Groupe PSA presents its new principles of working methods

“With the opportunity of the post-crisis paradigm change, we want to give more sense to our actions, to put the right energy in the right place at the right time, to use resources and time more responsibly. We are also anticipating, with the social partners, social and societal changes in line with our ambition to make the motivation and well-being of the Group’s employees a vector of performance for the company“. Xavier Chéreau, Director of Human Resources and Transformation of Groupe PSA.

In the context of the health crisis that the world is going through, the implementation of Groupe PSA’s intangible principle of “protecting employees and protecting the company” has led to the deployment of reinforced health measures in 100% of our industrial, tertiary, R&D and commercial sites worldwide.

The lessons learned from the general implementation of teleworking are helping to accelerate the transformation of the company’s operating methods in favour of greater agility and efficiency for employees.

From the start, Groupe PSA have adapted to the crisis by doubling its IT capacity in March 2020. This has enabled the rapid development of remote working (38,000 simultaneous connections to the Group’s global IT system in April compared to an average of 18,000 in the previous months). Thus, allowing management to ensure continuity in the steering of the company.

A precursor, the Group had already initiated the deployment of remote work. In 2019, nearly 18,000 employees regularly or occasionally adopted this mode of work (vs. 2,500 in 2016), representing 3 million teleworking hours and nearly 500,000 commute savings.

Given the positive experience and efficient measures already taken in the context of the Covid-19 crisis, Groupe PSA has therefore decided to strengthen teleworking and to make it the benchmark for activities not directly related to production.

This principle applies as of now within the framework of the progressive and safe restart of its offices, as well as commercial and R&D activities associated with measures to support the partial activity.

The Group is seizing this crisis as an opportunity to transform itself and re-shape a new company with 3 levers of acceleration:

the technological opportunities of digitalization and collaborative distance working tools already in place, which continue to develop and are changing the way we work
the lessons learned from the experimentation of remote working before the crisis, and during the crisis with the generalised use of telework (large-scale test)
the post-crisis paradigm shift with the reinforced need to give sense to our actions by consuming energy, resources and time even more responsibly.

In addition to distance working, the physical presence of employees in redesigned collaborative spaces will reinforce value-added interactions as well as collective energy. This will result in an on-site presence of ‘one to one’ and a half days per week, on average.

This project offers the dual benefit of a better work-life balance for employees concerned by a reduction in the frequency and duration of home-to-work commutes. It will also enable Group employees to increase their choice of living location with greater freedom of individual mobility.

It is also in line with the Group’s carbon neutrality approach through a reduction in its real estate footprint.

To make this change, the Group is pursuing its co-construction approach with the social partners. An approach that has already been undertaken as part of the agreement on motivation and well-being signed at the beginning of the year in France. This agreement is currently being rolled out internationally, to define what the company of tomorrow will be with its new methods and its rethought on collaborative spaces.

This structuring project will take place in 3 steps:

11 May – Post containment: priority is given to the protection of employees with the continuation of remote working as a reference. With this, is the possibility of going to the Group’s sites in limited numbers, in compliance with the protocol of reinforced sanitary measures for activities not directly linked to production. In this context, projects to regroup activities will be accelerated.
May – June – Co-construction with the analysis of lessons learned and efficiency levers (survey conducted on remote working and feedback from recent months):
Taking into account the specificities of the professions and the opportunities for accelerating digitalisation.
Identification of the needs for on-site visits and new associated uses to reinforce the complementarity of the collective on-site experience and the digital and remote experience.
Definition of new spaces (meeting, creation, learning and event spaces, more flexible and collaborative) and associated services.
Identification of complementary needs in digital tools (strengthening the use of video, remote team management tools, on-site space reservation, etc.).
Redefining the rules for remote and on-site work
Evolution of management modes
Coaching and training associated with these new ways of working
Summer 2020 – Implementation of new working methods and development of new spaces on the pilot sites of Poissy (centre of expertise), Vélizy, Carrières and Sochaux.

This international project will be deployed across all of Groupe PSA’s non production-related activities. Several working groups have already been set up around the world, for example in the Middle East and Africa region and in Latin America.