In the wake of the global coronavirus crisis, telecommuting seems more than ever to be an effective solution to new health and environmental challenges. It's a radical change that will require profound changes in the way companies operate.
7%: that's the percentage of French people who said they teleworked, according to a survey carried out by the Direction de l'Animation de la Recherche, des Études et des Statistiques (DARES) in December 2004.
Sixteen years later, with the rise of the Internet and the arrival of new technologies, this figure has more than quadrupled. A recent study showed that 29% of employees (5.2 million people) said they now occasionally or regularly telework as part of their job (Etude Malakoff Mederic 2nde édition, télétravail : regards croisés salariés dirigeants, 2019). A significant increase that can also be observed from one year to the next, since the same study highlighted an increase of 700,000 more teleworkers (occasional and regular) between 2018 and 2019.
A developing practice
Although this practice is becoming increasingly widespread in France, few employees currently have a contract obliging them to telework. According to Malakoff Mederic's survey, only 6% of employees have a contractual obligation to telework.
The popularity of teleworking has been noted, but is not yet firmly established in French society. This phenomenon can be partly explained by the lack of action on the part of the French government in the field of digital innovation, a real springboard for the introduction of telecommuting. In fact, France only ranks 16th in the 2019 World Innovation Ranking, far behind the best performers in the leading pack, such as the United States, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
However, while telecommuting has been the talk of France for several years now, without really establishing itself in working habits, the coronavirus health crisis has, in one fell swoop, given particular importance to this way of working. For a long time, it was considered merely incidental, even utopian.
This new form of work, which represents a radical change in working habits for both employees and managers, is seen by some as embodying the new challenges of tomorrow's business world.
Teleworking: towards a new world of work?
First introduced in the 1950s in the USA, telecommuting has slowly developed in step with technological advances. In the 16th century, after a global health crisis unprecedented in the contemporary history of capitalism, and as humanity becomes increasingly aware of the climate challenge it faces, telecommuting seems to be one of the most sensible solutions.
Firstly, from a health point of view, telecommuting makes it possible to better manage the issue of social distancing, in order to avoid new crises linked to a virus spreading through a population. This new way of working also has environmental benefits, as it reduces the need for millions of people to travel, thereby cutting the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced each day. Limiting travel by car, but also by plane thanks to teleconference meetings, could also drastically reduce the impact of human activity on the climate.
For companies, this new way of working means that traditional organizational structures are overturned, whether in terms of time, space or action.
The company of tomorrow, with fewer employees to accommodate, could, for example, move away from the traditional open spaces born in the 90s, towards flex offices: premises with fewer desks than employees. As a result, there's no need to have a space for every employee. This reorganization of the company, made possible by telecommuting, could result in significant savings for companies, since rent for premises traditionally represents the second-highest item of expenditure, after salaries.
A population yet to be convinced
In his column in the second half of Quotidien (on TMC) on Thursday June 4, 2020, journalist Azzedine Ahmed Chaouch mentioned an astonishing paradox. Quoted by Les Echos and France Inter, two polls by the renowned Opinion Way institute contradicted each other within a few days of each other. The first indicated that a large majority of French people were happy with this new way of working. The second, much more pessimistic, indicated that nearly half of French employees were distressed by the new working environment. "The moral is that, depending on the question asked, you can make the figures say whatever you like," concluded the journalist on the set.
Although French employees seem convinced by this new form of work, which offers them greater flexibility in their personal lives and a gain in freedom, there are nonetheless certain reservations about this new work system. Issues such as the number of hours to be worked, isolation and the right to disconnect are at the forefront.
In reality, these two polls show that public opinion is not yet ready to really appreciate the value of telecommuting and the issues it raises. They do, however, show that the public is not entirely won over to the idea, and that a change in working status should be accompanied by certain essential social benefits, which French law has yet to define.
Faced with this new form of work, every company now has the choice of whether or not to implement telecommuting for its employees. When several employees are involved, the law advises company directors to regulate this form of work. By means of a charter drawn up as part of a collective agreement, they can regulate the conditions under which telecommuting can be used, and the ways in which it can be carried out. A way for employees and managers alike to derive maximum benefit from this new way of working. All in all, the main difficulty will remain getting this reform of the working system accepted in a country, France, regularly described as irreformable by its other European neighbors.
