Alexandre Collinet has been Deputy Managing Director of Leboncoin for 9 years, in charge of HR and finance. In almost a decade, he has seen his company's workforce grow 100-fold. This rock and PSG fan explains how Leboncoin has retained its corporate culture despite its strong growth.
Alexandre Collinet
What's your 'recipe' for transmitting your corporate culture, despite your strong growth in headcount?
9 years ago, there were 9 of us. Today there are 900. To maintain unity, people have to meet. We've done away with coffee machines on every floor and instead created two large cafeteria-bars around which company life is organised. They serve as a "village square" where everyone can meet.
We also work entirely in a dynamic environment.
But it's not a wild flex office: we're organised by anchor points/business zones. The dynamic environment means we can talk to each other a lot more, be more agile and have direct access to management. It also leaves more room for bubbles, agoras (we have two), meeting spaces and so on.
When we're trying to recruit penurious profiles (developers, etc.), we systematically end with a visit to the premises and a tour of the rooftop, even though the real motivation always comes from the assignments. That helps tip the balance in our favour.
"We really need to let our employees take ownership of our corporate culture. They are the ones who bring it to life, enrich it and perpetuate it.
Proximity is one of your values. How do you put this into practice on a day-to-day basis?
It's a real managerial bias. When I arrived, nine years ago, there were only techies. I might as well tell you that the managerial/financial profile was not the stuff of dreams. I integrated through music: we formed a group where I played guitar. I was nicknamed "DAF Punk".
We've kept that spirit. You have people who come together out of passion and we encourage spontaneous initiatives. When the works council was set up, I insisted that we give priority to collective initiatives rather than gift vouchers. Today, you have groups who train at lunchtime. We've bought them equipment so they can rehearse (amps, etc.). You've also got people organising boxing classes, film screenings and so on. You really have to let the employees take ownership of the corporate culture. They are the ones who bring it to life, enrich it and perpetuate it. Digital technology supports all this. On Slack (editor's note: a company network), we have groups based on passion (role-playing games, metal, etc.) that keep these communities and events alive.
To prevent people from remaining in a closed circuit, we also organise inter-team "lunch dating" in local restaurants, giving them the chance to mix with people they wouldn't otherwise have spoken to. Meeting and talking to colleagues is still the best way of retaining talent.
I also think it's important to keep in touch with management. Every 15 days, we organise an integration breakfast with the new arrivals and Comex. And every month, we have a breakfast between 8 people who sign up and a member of Comex. This also helps us managers to keep our feet on the ground.
We really need to let our employees take ownership of our corporate culture. They are the ones who bring it to life, enrich it and perpetuate it.
"It's been two years now since we moved into the former BETC offices (rue du Faubourg Saint-Martin). To choose the location of our future offices, we mapped the addresses of all our employees. The result was a triangle between Gare du Nord - Les Halles - République. In addition to the head office, we have two other buildings that house employees. We've made sure that each one is less than 10 minutes' walk from the others, so that our employees can still meet up with each other.
"We have long been reluctant to telework. One of our values is proximity. But teleworking takes you away from your colleagues and erodes the corporate culture. If you want to preserve that culture, especially when you're recruiting 100-120 people a year, you need to have the old hands physically present to share their experience.
When Marissa Mayer joined Yahoo, she called back all the people who were teleworking. This was the norm in the company and it was catastrophic for her performance. It's vital to be able to meet your teams in person. On a personal note, I was once offered a very well-paid position as CEO. But it was a long way from home. It was suggested that I telework 2-3 days a week. But how can you be a CEO from a distance? You have to be able to see the people who work with you when you're a manager! I said no.
We banned teleworking until 1 January 2019. Now, even though we've authorised it, it's very tightly controlled: you can only telework on Tuesdays or Thursdays and no more than one day in the week."
