan Nguyen list, for the CFE-CGC.
The 2014 agreement provided, for one day of teleworking per week, a reimbursement of installation costs of up to 150 euros, and 10 euros per month as participation in the costs of electricity, heating and Internet, recalls the elected. Like her colleagues, Anh-Quan Nguyen is calling for a substantial revaluation of these amounts and retroactivity for those who have invested in equipment since March, to support massive teleworking.
Review clause
Staff representatives also ask that the future rider be provided with a review clause after one year, in order to adjust the system if necessary. The management, for its part, ensures that it will be pragmatic: “We will take the time to ensure this transformation project,” Xavier Chéreau would have declared during the last central CSE, on December 16. In this great upheaval, the unions are also worried about the difficulties they will now encounter in maintaining contact with employees. “Informal tours in the premises to take the pulse will become extremely difficult”, fears an elected official. Another coward, fatalistic: “From now on, to organize a mobilization, we will have to get up early …”