Highlight initiatives that provide concrete and reproducible responses to societal, economic, social and ecological problems: the initiative is launched by the NGO Reporters of Hope and relayed by some 50 media, including Franceinfo. Among the projects identified by this day devoted to solution journalism, the start-up Alan. It stands out for its organization in terms of human resources.
Alan is an independent health insurance 100% online, which notably reimburses meditation sessions. The start-up has just become a unicorn, meaning that it is worth more than a billion dollars, when it is only six years old. If it was chosen by the NGO Reporters of Hope as a model to be reproduced, it is for its management. Indeed, at Alan, there are no leaders and no meetings. The salary grid is transparent and you take as much leave as you want. And don’t even talk about working hours, there aren’t any!
If there is no leader as such, each employee has on the other hand a coach. This is a slightly older employee in the company. Its role is to support the employee in his development. There are still, of course, people who make decisions. Each project thus has its “owner”, that is to say its referent. The latter is responsible for making the final decision, but must first have expressed his point of view and obtained the opinions of other stakeholders.
There are also no meetings at Alan’s. Everything therefore takes place in writing, on the Github platform. This allows everyone to have access to all the information, when and where they want. Some people access it from a location other than their office since, at Alan’s, 30 of the 430 employees work abroad, at home or in a coworking space. The idea of being in the office is quite relative. You can take as many leaves as you want, provided you get organized with your colleagues.
Finally, salaries are completely transparent since the start-up has defined a salary scale by level and years of experience which is naturally public. There are nine levels and each has a salary. When you are hired, you are placed at a level and then, every six months, a committee of three people with whom the employee works takes stock. The Alan model inspires more and more young companies.