Large companies are on the rise in the post-Covid era because they offer more flexibility and take greater account of well-being at work, according to the French.
«Me, when I left school, bac+5, prepa, then EDHEC, I was selling photocopiers. It was hot, I was told I would land the moon and I fell from above. In the 90s, your employer told you that if you weren’t happy, there were ten who wanted your job. Now, the graduates maintain with the employers that if these last are not happy, there are ten companies which want to recruit it.“: this paradigm shift is described by Gaël Chatelain-Berry, speaker, writer, columnist and podcaster. A management specialist, Gaël Chatelain-Berry agrees with the findings of the study* by the recruiting firm PageGroup, titled: “What does the ideal job look like in May 2022?“. In 2019, PageGroup published a similar study that made SMEs the preferred type of business for the French. From now on, the French now want to work more in large groups (+15 points compared to 2019) rather than in an SME / VSE (-7 points).
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Faced with an uncertain future, the French are choosing security, in particular that offered by a permanent contract. PageGroup indicates in its study that 4 out of 5 French people would like to find a permanent position. But the real change lies in the types of companies targeted by the French: SMEs, which were popular before the pandemic, fell and lost 7 points compared to the 2019 survey. This finding is explained by the advantages that the French find in large companies: greater flexibility and better attention to the well-being of employees. These benefits can sometimes not be offered by SMEs / VSEs, for lack of means or time according to Gaël Chatelain-Berry. The columnist (who worked twenty years in large groups, such as Canal + or TF1, before devoting himself to well-being at work) describes this phenomenon as generational: good mental health at work has become essential for generations X, Y and Z. Indeed, the pandemic has given rise to burn-outs, arousing the concern of HRDs who are struggling to recruit in the face of the demands of candidates. “But let’s rejoice that there is this pressure from the candidates, which is much healthier by the way, and that the balance of power has reversedconcludes Gaël Chatelain-Berry.
The latter also points to another phenomenon: according to him, start-ups no longer make people dream as much. “It’s an entrepreneurial spirit specific to young people in their thirties, who present the company with table football and designer furniture, but in reality, behind the cool side, you work 15 hours a day and the managers during fundraising funds are not ready to take care of 200 people, whereas the team previously numbered 50 people.“, he advances. And Gaël Chatelain-Berry stresses that large companies on the contrary are able to train managers: it is clear that perceptions of the ideal job are changing and that the Covid is not for nothing, since the French have become familiar with teleworking, allowing them to further adapt their work from time. This flexibility is now perceived as a guarantee of quality and accompanies the desire for stability of the French.
*The French and employment, What does the ideal job look like in May 2022? (May 2022, PageGroup). Study carried out among 630 French workers, between January and April 2022, on their expectations in terms of employment in order to draw the contours of their ideal profession.