Founder and CEO of the "Welcome to the Jungle" job search website, Jérémy Clédat puts workspaces at the heart of his mission. The 4-day week, adopted in 2019, has had a direct impact (for the better) on the way they have weathered the health crisis. Here are some explanations.
As specialists in recruitment issues, what role should the offices play?
A job description doesn't say much. Quite often, it's very similar to that of your competitors. To stand out from the crowd, you need to show the working environment. This is what gives recruits a true picture of the company, its philosophy and its approach. For that reason alone, Zoom cannot be the only working tool for the next 10 years! Of course, over and above the question of attractiveness, there are also the subject of teamwork and debating ideas. Covid highlighted the role of offices. "Why am I coming?" is a fundamental question that every company needs to answer. We are convinced that companies that know how to answer this question on the one hand, and how to manage teleworking on the other, have a very strong advantage when it comes to recruitment.
What difference does teleworking make to a newcomer?
Passive learning at work in the first few weeks is very importantBut episodes of confinement have changed that quite a bit. Take the example of a sales rep. When he talks to a customer on the phone, it's like fast-track training for a newcomer in the same office! With teleworking, a whole part of the training process has to be reinvented. That's why e-learning is growing rapidly in many sectors, to make up for what used to be learned on the job.
You have adopted the 4-day week in 2019. Has Covid strengthened your conviction about working hours?
Yes, Covid confirmed to us that having an extra day of decompression, in a context where we're all breathing hard, is essential. It also enabled us to deal well in advance with the issue of office use when some employees are at home, well before the confinements. Adapting spaces when 80 % of employees are at home, making them modular and attractive whether there are 50 or 10 of them... At Welcome to the Jungle, the higher you go, the more the spaces are designed for collaborative working. We had already taken teleworking very seriously, and identified the problem posed by hybrid meetings. Teleworking is intrusive, it highlights differences in lifestyle and travel time, and can create inequalities between those who are present and those who are at a distance, who fear being held back in their career progression. It's important to take the time to anticipate all this.
Jérémy Clédat - CEO of Welcome to the Jungle
