The year 2020 was full of many challenges, including ensuring safe working conditions for our employees in the face of the health crisis. Thanks to the organisation already in place and their collective ability to adapt, we were able to overcome them together.
Always open to innovation
Since the time we came into existence 70 years ago, we have always strived to provide the best possible working conditions for each of our employees. This involves initiatives like, but not limited to, training, continuous upgrade of equipment and improvement in the ways of working by leveraging the latest technologies. This has allowed us to evolve from a 100% paper approach of the 1950’s, to desktops, and from desktops to laptops, whose efficiency and practicality are now helping us gradually turn to zero paper and a flex office organisation – a new and evolved way of working that is more flexible, open, conducive to teamwork and homeworking at the same time.
Indeed, thanks to the systematic digitalisation of our processes, we’re able to allow a large proportion of our employees to work from home or in a much more flexible manner. As a result, even when they’re physically away from their offices, they can continue to carry out their day-to-day tasks while maintaining a strong connection with their colleagues, as well as with our clients and partners. This also allows them to benefit from a better work-life balance.
A health crisis that forced the world to review its working methods
Thanks to this progress, we were able to adapt almost immediately when the health crisis hit, to preserve the health and safety of all our employees while ensuring the continuity of our activities. In all the countries where we are present, we put in place specific action plans to respond to this exceptional situation. Homeworking became the general rule for a large majority of our employees, to whom we provided the necessary equipment and organised online trainings on remote working and management to help them navigate this change.
During the most acute phase of the crisis, 95% of our employees worked from home. For the few teams that had to go to the offices to ensure the continuity of certain activities that could not be done remotely, we did everything to facilitate and secure their commute and the time at the office (with, depending on the country, reimbursement of taxi fares, delivery of meal trays, etc.).
Be it during or post the lockdown, specific health measures are applied across our premises: wearing of masks, more frequent cleaning and disinfection, use of sanitiser gel, regulatory distance between desks, etc. Everything is done to make our employees feel safe.
Employees who feel supported
In the interest of ensuring their well-being, we conducted internal surveys to find out how they had been feeling during the crisis. 89% of our employees said they were satisfied with their working conditions and 90% felt they were well-connected to their teams during this difficult period. More than 9 out of 10 employees said they had received the support they needed. *
The health and safety of our 3,600 employees is and always has been our top priority. Thanks to our digital transformation programme and the collective unwavering mobilisation, we were able to reconcile security and business continuity in our 20 countries throughout the health crisis.
*Results of an internal survey sent in April 2020 to our 3,600 employees
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We support our employees throughout their careers around three essential pillars: integration, training and development.