Six years after the launch of the transformation to "liberate energies," numerous changes have taken place: engagement and skill development are increasing, and the culture of initiative is spreading, particularly through adapted Lean management and participative innovation. How to continue moving forward and further embed autonomy and transformation levers?
By experimenting even more! This time, Patrick wants to test how a team would react to almost complete autonomy. However, the idea of testing self-management of schedules and working hours itself was proposed by an employee, posted on ID'Nov, the participative innovation platform launched in 2015, which we discussed here.
"It's in trust that performance is born." - Slogan of the assured services platform
A manager volunteered to take things to the next level within her team. What prompted her to rethink the management of her team? Rather poor numbers: 30% turnover and 14% short-term absenteeism. Thus, the 65 people in charge of handling calls and emails from policyholders transformed their functioning.
To pave the way for informed autonomy, the concerned Direction, worried about the team's performance, discussed it with the team and suggested starting with a learning expedition before fully diving into the experimentation. This allowed them to interact with teams experiencing complete autonomy daily and envision their new functioning. The Direction asked the team to designate three people who, along with two union representatives, would visit IMA Technologies in Nantes. Only after exchanging with them and digesting their testimony could the team design its new mode of operation, largely based on freely managing schedules and working hours.
"On our return, in the evening, our wagon was like a boiling pot of ideas and desires. Everyone was infected. An extremely unruly wagon and difficult for passengers next to us. It was euphoria." - Christelle
Certainly, the manager was a driving force in this transformation. However, it still required her to evolve into a coaching role... an evolution she managed with flying colors, despite years of career at CPAM Yvelines "pre-transformation"! No specific support, except for her exchanges with Imatech.
The first step toward autonomy was Farid's proposal to collectively improve the "listening grids", which verify the platform's quality objectives. It took them two months to find an organization that worked for everyone, where some could arrive later in the morning, others leave earlier to pick up their children from school. The only constraint is the team's opening and closing hours regulated by the National Fund. Schedules are established for the month. In case of conflict, the manager informs them so they can find a solution among themselves, and if really no solution is found (which is rare), the manager decides.
"I was delighted with the trust we could be given. It brought me satisfaction. Being able to knock on the door of my managers, including the director of customer relations." - Farid
But the real baptism by fire was the management of summer vacations! Everyone could take their vacation as they saw fit, and activity management happened quite naturally.
The results are incredibly encouraging: 90% of calls answered (compared to 75% before the experiment), short-term absenteeism has dropped by 30% in a year, and the response rate within 48 hours has also increased. To date, although absenteeism has slightly increased, it remains far from the levels reached before this experiment. Employees are autonomous in managing the activity (in case of call peaks, they spontaneously pick up the phone) and in managing time, including break and lunchtime. However, the activity does not allow extending autonomy to other tasks.
This initiative is not so isolated within CPAM: this type of dynamic is increasingly driven, which helps to put into perspective the dependence of the transformation and its various initiatives on the personality of the leader, here Patrick Negaret.
