Interview

Meeting with Sylvain Morellet, Director of Human Resources at Ellisphere

Sylvain Morellet

How has Ellisphere organized itself to meet the challenges of containment?

Like many companies, we lacked visibility on the extent of the health crisis. A few days before the government's announcement, we convened an emergency meeting of our crisis team, consisting of our president and the directors of production, organization, information services and human resources. These meetings enabled us to develop a governance plan and coordinate actions to deal with this unprecedented situation.

Our continuity plan was the cornerstone of our organization. We did not want to ensure a minimum of business continuity, but rather to optimize our work processes to ensure optimal performance of our teams.

On the Friday before the lockdown was announced, we told our employees who were equipped with mobile phones to take their equipment with them that evening. We were then very quickly committed to the implementation of teleworking. For several months, this approach had been under study and had led to a company agreement whose test phase was to begin in March!

The suddenness of the announcement of the lockdown therefore accelerated the process and generalized it to all employees, when the situation allowed.

 

How did the implementation of this new organization go?

To deal with the urgency of the situation, we had to be very responsive.

Our services have studied the situation of each employee in order to consider the feasibility of the organization, the changes in activity loads, the possible partial activities and to identify the consequences on the teams, collectively or individually.

In this context, the aim was to allow the work to continue or to take alternative measures. Difficulties were identified for some (remote management, working conditions, psychosocial risks), so the support of managers was central to the effective implementation of this organization.

We have also strengthened our internal communication system to ensure that all employees have access to comprehensive information tailored to their situation, including for those on suspension from their contract (illness, childcare, short-time working, etc.).

We wanted to limit isolation or loss of contact as much as possible. We also had to give meaning to the measures taken to deal with this crisis. To do this, weekly discussions were held with the employee representative bodies to ensure ongoing social communication.

 

How was the return of the employees to the company planned?

When the decommissioning was announced, we defined the way forward in a concerted manner. Our policy was to pursue telecommuting as much as possible to follow the government's recommendations and maintain social distancing.

However, for those who could not telework or whose telework became very difficult to maintain, we organized a gradual and secure return. In order to begin the return of employees with peace of mind , numerous measures were taken to promote the safety of all: application of sanitary organization rules, distribution of protection kits, daily disinfection actions, adaptation of workstations, etc. This information was communicated widely in order to reassure employees about the situation.

In addition, a consultation process between the elected members of the Works Council, management and all employees has been set up to take into account the concerns of each person and specific situations. Indeed, the desire to return to one's usual work environment may come up against the fear of finding oneself in a risky situation. Our job was therefore to reassure and prepare for the return, which will take place gradually. The work in this respect is not finished, as we have to consider several options.

 

What do you retain from this unprecedented situation?

If I had to pick out one element, I would mention the commitment and resilience of our employees from the start of the containment phase. Our social barometer had already identified this as a characteristic of our internal human values; the crisis has reinforced it even more.

In addition, our ability to react collectively and adapt quickly to this unprecedented situation was a real satisfaction. However, even if teleworking was able to be applied in a massive and efficient way, it remains that this type of crisis organization is difficult to perpetuate.

In the future, we will have to distinguish between the possible and the desirable. Drawing lessons from this period to develop our organization is the challenge that awaits us. This is a project that we have just begun and in which we will involve our employees extensively.

The situation remains complex and delicate. The pandemic has imposed a total confinement for 2 months and a partial confinement for 4 weeks. In order to meet the challenges, the company has fulfilled its security obligation and taken the necessary operational measures. Nevertheless, this situation generates a high level of anxiety in several respects.

By introducing imposed telework, the confinement has blurred the lines between professional and private environments, with some people experiencing a degraded mode, overwork or, on the contrary, a feeling of uselessness, especially in case of partial activity.

Deconfinement, and the potential return to work sites that it implies, leads employees to question the risk they run and the confidence they can have in the safety rules implemented by the company or in their travels if they take public transport.

Ellisphere has integrated all of these elements into its approach:

  • Reminding managers of the fundamentals of remote management and crisis management
  • By adapting its communication to the situations of each one and in time
  • By regularly surveying all its employees and managers on their situation and their feelings
  • By engaging in a strong consultation process with the IRP
  • Ensuring strengthened governance of the situation for full consistency of actions taken so that the instruction line is clear and understood.
  • By starting to think about the future.

 

Let's remember that in some languages, including Chinese, the word crisis evokes both an attack and an opportunity. We have this ability to bounce back and look to new horizons, and here again the resilience of our teams is the key. The company's human values, which allow us to combine efficiency and benevolence, are fully reflected here.