Do you know that in France since January 1, 2017 a new law has been in force in companies with more than 50 employees: the right to disconnect? The purpose of this measure is to fight the hyper-connection. In practice, how to do it?
According to a study by the firm ELEAS of September 2016, 37% of workers use professional digital tools outside working hours. According to the same study, 62% of workers demand regulation of professional digital tools. The idea of this new right is therefore clearly to limit the situations that lead employees to respond to professional solicitations at any time of the day and night.
How to implement this provision? The first step is to create a dialogue within the company so that the social partners, as close as possible to the practices of the employees, can agree. Article 55 of this French law stipulates that "failing agreement, the employer shall draw up a charter, after consultation with the works council or, failing that, with the staff delegates. This charter defines the procedural requirements of the exercise of the right to disconnect and furthermore provides for the implementation of training and awareness-raising actions on the reasonable use of Tools for employees, management staff and General Manager.” And in fact…
The manager must to apply this new right and guarantee it to its teams: a change in managerial practices and mentalities. Technical solutions have already been tested. For example Volkswagen disables the forwarding of e-mails to employee smartphones from 6:15 pm to 7:00 am the next day and since 2012. Actions to change employees' behavior are frequently tested (days without emails, Deleting the "Reply to all", etc.).
However, these initiatives do not address another issue. Born 50 years ago, even before the emergence of the Internet, e-mail was first and foremost a must for organizations, but its use alone is now unsuited to the working methods of the 21st century.
Now solutions offer more efficient and responsive management of information. Several initiatives, such as that of ATOS company via its "Zero email ™" program, prompt us to think about the prospects offered by the tools at our disposal. Collaborative platforms, instant messaging and soon artificial intelligence applications will naturally change our behavior. This transition offers considerable leverage for associating information sharing and well-being at work.
The 3200 companies and administrations equipped with the QHSE BlueKanGo software are able to customize the access and hours of use of the software, avoid e-mails by providing real-time dashboards, task managers and other custom-built workflows.
To go further on the theme of well-being at work I refer you to this web conference on the theme of "Well-being at work: individual and relational factors".
Crédit Photo : Fotolia.com
Tony COURTEL
No comment