What the future of work will not be | Les Echos Start

Do you remember the "world after"? We don't hear much about it anymore. What about the “work after”? Is he also in danger of going discreetly out the door? Going back is no longer possible, hear many employees back in the office, still haggard after a forced telework cure, variously appreciated. Because it is clear that there is great heterogeneity in the way the crisis has been experienced by workers, whether they are on the front line, second line... or manager in a home office (depending on whether they have or not suitable furniture).

After a few weeks of resuming face-to-face for the most part, some employees are already talking about the dehumanization of work, while others praise the autonomy won thanks to events, and incidentally technology. The question goes beyond the way of working, but touches on the layout of the offices, the type of management and even raises the question of the type of company that will be privileged. These successive upheavals make you dizzy, to the point that it is difficult today to say with certainty what the world of work has in store for us in the coming months and years. While waiting for reality to draw the contours of this “work after”, we have chosen to bet on what it will not be… or more.

The mirage of 100% telework

“Six months ago, I thought that some companies were going to try 100% teleworking. Today, I note that it is very minority and reserved for some, like a part of the tech”, analyzes Benoît Serre, vice-president of the National Association of HRDs (ANDRH). He sees this as an extreme and devastating modality for motivation. An observation shared by Lila *, employee of an American company based in Paris, in “full remote” since March 2020: “I have the impression that the week looks like a long continuous day of work interspersed with nights. »

Apec studies show that this exacerbated telework has been accompanied by an increase in the workload, particularly for managers and young executives. Not to mention those (and especially those) who are forced to work staggered hours to make up for the time spent managing children or other domestic chores. Also according to Apec, nearly half of the executives encountered difficulties in balancing professional and personal life during the third confinement, during which distance was compulsory.

Read also:

Read also: Telecommuting: 4 emerging trends in the post-covid era

One point had perhaps been underestimated before the crisis: the social role of the company. According to a YouGov survey for the office development firm CDB, 67% of French people say that the workplace represents a space for private life outside the family unit. “The company is not only production, management. It is also human relations and socialization between colleagues necessary for the development of employees, “insists Benoît Serre, also HRD at L’Oréal France. A particularly attested situation among young people (74%), “a public who does not always live in community at home”, recalls Camille Dupuy, sociologist of work at the University of Rouen Normandy.

“The effects of teleworking on employees are not yet really analyzed at the present time, recalls for her part Cathel Kornig, sociologist of work and associate member of the Laboratory of economics and sociology of work of Aix-Marseille University. What we do know is that with the health crisis, working conditions have deteriorated, as has the state of mental health of individuals. “Result, after months of teleworking (but also of confinement and an anxiety-provoking climate), 2 million employees would be in a situation of severe burn-out, according to the seventh barometer, published in May, by the firm specializing in psychosocial risks Human Footprint. This is a doubling over one year.

In terms of motivation, according to an Ifop study for PageGroup, more than three out of five HR decision-makers think that the productivity of employees working from home has not increased. But, proof of the confusion of the period, according to a Kantar survey for the Observatoire du management published in March 2021, 74% of employees say they are "very committed to their company's project", up 7 points from compared to 2019.

Read also:

Read also: Teleworking: GAFA oscillate between firmness and flexibility

Another problem posed by “full remote” is the “onboarding” of new arrivals. They land in a company whose codes they do not know and take time to build relationships with their colleagues. Even for those who know the company, everything gets complicated from a distance. “It's hard to network or promote someone you never see! “, raises Alexia de Bernardy, author of the” 130 Golden Rules for better collaborating remotely “.

To which model?

Nevertheless, it is clear that a step has been taken and that teleworking will not be excluded from the world of tomorrow. The employees, just like the managements, rather ask for a mix. Let's take just one example that attests to these developments: the automobile, via the two French flagships Renault and PSA, which have made telework permanent around two to three days a week, where it was possible... And even in the factories, let the manufacturer know at the diamond. For its part, on its Poissy site, PSA is transforming the traditional open space into collaborative spaces conducive to interaction and creativity, using interactive whiteboards, for example. The goal is to maintain the social bond between employees and to put an end to the long plateau with its row of offices where employees are alone in front of their computer, the helmet screwed on the head.

Read also:

Read also: "The hybridization of remote and face-to-face is the new norm"

Teleworking has become essential for certain departments, which see it, among other things, as a means of reducing their real estate footprint. “Companies are even thinking about how to reconfigure jobs to finally make them eligible for teleworking”, assures Benoît Serre.

Naturally, not all boxes are - alas - so advanced. “On teleworking, there are still companies where employees cannot telework on Monday or Friday, because they are suspected of going on vacation… which says a lot about mistrust”, nuance Camille Dupuy.

Bye bye presenteeism…

Teleworking has shattered managerial practices that are sometimes very encysted. But for how long ? Admittedly, the storm was strong. Overnight, managers no longer had any visibility (in the primary sense) of their troops, forced to take their word for it that the Excel spreadsheet was running at full capacity. Small consolation: the possibility of scrutinizing the color of the connection light of their collaborators. With the return to face-to-face, all the scenarios are on the table as to the trajectory that French management will take.

With the generalized open space, we had integrated the idea of working under the supervision of our manager (and our colleagues). In France more than in other European countries, you felt obliged to stay late, not to leave before your manager for fear of being accused of flanking. If this famous presenteeism has taken on new forms in the age of distance, it has nevertheless taken the lead in the wing. The ANDRH anticipates a double evolution, on the one hand under the effect of new work habits (flex office, telework, etc.) which will give greater autonomy to employees, and on the other hand under the generational effect. “New managers who are in their thirties are more aware of this subject,” believes Benoît Serre.

“Wow! “, we would be tempted to let go. Alexia de Bernardy recalls that, seven times out of ten, an employee resigns because of his boss (and not his company), and the younger generations will accept less presenteeism after having carried out their missions in the most total autonomy. For the author of "130 Golden Rules for better remote collaboration", this new manager will have to develop three key skills to delight them: knowing how to keep the link at a distance (learning to plan informal time and "icebreakers" at the start meeting, for example); constantly sharing the meaning behind all these emails, Zoom and other PowerPoints; and finally dealing with uncertainty, both in the daily lives of customers and employees and in the future of the market.

Three weeks after the end of compulsory teleworking, where are the managers of these achievements? Probably still a long way off. Nevertheless, 60% of employees believe that, "overall, management in their company has progressed over the past year", according to a recent study by the Management Observatory. “It is certain that presenteeism will continue to decline, but certainly not in a snap of the fingers”, nuance Benoît Serre. However, if this prophecy comes true, changing management practices alone will not be enough. The hierarchical pyramid of companies will also have to be rethought, even crushed. If the model is no longer based on monitoring or coercion but rather on commitment, managers will see their role redefined.

What the future of work will not be | Les Echos Start

"Massive distribution companies, like Leroy Merlin, have begun this shift towards the crushing of management, but some banks or insurance companies are still very hierarchical...", adds the vice-president of ANDRH, for who this change will not happen without an overhaul of the pyramidal approach to careers: “With less hierarchy, it will be necessary to value horizontal paths more. »

… and “acute meetingitis”

Since teleworking is no longer the norm, meetings have become hybridized. First in their terms of participation: some are now on site while others are remote. “This hybridization is not easy to manage for managers, underlines Caroline Diard, teacher-researcher in management and human resources at EDC Paris Business School. You have to be able to share speaking time, not leave some on the sidelines, not miss questions… It's a real challenge! »

These new possibilities, unthinkable more than a year ago, also rearrange the schedules. No more digital micro-meetings that go on all day long… Not that they are without advantages, as Caroline, 28, communicator and fan of telecommuting, reminds us: “Remote meetings are shorter: we get to the point! But there was also the "Zoom fatigue", which we want to get out of. Because repeated videoconferences increase the stress of the teleworker, according to a recent study from Stanford University. When they don't add an extra workload. “You have to prepare them and report them. So a question that could have been tackled in five minutes at the office turns into three hours of work,” explains Anna*, 39, an executive in a large insurance group.

“Before the crisis, when we needed to exchange, the reflex was to go see the colleague, the manager. The new reflex with distance learning is to organize a meeting”, analyzes Caroline del Torchio, director at the consulting firm Identity HR and co-author of “10 Keys to prepare my company for remote work” (Eyrolles, January 2021). And after ? “We are planning a collective meeting on the day of the week when we are all together in the office”, explains Delphine, who is in full remote in her company HCR Emploi, a recruitment platform based in Lyon.

Read also:

Read also: Future of Work: meaning and recognition, the keys to tomorrow's work

For telework specialist Caroline Diard, this is “most likely” the model we are heading towards: 100% human meetings on site from time to time and other 100% virtual ones in telework. “The employees make sure to be there on the day of the big meeting. This is what happened before in pioneering companies in telework, ”notes the teacher-researcher. A way to optimize discussion times, without falling into the pitfalls of the past: lengthy, useless and soporific meetings. “With video, we no longer see each other, but in physics, we see each other better! sums up Frank Zorn, founder of Deskeo, a real estate operator of flexible offices.

To juggle between the two in an optimal way, new technological tools are becoming our best friends. And in the sector, innovation does not stop. First, there are the new features that are flourishing (unusual meeting rooms, live transcription, etc.) on Teams, Zoom, Meets, Webex and others. New, more avant-garde players are betting on 3D, like Room, which promises to "teleport" you from your living room to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean or to the Salle des sessions of the Institut de France. (recreated with the molding close). Or even Didimo, which makes it possible to model, from a simple selfie, human faces in 3D in less than 90 seconds. So realistic it's almost scary.

The start-up La Vitre has invented an intelligent screen on which you knock to make a participant appear remotely. It almost acts as a hologram: the person is present virtually but full length. With up to five simultaneously interconnected screens, the product has won over major groups such as Natixis, Capgemini and Engie. Meanwhile, Microsoft is developing a real hologram service, Mesh, whose significant slogan is “Here can be anywhere”. To make your colleagues or objects appear in your living room, you will need to be equipped with HoloLens glasses and… 6G.

Finally, what about the gaming track. Will our meetings tomorrow be studded with avatars pimped as we please? Or will we be equipped with virtual reality headsets to live an interactive experience together (even if we are next to the office)? Without going any further, it is very likely that not all of these technologies will suit everyone or all corporate cultures.

The end of boring recruiting?

In terms of recruitment, the changes are profound. “If we compare recruitment five years ago to what it will look like in five years, everything will have changed,” predicts Eric Gras, labor market specialist for the Indeed France platform. The Indeed solution for companies has just removed the CV and cover letter from its recruitment process. “Fewer and fewer recruiters are asking for it,” confirms Jérôme Blanc, manager at Robert Half.

Recruiters are increasingly interested in the personality and soft skills of candidates, that is to say, human skills, observes Laura Furioli, senior manager at the recruitment firm Robert Half. "In 'scarcity' positions, they will become less and less attached to the diploma and the school", indicates the consultant. “Conversely, video CVs are becoming more democratic. Recruiters like it because they can analyze the non-verbal communication of applicants,” according to the Robert Half manager.

Few recruiters will now resist the temptation to conduct the first interview(s) by video, to finally meet - in person - only the candidates on the short list. A time saver for everyone. The ANDRH also notes a growing diversification of the sourcing of candidates, in particular on social networks, whether on TikTok (the SNCF, the chains of temp agencies Proman and Synergie, System U, etc.), on the streaming platform Twitch (like Manpower) or even, more surprisingly, on the Tinder dating application (Proman). The interest? To be able to reach young people and, with sponsored campaigns, to precisely target the public likely to be interested.

Read also:

Read also: TikTok, new hunting ground for recruiters

Beyond the method, it is the message and the values conveyed by the employer brand that are changing rapidly to match the new expectations of candidates. Starting with… telecommuting. “Employees no longer want to return to a 100% face-to-face model. Consequence: recruiters who do not offer teleworking will deprive themselves of candidates, ”said Benoît Serre, of ANDRH. “Some companies are starting to adopt what has been done for a long time in Silicon Valley. Over there, wage escalation also has its limits and to get out of the game, you have to play on other arguments, mainly well-being and the balance between professional and personal life, almost offering a tailor-made organization », adds Eric Gras.

Thus, companies (still quite rare) offer their employees unlimited holidays or even four-day working weeks. In France, the company Adobe has extended parental leave by ten weeks compared to legal obligations, it also offers free training on demand or even a day off every three weeks since May 15. Initiatives are beginning to emerge all over the world offering menstrual leave to alleviate painful periods.

The risk of overbidding could lead to forgetting the fundamentals. Because if we are to believe the twelfth edition of the Randstad Employer Brand Research study, published at the end of May, the priorities of the French remain salaries, for 65% of them, and career prospects (53%). But for Nicolas Brusson, co-founder and CEO of BlaBlaCar, traditional levers will no longer be sufficient in the future, and he calls for a democratization of employee share ownership. “If you want a member of your team to have as much determination, initiative, commitment as if the company belonged to them, then make sure that it partly belongs to them. BlaBlaCar also indicated in mid-June that 100% of employees could become shareholders. A way to attract more talent for the company, which plans to recruit 260 people in 2021.

With the crisis, employee engagement has become the new holy grail for employers. If the crisis of meaning was not born with the pandemic, the period has clearly exacerbated it, especially among white collar workers. And opened a whole reflection on the social utility of work and its place in our lives. To caricature: what good is designing advertisements for superfluous products when the world is collapsing? Has the pandemic sounded the death knell for “bullshit jobs”? “The crisis has moved collective and individual values, explains Elodie Chevallier, consultant and researcher at CNAM. The division between essential and non-essential activities has many people wondering. »

Autonomy regained

While waiting for this debate, both philosophical and economic, to be settled, more and more workers have opted for independence or entrepreneurship, like Claire*. For this 38-year-old trainer, who taught for ten years in college, leaving National Education was a way to reclaim time. If she says she is still attached to the values of public service, she admits having felt “Discredited” during the pandemic. "I lost the sense of my commitment and I found it again thanks to my new project", she explains. It is therefore recorded: at the start of the next school year, she will launch her business, a consulting firm to facilitate the inclusion of disabled workers in SMEs. "Acting positively, being close to the first concerned, seeing the impact and the sustainability of what I undertake", this is how she hopes to give meaning to her work.

When it is not suffered, this choice can be a solution to "do your work in good conditions" without inflicting a noisy open space, an unfair manager, customers whose values you do not share, says Elodie Chevallier . And the researcher specifies: “Poor working conditions are the first cause of the loss of meaning. »

So do you have to leave the company to find it? Not sure. In “L’Empire du sens” (Editions Eyrolles, 2020), the economist Mickaël Mangot draws up a typology of initiatives that managers and HR managers can put in place to restore the sense of purpose to their work. In its toolbox, there are solidarity actions, such as pro-social pots (bonuses that can be donated to colleagues in difficulty or about to leave, or even RTT donations, solidarity leave, for example) and arrangements for sharing skills between employees.

This generosity can also be exercised outside the company with skills sponsorship. This system of making voluntary employees available to associations should continue to develop, according to Agathe Leblais, the general manager of Pro Bono Lab, which supports companies in their commitment policy: "We hope that this commitment will be able to enable companies to transform their business model. And therefore to better correspond to the rising values linked to the subjects of environmental and social impact. "There is a generation effect: commitment and the search for meaning will increase, it is in the interest of companies to think about it," she predicts.

The definition of the meaning of work is above all individual, however, insists Anaïs Georgelin, the founder of somanyWays, a support program to “give meaning back to work”. According to her, companies also have an interest in recruiting managers capable of having “an analytical finesse because, in the era of individualization, management is haute couture. Especially since not all employees in crisis have the financial or mental resources to reorient themselves. “The quest for meaning can be scary,” recognizes Claire, who concludes: “It must be a lever, not an anxiety-inducing injunction. »

*Names have been changed.