In the aftermath of the Covid-19 health crisis, consulting group Accenture has embarked on an overhaul of the way work is organised at its French business. In addition to broadening use of remote work, which was already available up to two days a week before the pandemic (since 2010), the company has trialled allowing staff to distribute their working time freely over four, four-and-a-half or five days per week. Jacqueline Haver Droeze, human resources director for the group’s French subsidiary, which has 7,500 employees, spoke to Planet Labor about the rationale behind this initiative and the initial results it has yielded.
- What led Accenture to review the way work is organised?
We wanted to give employees greater flexibility in the way they organise their week. The employee experience is in our DNA. We wanted to meet the expectations of our employees and candidates by coming up with the best ways to make this flexibility possible. We started looking into the topic at the end of 2019, but Covid has enabled us to accelerate the change in our employees’ mindset. At Accenture, we have all the tools we need to work from home.
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