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Category: Employer Brand

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Employer branding Job mobility

The ingredients of a winning employer brand.

The ingredients of a winning employer brand.

  • Gabrielle Rodier

Employer branding is an essential element to effectively recruit and retain your employees. Switch up offers you a video of Stéphanie Lagand, our partner and expert on the subject. She explains the essential ingredients for a winning employer brand.

Employer branding: the success of inner beauty!

Employer branding is the image that a company projects to candidates and employees alike. It can lead to more effective recruitment. Employer branding can also improve employee loyalty. However, to do this, it must be consistent. A good employer brand is built by listening to your teams. All this is to find out what will make your company stand out in the job market.

The employer brand must be the fruit of thecompany's identity, its social DNA. It transcribes the company'sHR ambition, its values, its culture and also its internal organisation. As in marketing, it must be translated into an HR promise and differentiating benefits for the target employees. It must also be supported by concrete, tangible and measurable services. This 'HR positioning' must permeate the company's entire HR offering, be infused in each manager and, in an ideal world, become a collective state of mind.

Building an employer brand is not just about putting up a table football and a dart board... It must reflect the reality of what employees experience on a daily basis. It is only by building a communication that corresponds to reality that the company will be able to attract, convert, recruit and retain its employees and new customers!

In this video, our partner Stéphanie Lagand, employer brand expert, gives you the keys to a good employer brand.
Categories
Employer branding Professional mobility Prepare your mobility Company solutions

The French Tech visa: an opportunity for foreign talent

The French Tech Visa: an opportunity for talent from around the world

  • Lauren Pinel

Regularly cited as a driver of employment, is the start-up ecosystem really recruiting? The emblematic French Tech, whose the scoreboard shows 18,000 companies employing 353,000 people, indicates that employment within start-ups represents a 1.8% share of French private salaried employment. In a phase of strong growth, the development of these companies involves international expansion and a significant need to welcome and integrate new international employees.

What type of visas are required to enter France?

♦ The easiest way: the French Tech visa

The French Tech visa is a simplified procedure for investors, founders and employees of non-European startups who want to settle in France.

Its main advantages: the visa is available for the spouse and dependent minor children. Moreover, this visa is valid for four years and renewable. Finally, diplomas are not taken into account for certain categories.

For the host company

The company must take the necessary steps to be an innovative company, and therefore be eligible for the French Tech visa:

  1. The company must be registered in France and have a SIRET number 
  2. It must have; one of the following: the status of "Young Innovative Company (YIC)", specific public funding for innovation, been supported by a French or foreign VC, been incubated / accelerated in France or abroad. Finally, it can be part of the current promotion of the Pass French Tech
  3. Apply online, for a processing fee of €324, and then pay a fee once the visa has been validated.

For the applicant

  • If the applicant is an employee : He/she will need an employment contract of at least three months with a French company eligible for the French Tech visa, as well as a gross annual salary of at least twice the minimum wage. Once the contract is signed with the employer, the company will provide the applicant with a certificate. This certificate will enable the applicant to apply for a long-stay visa (three months before arrival in France) and then a residence permit. Supporting documents will be requested, and the total cost of the visa and residence permit is €368.
  • If a founder : He or she will need official admission to one of the incubators, accelerators of the French Tech visa. They will also need financial resources or a gross annual salary corresponding to at least one year's salary at the minimum wage. It will then be necessary to apply for a long-stay visa at the embassy or consulate no earlier than three months before arrival in France. The founder can then obtain a residence permit.
  • If it is an investor: Once selected, the partner will send a letter from the DGE certifying that the company is an innovative enterprise. It will then be necessary to apply for a long-stay visa at the embassy or consulate three months before arrival in France. The local prefecture will then issue a residence permit. This allows you to live and work in France for 4 years, renewable. 

In these three cases, the applicant's family In these three cases, the applicant's family (spouse and dependent minor children) benefit from a simplified "accompanying family" procedure. The spouse automatically obtains the "Passeport Talent - famille" residence permit. Dependent children under the age of 18 do not need a residence permit. However, the applicant must obtain a "minor foreigner" circulation document.

Want to know more about international procedures?

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A visa is not enough for a successful settlement

  • Permanent accommodation: it is not always easy for a foreign employee to present a joint and several guarantee to obtain rented accommodation. Don't panic, solutions exist and our Ambassadors can set them up directly with your employees.
  • Social security: Allow about half a day for all the players to set up and complete the formalities for registration with the CPAM. The aim is to obtain a social security number, the key to health care in France!
  • The treating doctor:Finding a doctor who is willing to take on a new patient is often complex. If the doctor has to be English-speaking, it can sometimes be a real challenge. Our ambassadors are trained to explain how the French health system works. They use their local knowledge to find solutions.
  • The driving licence : Reciprocity agreement, online procedure and very, very long processing time...the exchange of driving licences is one of the most dreaded procedures for our employed newcomers...With method and anticipation (before leaving) we always end up getting the elements!
  • Opening a French bank account: Obligatory to rent an accommodation or to make certain administrative steps, the opening of a bank account is prepared even before the arrival of the employee. Debit card, credit card, cash payment, deferred payment, international transfers... opening a bank account can now be done online in a few minutes. However, you will have to take into account cultural differences, but also find an English-speaking bank contact. This will be a much better option in the long run!

To sum up, the person accompanying a new expatriate employee on French soil must take care of a few essential steps to integrate the newcomer in France. From health care to transportation, including banking procedures, the person accompanying the employee (HR or ambassador) must take care of several aspects of the installation so that it goes smoothly. Once the administrative part has been organised, do not forget the integration part: French lessons, spouse's job, children's schooling...

Let's recap...

Our Ambassadors are the local reference for your employees, guiding and accompanying them at every stage: informing, advising, explaining, helping to gather the right documents, establishing a step-by-step plan that you can follow on our platform, reassuring, reminding... they will be at their side to apply for their French Tech visa. A precious help for all the newcomers on the French territory.

Switch-Up offers you a complete and quality service. We enable new employees to settle in peacefully near their place of work thanks to our local ambassadors. They are experts in welcoming, settling in and integrating new employees.

Categories
Employer branding Job Mobility Corporate Solutions

QWL for employee retention.

QWL for employee retention

Too many companies neglect the well-being of their employees. They end up with a high turnover rate and recruitment costs that border on the heresy. Yet there are several simple and effective measures that can help them retain employees and even turn them into ambassadors for the company.

The finding

According to a study conducted by HEC, the turnover rate is close to 20% in companies involved in digital professions.

There are a number of reasons for this: 

  • Unhappiness at work
  • Work overload
  • Poor recognition of work done
  • Little opportunity for careerdevelopment
  • Lack of training
  • Too frequent periods of inactivity (between contracts)
  • Under-utilised skills
  • Wagestagnation

The above are some of the key points for consultants to feel good at work and stay there. It is therefore essential to look at the needs of employees. Some jobs are indeed (very) in demand.

Here are some of them: 

  • The IS architecture professions
  • The development professions
  • Big Data and IT security jobs

QWL is currently very much in vogue but not very concrete within companies. In other words, many talk about it but (too) few do it. 

Besides, what do we really put behind QWL? Table football, bright rooms, a chocolate and coffee fountain?

Without falling too much into a so-called "carefree" vision, nor claiming a vision of a "cynical" QWLHere are several areas for improvement aimed at better understanding and reacting to these problems of happiness in NSEs - IT services companies in particular.

Possible improvements

If we take up the reasons mentioned above, training resolves several frustrations felt by employees and motivates teams with defined career paths. The aim is for employees to feel useful and recognised in their jobs. 

Moreover, taking into account the personal life of employees allows for a better projection in the company in the long term.

Beyond the salary, the benefits of daily life are important: distance between the place of living and the place of work, a place in a crèche or help in finding a childminder... can really improve the quality of life at work and outside of work for employees!

In the context of professional mobility, an employee who is well established on a personal level is a serene employee, ready to invest in his or her missions.

Our customers have understood this and are talking about it: 

Delia TechnologiesDélia Technologies, located in Nantes, puts the importance of well-being in the workplace very much to the fore with a culture that is very much focused on the well-being of its employees. They also trust us with the support and installation of their new recruits. They are very satisfied!

Bertrand Charrier also cites us as "a tool that works to build employee loyalty" . Below is his feedback.

Switch up contributes to the improvement of the QWL by offering a concrete service. We enable new employees to settle in peacefully near their workplace thanks to our local ambassadors. They are experts in welcoming new employees and helping them find the right place to live. 

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Employer branding Job Mobility Business solutions Territories Tours

Success story: recruiting in Touraine

Success story: recruiting in Touraine

In order to recruit talent and retain employees via its employer brand, the location of the position is the second most important element that a candidate pays attention to in a job offer*. Indeed, the The quality of life offered by a territory is a determining factor in the decision process. As a result, quality of life at work rhymes with quality of life in the region.

With more than 7 out of 10 Parisians interested in a job outside the Ile-de-France **, it is becoming essential to combine employer branding and territorial marketing. Thus, the objective is common: attractiveness! The territory thus becomes an added value for the employer brand.

To be able to plan for a new place to live

But in concrete terms, what are the levers that are activated and what role does the territory play in the final decision of candidates? Even if the questions may be numerous, they fall into 11 different categories:

  • Firstly, we find the dynamism of employment.
  • There is also the quality of the environment.
  • The cost and quality of housing is a legitimate question for candidates.
  • An important criterion for choosing a place to live is the cost of living.
  • Next is the safety of goods and people.
  • Transport and traffic are also an issue.
  • On the other hand, many candidates are sensitive to the quality of the cultural offer.
  • We are also thinking about the capacity of health care provision. 
  • The quality of the educational offer is a condition for mobile families.
  • The sports offer can be a factor in the choice.
  • Finally, the associative fabric is an important element for some people in professional mobility.

Some criteria seem to be more important than others in order to promote the development of newcomers in their living environment.

The dynamism of employment is the main factor mentioned. Then comes the quality of the environment (sea, mountains, parks, forests, etc.). Next come financial considerations, such as the cost of housing and the cost of living.

There is a difficult balance to be struck between these different desires. Indeed, a strong dynamism in terms of employment, combined with an attractive environment, rarely goes hand in hand with a low cost of living.

Finally, at the bottom of the ranking, we find cultural, health, education and sports offers. In the latest study provided by Hello Work **, these appear to be less important for personal development.

"How can I find accommodation near my workplace? "Where can I find childcare for our baby? "Where to go out for a drink after work? "What are the possibilities for leisure activities and cultural outings to build up our network of friends?

Here is a sample of the questions François-Xavier H. must have asked himself when he contacted the platform Tours Loire Valley by Switch Up to be accompanied in his installation by one of our Touraine ambassadors when he joined the company a few days ago Plastivaloire.

Selfie of François-Xavier and Sybille

Are you moving to Touraine?

Switch Up will assist you in setting up your business in the Touraine area.
Let's go!

The territory: an important component of the employer brand

All these questions are legitimate for the candidate. The employer must not only care about them but also integrate them as an important component of the employer brand.

This is currently an argument that is rarely taken into account by companies located in medium-sized cities even though the location link can enable them to assert their identity. It can also enable them to meet the needs of candidates and employees already present.

Synergy is necessary to make the territorial offer an added value in the recruitment and retention process. It will be all the more effective if it relies on the strength of a local collective.

It is thus the whole territory encouraged by public institutions that makes it possible to make reception a strong axis of the attractiveness of the territory but also of the companies present locally! 

 

They talk about it in the territorial magazine: LE MAG TERRITORIAL N°71 (page 12)

WITH SWITCH UP, A NEW SERVICE to facilitate the installation on the territory…

At a time when people make the difference, technical innovation is being used to serve them locally.

The triptych Companies, Territories and Inhabitants finally finds a way to work jointly and concretely to make both industrial territories and the small towns of tomorrow shine! 

* According to a HelloWork study unveiled in December 2018: https://www.hellowork.com/enquete-recruteurs-candidats-2018/

https://www.hellowork.com/etude_mobilite_professionellle_regionsjob_parisjob_2020/ 

Categories
Employer branding Professional mobility Preparing your mobility Accompanied testimony

The different types of internal mobility.

The different types of mobility

  • Gabrielle Rodier

There is no single type of internal mobility. Horizontal, vertical, geographical, suffered, voluntary... The theme of mobility is rich and can be seen as a multiple entry table. There is not just one mobility policy to be put in place, but different policies to be implemented depending on the company, the context and the issue at stake.  

There are different types of internal mobility, depending on the path taken by the employee from one position to another.

You should therefore consider what kind of mobility you want to encourage, but also how much emphasis you should give to your internal mobility policy. These decisions may vary, among other things, according to the size and structure of your company and its strategic objectives.

The different types of mobility

There are several types of mobility, and the challenges and support arrangements are not the same for each of them.

The types of mobility we will see may, in addition, overlap with each other, which makes their implementation and support even more complex.

♦ Transverse, horizontal or vertical mobility

Transversal or horizontal mobility is characterised by a change of job at the same hierarchical level.

For example, an employee moves from a position as Human Resources Manager in one group entity to an identical position as Human Resources Manager in another group company. Another example: an employee moves from a Communication Manager position to a Marketing Manager position. This employee is still a manager (same hierarchical level), but in a different position.

This is a promotion. It can be within the own team or in another part of the company. It may be accompanied by a salary increase.

For example, an HR manager can become an HR director.

If a legal manager becomes HR director, the mobility is both horizontal (from lawyer to HR) and vertical (from manager to director).

♦ Geographical mobility

An employee may wish to move closer to a company location. They may wish to move to another city or country to gain international experience. This may be at a job level equivalent to the position they are currently in, but also as part of a promotion.

♦ Voluntary or forced mobility
♦ The loan of employees

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Employer branding Corporate Solutions Territories

How to attract talent to medium-sized cities?

How to attract talent to medium-sized cities?

  • Lauren Pinel

Do you want to bring talent to your region, but it sounds easier said than done? Start by targeting the talent, which will optimise your time and the cost of implementing your strategy. Then focus on key arguments that are representative of your territory. We explain it all to you.

Are medium-sized cities for everyone?

Not surprisingly, the answer is no. Some profiles will be even more reluctant to consider mobility or a change of life. Take the time to identify your targets, and then approach them.

♦ Locate
  • High income earners (48% of those earning 4500 euros or more) and those in the highest income brackets (43%), especially managers and company directors (52% and 47%), and also intermediate professions (47%).
  • Young people (67% of 18-24 year olds, 46% of 25-34 year olds) are by nature more mobile at this time of their lives and more likely to move than other age groups. source

If you have a well-detailed job offer aimed at these profiles, opt for an adapted approach. There are several solutions today, direct internal canvassing or the use of external service providers such as recruitment agencies or headhunters.

♦ Approach

To approach a talent, you need to know a little about your target, their interests and the best times/places to contact them. If this is not yet clear to you, download our guide to defining your personas.

Did you know that Switch Up has more than 250 ambassadors throughout France?

Discover their portrait

Medium-sized cities are a great argument for all

♦ Building on quality of life

Even if the criteria for quality of life are subjective, the following are often mentioned when discussing the advantages of moving to medium-sized cities. Firstly, the distance between the place of living and the place of work, allowing a reasonable commuting time. Secondly, the lower cost of property (buying or renting), which makes living at home more comfortable. A more serene and calm rhythm, with a reduced population density. Finally, time, which one could not afford in Paris or in the (very) big cities. 

♦ Build on the activity on site

To counter the prejudices we might have about a medium-sized city, highlight the cultural, social and commercial life. Having local shops, outdoor or indoor activities, cultural or sports activities... really makes a difference, especially if your target has lived in the metropolis.

♦ Focus on employment

Does your city have a strong economic base? Whether it's driven by large companies, medium-sized companies or the start-up ecosystem? There are jobs to be filled, the proof: you are recruiting.

Let's make an appointment!

Do you want to support your employees in their mobility?
Book your crénau with Cécile

Take advantage of the context

36% of managers say they would move to a small town if their company allowed them to telework several days a week". source

Are you recruiting? Do you offer flexibility in the organisation of working hours? After two confinements, urbanites are looking for accommodation in medium-sized towns, more human-sized, dynamic, but close to the big cities.

Put your company's assets forward and use your location to attract them. Who wouldn't dream of peace and quiet and a more comfortable life these days... So take advantage of it! 

Categories
Employer branding Press Corporate Solutions

Switch Up supports social plans

Switch Up launches a new offer to accompany social plans.

According to a report published by the DARES, the number of social plans is alarming. No less than 530 social plans were initiated between 1 March and 11 October 2020. The health crisis, which affects everyone, is pushing companies to rethink their strategies to avoid closing their doors. Behind this figure, more than 72,500 employees are concerned by redundancy plans (more than three times the number of last year). 
 

"The figures are at their highest" according to the Ministry of Labour, a cause for alarm but also for finding new concrete solutions. While a job protection plan is compulsory for more than 10 redundancies envisaged in a company with more than 50 employees, collective redundancies are also very present in SMEs. In companies with less than 10 employees, more than 3,000 people have been or are about to be made redundant.

Making geographical mobility a solution for employment.

In order to support companies in difficulty, Switch up has decided to offer a new service: support for departure by facilitating the mobility of employees. According to the study on "Geographical mobility of workers by the General Inspectorate of Finance" , this kind of action would allow a significant reduction in the unemployment rate.(1)

(1) "Calculating mismatch indicators in a world of high unemployment", Etienne Wasmer, November 2015.
♦ How does it work?
 
In short, Switch Up offers its mobility assistance platform and its network of Ambassadors to firms specialising in professional transitions and to companies. The objective is to improve the handling of their change of workplace. The employee and his or her family can then benefit from departure assistance in conjunction with the firm in charge of the professional transition but also from existing mobility assistance at local, national or European level.
 
Through the platform, the employee and his family can exchange with local Ambassadors trained and approved by Switch Up to discuss their future living environment and thus remove the obstacles, difficulties or anxieties that mobility can generate. When the job or training is found, he/she can benefit from personalised help for each person in the family on the subjects of housing, schooling, integration, administrative procedures and the employment of the accompanying spouse.

Let's make an appointment!

Do you want to support your employees in their mobility?
Book your crénau with Cécile
Categories
Employer Brand

8 original campaigns

Original recruitment campaigns

  • Lauren Pinel

Recruiting is good. But recruiting differently is even better! We have put together a TOP8 of the most original recruitment campaigns. Something to inspire you, or not... 

Example 1 - Australia Inc

Australia Inc has launched a recruitment campaign in video format. The video shows the recruiter crossing a variety of landscapes to make candidates want to work in Australia. This company, which is looking for "working holiday" visa holders, plays on emotions. This is an original, offbeat, captivating and rather funny campaign. 

Example 2 - La Roche sur Yon

The campaign originates from the commune of La Roche sur Yon but the target remains Parisian workers and highlights the quality of life arguments on which local companies can rely in their recruitment! A theme that has been put forward for the Vendée agglomeration for three years in a row.

Example 3 - Brittany

In the same strategy, the Brittany region encouraged employers to use visuals and 'punchlines' based on both humour and the characteristics of the Breton territory

Example 4 - Mon-marché.fr

From a commercial point of view, some brands are surfing on this basic trend of Quit Paris.
It's always humorous and against the grain!

Example 5 - The postal bank

More classic but which takes up the idea of a geographical network and thus of proximity, the postal bank communicates on their multiple establishments and thus place of future work

Example 6 - The Orne

Doctors and medical staff are a particular target, especially in rural areas, and puns abound!

Example 7 - The Sill Group

The Sill group, a federation of SMEs in the food industry based in Finistère, has chosen, for the visuals of its website, not only to highlight its laboratory (for the "innovation" aspect), but also its territory, the Abers region. The site thus includes 100% local shots: lighthouse, river, field of cows, Crozon... All this supports the discourse on the valorization of traditional products and makes it possible to assert the identity of the brand. However, there is no question of neglecting the discourse on international development! Here again, the group takes advantage of its location, by asserting that it is its belonging to a seafaring country that makes it "naturally" open to the world (hence its punchline "Brittany as a home port, the world as a horizon").

Example 8 - iAdvise

The Nantes start-up Iadvize, on its "offices" web page, provides very concrete information to convince candidates of the attractiveness of its city. To do this, it relies on the proximity of water (the sea as well as the Loire) as well as the dynamism of Nantes. 

His tricks? First of all, he gives figures (" 15 min walk from the hypercentre», « 40 minutes by car".). But also a short list of the favourite places of the employees: the nice bar frequented after work, the sports hall where the football team trains, or the Stereolux concert hall near the Machines de l'Ile. All these details contribute to the image of a territory where culture, sport and conviviality are mixed. Rather attractive, isn't it?

Categories
Employer branding Job Mobility Corporate Solutions

RHIZOME Sound Capsule

RHIZOME: What is HR Marketing?

When HR turns to marketing concepts - Territorial onboarding

  • Gabrielle Rodier

In order to respond to the challenges of talent scarcity and higher turnover rates, HR departments in organisations are turning to concepts from marketing. It is no longer a question of considering employees as "human resources" but as "customer employees", who choose to invest their skills in the organisation.

Rhizome startups share their expert views on HR Marketing in this capsule series.


Switch Up - the platform allowing newcomers to be helped in their arrival in a territory thanks to local inhabitants - talks about territorial onboarding which feeds the company's HR strategy.

Gabrielle, founder of Switch Up, gives her testimony.

HR marketing and territorial onboarding ?

In my opinion, HR Marketing corresponds to the implementation of a strategy that aims to present a positive and attractive image of the company to its current and future employees. This strategy is put in place thanks to a range of tools that HR departments will use to embody the company's values and culture through the employer brand.

Like any marketing strategy, HR departments will define objectives to be reached (a turnover rate, a number of applications, etc.) with a specific target (internal or external). 

"You don't sell a car or toothpaste like you sell a job in a company. Why not? Simply because on the one hand we are talking about a product and on the other hand we are talking about a human experience.

Gabrielle

However, the HR part makes a real difference in the marketing approach: the company has to be able to explain that these benefits have to be put forward in an honest and transparent way. Let me explain: If a toothpaste doesn't do what it was designed to do (clean teeth) it is unlikely to be bought back. However, if a job doesn't live up to its promises, it's much more risky for the employee, and when you touch people, the consequences are all the more important (from the candidate's point of view but also from the company's).

One of the areas that is not often used by companies in HR marketing is the territorial component: the geographical environment in which the company is located is often not emphasised or not at all. The company must also be able to talk about its territory and it is on this theme that Switch Up tries to bring its expertise. Switch Up enables companies to talk about their environment on a geographical level. In other words, our solution helps companies to highlight their location (territorial onboarding) as an important element of the jobs they offer. The geographical environment of the company is part of the conditions of employment and becomes a differentiating factor when this point is taken into account from the job advertisement to the onboarding period of the employee within the structure.

The aim is to make the employee fit into the geographical area where the company is located. This allows all companies to talk about their geographical location and to define who they are by showing that behind the term HR marketing, we are talking about people.

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