Teleworking in France “is not going to disappear”, but “get organized”, assures a HR representative

Companies, like Amazon or Ubisoft, are calling on their employees to return to face-to-face work and to telework less or even no longer.

Teleworking in France “won’t disappear”, but “to organize”assures Benoît Serre, vice-president of the national HRD association on Friday September 27, while the trend in the United States is a return to face-to-face work for employees. This is the case, for example, of Amazon, which is asking its employees to return to its offices full time. Or Ubisoft which faces a three-day strike in October to protest against the end of teleworking.

“It’s a step backwards compared to full-time teleworking”specifies Benoît Serre. “I don’t believe that in France, we are going to go back.”even if French management is very attached “historically” to the presence of employees within the company. On the other hand, agreements on teleworking “are triennialhe specifies, they are coming to an end, they are being renegotiated” with the unions. But “it’s more a matter of organization than a matter of restriction”he reassures.

franceinfo: Are French companies tempted by the return of face-to-face work?

Benoît Serre: Much less. Quite simply because very few French companies have gone completely teleworking. In France, 80% of companies that use teleworking do so a maximum of 2 to 3 days per week. There is relatively little full-time teleworking in France in reality. In the United States, this is a step backwards from full-time teleworking.

Teleworking necessarily requires an agreement?

In France, you can introduce teleworking in two ways, either with an agreement, and in this case, to remove it, you need a new agreement and that is not the most obvious thing to obtain. Or by a charter. The employer decides, alone without the unions, to implement teleworking because it has been a right in France since 2016.

What has teleworking changed in companies?

We identified two quite interesting things. A study in the United States shows that people receive less pay or less promotion when they work remotely all the time. Furthermore, in France, there were fewer short-term sick leaves when people were teleworking. There are pros and cons. On the other hand, it is true that there is quite strong demand, particularly in urban areas, since teleworking is first and foremost a transport advantage. Then, it gives the real feeling of greater autonomy in the work. This is the main expectation of people. If the company manages to put in place less hierarchical, less controlled operating and management models, then teleworking loses some of its attractiveness for people.

Is this return to teleworking a desire by certain management to regain control?

Yes, we must not lie, you have a certain number of managements which are very reluctant to telework. Above all, France has, in Europe, a historically very face-to-face model. Management attached more importance to the fact that people were there than to the fact that people were working. Therefore, there is a kind of feeling of loss of authority. Among the arguments that Ubisoft gives is that all teleworking still harms the collective functioning of the organization. I don’t believe that in France, we are going to go back. It’s not going to disappear, on the other hand, it’s going to be organized for an extremely simple reason, the agreements are three-year and therefore they are coming to an end. They are being renegotiated. It’s more a matter of organization than a matter of restriction. On the other hand, the fact that we are organizing it and stopping a little “open bar” teleworking as we knew it, gives people the feeling that their rights are being reduced. No, we organize it.

Isn’t there a risk that companies will have difficulty attracting new generation workers?

It is certain that a company which completely eliminates teleworking when it has installed it two or three days a week could have a recruitment and retention problem in particular. You are going to have someone who will come back even if there is no teleworking, because you have to find a job, and then they will find another job with teleworking. At that point, he might probably leave. Those who have tasted teleworking in some way find it difficult to go back. The real important issue is to rethink the organizational systems of companies and management, to reduce hierarchical levels and then to give a little more freedom and autonomy to people when possible.

What does teleworking represent in France?

For France, between 25 and 30% of employees have a job that allows them to work remotely. Everyone else doesn’t have one. In the case of Amazon, a whole portion of Amazon’s 300,000 employees cannot telework. When you have management who are partially or totally teleworking, and then lots of teams who are not necessarily, that unbalances the functioning of the company a little. This must also be taken into consideration.