Public services play a vital role in our societies; they serve the collective well-being. But how do they communication How does it serve these institutions? 📣 How can information be made accessible to everyone, across the entire territory? What actions can be implemented to provide collective and tailored solutions?
Who better to answer the team's questions? We Are COM thatEstelle Denize, formerly director of communications and secretary general of the board of directors of theUrssaf (2017-2023)? 🤓 In this incredibly inspiring interview, this public communication expert revealed the inside story ofa strategy with a positive impact. 🎯
Interview conducted on July 1, 2023.
Hello Estelle, to begin, we would like to know your definition of public communication?
La communication The public is at the service of the general interest. Before each of our communication actions, we ask ourselves about the positive impact, the benefit on the collective.
The Urssaf is primarily known for its sovereign missionWe collect social security contributions to finance our social protection model. Also, The primary purpose of our communication is to promote our services.It must be accessible to everyone and provide the same information throughout the territory.
Today, our ambition is, in particular, to support self-employed individuals, a population that is growing at an incredible rate. The range of profiles among these self-employed individuals is so vast that we need to offer them tailored support and personalized services based on their needs.
Before each of our communication actions, we ask ourselves about the positive impact, the benefit to the collective.
At Urssaf, you have prioritized co-construction between users and employees. What co-construction mechanisms have you put in place?
We have been promoting co-construction for a number of years now. We are convinced that by taking into account the opinions of our users, we will be able to respond most effectively to their expectations.
This logic led us to launch "The Great Dialogue of the Urssaf", to jointly define the main directions of our Cog (Objectives and Management Agreement), a roadmap signed with the State for 5 years. This is done by going through the platform make.org, that we consulted our 11 million users on this question: “ How can we improve the support and services provided by Urssaf to its users? »
To our great surprise and delight, this operation generated over 1,2 million votes and gave rise to more than 10.000 proposalsA real success, as users praised the quality of the effort. Ultimately, the collected proposals were reworked and re-evaluated before being integrated into our Cog.
More concretely, This dialogue has allowed us to better understand our users, their needs and their expectations. For example, it emerged that freelancers and self-employed individuals often felt overwhelmed by the process once the registration phase was complete. Based on this observation, we created the service "My first months with the Urssaf", a website dedicated to initial support. We are doing everything we can to ensure that users no longer miss out on their rights due to a lack of information.
So, how exactly did you communicate about this agreement with your stakeholders until 2027?
Regarding theexternalWe don't communicate directly about our agreement, but rather about the actions that stem from it. Our anti-fraud plan, for example, was recently championed by Minister Gabriel Attal.
Regarding theinternalThis is a real lever for transformation. Our operations are extensive; we organize tours, develop materials, provide employees with turnkey kits, etc. This agreement, which is fully part of the company's common culture, must necessarily be understood by all 16.000 of our employees. Everyone must have the same level of information to be able to plan for this action plan collectively.
Equality in the workplace, professional integration, energy efficiency… Urssaf is committed. How do you address CSR issues? Do you have any projects to share with us?
As a public service, we must ensure we have a positive impact. We need to set an example in terms of CSR.
This commitment is reflected first and foremost in our missionsThe contributions we collect are fully reinvested: we have a trading floor and we issue securities on stock exchanges. Furthermore, our transactions are aligned with responsible investment principles based on ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) criteria.
Our commitments are also reflected in our specific actions towards some of our public In 2023, we wanted to pay particular attention to younger people, to women entrepreneurs.
Concerning the environmental issuesOur objective is to reduce the energy consumption of our entire real estate portfolio, spread across the entire territory, by 15%.
Finally, we are also making a commitment internally, to employee well-beingOur HR policy promotes work-life balance: teleworking, leave for sick children… More recently, we have introduced a “soft mobility” bonus to encourage the use of bicycles and other non-polluting modes of transport.
In the interest of transparency, you developed the website “What are contributions used for?” How do you highlight the usefulness of the Urssaf, an institution whose actions sometimes remain unknown to the general public?
It's more about education than transparency. We already have transparency. Now we need to explain our missions to our users in very concrete terms.
Website "What are the membership fees used for?" This platform allows you to track your contributions in real time. It also serves as a reminder that we all contribute to the overall financing of social protection. Without the Urssaf (French social security collection agency), there would be no social protection in France!
We need to explain to our users, in a very concrete way, what our missions are.
You also communicate with a young target audience. How do you reach this specific audience, particularly on social media?
Indeed, the young target audience is one that is particularly important to us. On the one hand, Keeping them informed about how the system works contributes to their initiation into citizenship and facilitates their procedures. On the other hand, raising their awareness of the declaration equips them to face the world of work, particularly regarding their summer jobs, which are still too often paid "under the table". Even though, with the recent debates surrounding pensions, many of them have realized the importance of properly declaring all of their activities.
Alongside the association Les Déterminés, we also support young people in their self-employment projects. To raise awareness of our activities (mentoring, masterclasses, etc.), we have created the TikTok account #jegeremaboiteAn account that provides young people with practical tips and advice, using their own codes. The main objective is to demystify their relationship with the French social security agency (Urssaf).
Finally, we communicate with the young target audience in a recruitment perspectiveFor example, we were pleasantly surprised to see how successful our apprenticeship campaign, deployed on Snapchat, had been.
The main objective is to demystify their relationship with the Urssaf (French social security agency).
This year, Urssaf won the Gold Award in the "Annual Company Reporting System" category at the TopCom Corporate Business Awards. In your opinion, what are the essential ingredients for a successful annual report?
Annual reports serve many interests, yet they are never read. Therefore, Our main challenge was to make it attractive, to encourage reading. To achieve this, in collaboration with the CLAI agency and the Vaadigm studio, we decided to break with tradition and create a more original annual report. More graphic and colorful, it adopted the style of magazines, and it worked. Personally, I'm very proud of it. It proves that the Urssaf can adopt a playful communication style. 😊
Estelle, in your opinion, what will be the challenges and changes in communication in the coming years?
Without much originality, It seems to me that artificial intelligence will play an extremely crucial role in the future of communication.How will it transform our professions? How can we seize it opportunistically? Perhaps we're fantasizing about it, or perhaps it will help us communicate better? Whatever the case, we have no choice; we must adapt. We can't just stand by and watch.
I would add that the question of The usefulness of communication will be fundamentalIn the years to come, more than ever, we will need to communicate less but better, in a more responsible manner. Communication must no longer be anecdotal, but truly convey messages.Moreover, perhaps artificial intelligence will accompany us in this transformation, allowing us to reduce our communications through better targeting.
Communication should no longer be anecdotal, but truly convey messages.
Finally, what advice would you give to communicators, readers of We Are COM, to refresh a brand identity?
Without hesitation, work on your brand platform! Everyone knows about Urssaf. However, does the image people have of us reflect who we truly are?
We wanted to establish this common identity by creating a brand platform, again with the agency CLAI. The brand platform is an essential prerequisite for any identity work, an exercise which requires taking into account all stakeholders. Once the identity principles are firmly defined, all that remains is to deploy them coherently, both internally and externally.
3 things to know about Estelle Denize
His mantra? "Always have fun in life." Estelle is convinced that you should always find a way to do things while having fun, both in your personal and professional life. "When you're having fun, it shows," she asserts.
Her favorite communication campaign? The Benetton advertisements, created by Toscani, that adorned her t-shirts and bedroom walls. Estelle is also a fan of the latest Urssaf youth campaign, with its striking graphic approach.
His passions ? Public affairs. Before entering the world of communications, she worked in politics. Today, and for the past 12 years, she has been President of the Hors la Rue Association, which is committed to protecting unaccompanied minors in danger.
