Sanctions for companies, the state of play in Europe and discrimination related to hybrid work

Telework: these (almost) impossible sanctions for the government

Companies that do not play the telework game could be penalised with a fine of 1,000 euros per employee concerned, up to a maximum of 50,000 euros. Are the sanctions decided by the government to ensure the reinforcement of telework really applicable?

Not really, according to this article in La Tribune, as the 2,000 or so labour inspectors are too few in number to deal with the nearly 150,000 companies (SMEs and groups) in the country. On the other hand, the application of the rule implies a clear and consensual definition of teleworkable jobs. It is therefore up to employers and labour inspectors to agree on this totally subjective issue.

Telework in Europe

What are the practices and representations associated with telework in Europe? Ifop conducted a survey in the 5 major countries of the continent (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom) on behalf of the Fondation Jean-Jaurès. Here are the key findings:

The French aspire more than their neighbours to a hybrid mode, balanced between telework and the office: the majority prefer 2 to 3 days a week of remote work rather than 4 to 5 days.

Although France is the country with the least amount of teleworking (34% of the working population), employees nevertheless aspire to more teleworking. Thus the frustrations of teleworking are exacerbated in France, as shown by the gap between the actual and desired frequency of teleworking (0.9 days).

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Discrimination, isolation: how to avoid the perverse effects of the hybrid organisation?

The introduction of hybrid working means that employers need to be aware of adverse effects, including discrimination: this article in the Harvard Business Review shows that black employees are seven times less likely to return to the office than white employees, because they want to escape a toxic work environment.

The author therefore suggests six solutions to curb the perverse effects of hybridisation in companies, in particular by :

• Educating managers to encourage hybrid work (and avoid the employee fearing the possible judgement of his or her remote-refractory n+1)
• Developing a data-driven culture to go beyond hunches: for example, analysing inter-team collaboration networks to coordinate their arrival or identifying at-risk employees and preventing their isolation.

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Offishall is an employee presence management solution that aims to support organizations in the implementation of the hybrid work mode - alternating between telework and face-to-face. Every day, the company allows thousands of users to know who is where when and therefore to find their way around the office (better). The Offishall Planning tool contributes to boosting the attractiveness of the structures by helping them to take up the great HR challenge of the decade: that of work flexibility.