Since the beginning of the health crisis, we have conducted various campaigns to inform, reassure and raise the attention of our employees to the barrier gestures. Moreover, while the announcements made by health professionals and the government were contradictory at the time, we decided to equip our employees as soon as possible, with priority given to those in contact with the public, despite the supply difficulties.

When the confinement was announced, our role was to determine the functions essential to the functioning of the company among the sedentary personnel: Operations, of course, but also HR, Purchasing, QHSE, DSI… and we had to put part of our teams into partial unemployment. We had to manage the slowing down or even cessation of certain activities at our clients’ sites, but also in parallel with the increases in activity in certain sectors such as health, food processing and industry.

Given the high rate of absenteeism and enormous difficulties in recruiting, we then carried out a communication campaign via smartphone among our employees to offer those who wished to do so the opportunity to work more in order to alleviate this problem.

During the deconfinement, we had to organise the return to activity and put in place safety measures in coordination with the Quality, Health, Safety and Environment, Purchasing and General Services departments. We initially favoured home-working and then gradually returned to face-to-face work.

To date, some of our activities have not yet fully restarted: airports, aeronautics, events and hotels in particular. We are in the process of negotiating long-term partial activity agreements to enable employees in these sectors to continue to be compensated.

Employees’ representatives have an essential role in crisis situations. Our common ambition is the health and safety of all our employees. Therefore, at every step, before each new measure taken, and in all decisions, employee representatives have been consulted and fully involved.

We have launched free training, at distance via smartphone or tablet, on the new disinfection protocols for our on-site employees.

As part of the long-term partial activity agreements, our employees can take advantage of this period of partial activity to receive training thanks to the FNE-Formation*1 scheme or mobilise their CPF.

*¹: Since Tuesday 14 April 2020, the French State has been covering 100% of the educational costs of training courses taken by employees in partial employment through a relaxation of the criteria of the National Employment Fund (FNE)-Training. Objectives of this relaxation: not to make the company bear any additional costs, to prepare for the recovery, to combat the spleen of confinement, to meet the training obligation, to mobilise exceptional financing.

Confinement has taught us that many services can work well in home-working. We have used – and still use – new means of communication such as Teams, which were used very little before, to organise meetings, exchanges or even distance training! Today, even the most reluctant at first sight are convinced by home-working. The Group’s philosophy has changed in this area.

But I don’t think that 100% home-working is conceivable in the long term. Even if some companies are preparing for it, ATALIAN favours the social link between its employees and prefers the right balance between home-working and face-to-face work.

Of course, autonomy has been left to each department manager to organise it within his teams. To date, the average is 2 days of home-working per week. But the rule will obviously adapt to changes in the health context.

All our employees, whether they are sedentary or on site, have been behaving in an exemplary manner for several months now. The wearing of masks, social distancing and all other measures taken are respected and acquired. Several informative notes have been sent to all employees and a COVID referent has been appointed, which allows a better understanding of the procedures put in place.

Yes, of course, the Group does not live in a vacuum. Moreover, let us not forget that the masks were not initially considered compulsory by the Government. We have had a few isolated cases before confinement, most certainly linked to the inevitable close contacts in public transport. But since the recovery, we have limited the cases of contagion thanks to the measures taken very quickly within our premises, and to a very efficient process Symptomatic case / Contact case.