"To empower employees is to benefit from that same influence."exclaims Mélanie Dimberton, Leader of Communication & Cultural Change Support at Crédit Agricole Technologies & Services. What is the intention of this IT partner of the 39 regional banks of the Crédit Agricole group? Get the employees on board and future collaborators at all levels and in multiple ways.
Team rituals, newsletter et Espaitec's Internal events, corporate events… nothing is left to chance when it comes to employee engagement. How can we get all stakeholders involved in a business project? How can we unite them around a common goal? strategic orientation common? Melanie Dimberton, member of Club We Are COM agreed to answer our questions and share its best practices in terms of attractiveness and engagement.
Mélanie, to begin with, we would be curious to know your definition of corporate communication.
Corporate communication is an essential pillar in the overall strategy of any companyIt plays a crucial role in how an organization presents itself to the outside world and interacts internally with its employees.
It gives meaning to a company's strategy and infuses its purpose and values. internallyCorporate communication allows the voice of management to be transmitted to employees so that they can adopt the right messages and unite around a common direction.
How is the communications department at Crédit Agricole Technologies et Services organized? Do you have any team rituals?
At CA-TS, the communications team, commonly known as #ComPowerThe team consists of 10 employees and is unique in that it is spread across 3 locations: Paris, Nantes, and Montpellier. Therefore, our rituals are essential.
In particular, we have retained two "disruptive" rituals, inherited from the health crisis. Thus, Our team weather briefing is held every Tuesday morning.Each of us takes the floor and freely expresses our current mood, our weekly schedule, our goals, and our challenges. Furthermore, Every 3 weeks, during lunchtime, we get together for a virtual happy hour. The idea? A pair of people are tasked with creating a fun and engaging activity remotely. Pictionary, Burger Quiz, costumes, songs… creativity and laughter are always guaranteed.
These times, which are not mandatory but rarely missed, complement the meetings and guarantee cohesion within our team.
Pictionary, Burger Quiz, costumes, songs… creativity and laughter are always on the agenda.
You recently developed a large-scale business project, launched at a convention in January 2023. Can you tell us more about the details of this project?
Indeed, in 2023, we launched our corporate project "Horizon 2025". On this occasion, a meeting was held an exceptional convention at the Sud'Arena in Montpellier. We had identified several key levers: giving meaning, giving a voice to experts, being agile in our processes and adopting a responsible approach from downstream to upstream… All while daring to think outside the box!
In essence, we significantly limited the speaking time allotted to management, unlike the usual more "top-down" interventions, to to highlight collaborators. Around thirty of them were thus able to express themselves, either from the public, in pitch mode, or on stage in tiered format.
From this vWe want to emphasize the collective and unite our 1.700 employees Having spread out across the territory, we created our own song "FabriK", using the tune of France Gall's "Résiste". It was exhilarating to hear this song, which resonates with our work as IT tool manufacturers, sung in unison at the end of the plenary session. Goosebumps guaranteed! 😊
Regarding the format, we were keen to integrate a responsible approach throughout the entire event, and this from the agency tender stage. Thus, to limit our carbon footprint, our convention took place without printing and without goodiesWe chartered an SNCF train to bring all our employees together in Montpellier. We worked with sheltered workshops (ESATs) for catering, prioritized local food suppliers, and encouraged carpooling, twin rooms, and shuttle rentals when necessary.
Wishing to be thorough, A carbon footprint assessment was carried out at the end and a compensation project was put in place within this framework with France Carbon Agri.
How do you involve employees in the long term, after this agreement is concluded?
Following the launch of our business project at this convention, Five major objectives and 52 projects have been identified. with a designated leader for each.
To keep employees informed of the progress of these various thematic projects, we communicate regularly, particularly via a dedicated newsletter entitled "What's New on the Horizon?"
Other, more targeted actions are also carried out in parallel. For example, last year we asked all our site managers to come and pitch their projects at the "Horizon Awards" – you'll notice the pun. 😊 Then, the employees were able to vote for the best pitches in each category.
As you are a site manager yourself, what actions are you putting in place?
I am the Project Manager Improving our institutional brand to strengthen our visibility. In this context, I'm bringing together colleagues from HR, Communications, and our Diversity and Inclusion department, working in project mode. Together, we've identified a number of actions to implement to achieve our goal of attracting the best talent and potential candidates on the market.
This collective reflection will lead, by 2024, to the development ofa corporate film combining agility and responsibility, in the achievement of a big photo shoot for all employees, to the implementation ofa communication plan dedicated to diversity or even the presence of our IT experts on specialized fairsOur conviction? It is by giving meaning and engaging our employees that we will increase the visibility and attractiveness of our brand.
Our conviction? It is by giving meaning and engaging our employees that we will increase the visibility and attractiveness of our brand.
Beyond internal communication, how do you communicate with your future talent? What employer branding strategy do you implement?
Our recruitment challenges are very significant. To give you an idea, More than 1000 talented individuals have been recruited since the start of CA-TS's transformation in 2018, representing more than half of our 1.700 employees.
To address this recruitment challenge, we have deployed a strong employer branding policy on the Social Media, particularly on LinkedIn. Today more than 67,000 subscribers follow us on this platform, versus 2.800 in 2018.
On LinkedIn, our communications are tailored to our target audience, "tech" profiles, who are fond of short formats such as "Pitch your Job" or even battles.
Through their posts on LinkedIn, Our employees are the most effective ambassadors for our brand. Two support and acculturation programs have thus been developed to provide them with the keys to communication on social networks: "The Influencers" for internal use and the "Leader Advocacy" program, dedicated to members of the Executive Committee.
Speaking of tips, do you have any other best practices for attracting and engaging audiences to share with We Are COM readers?
I would say it's more of a suggestion than a best practice: Bring the intern on board! By valuing your employees, providing them with a sense of purpose, and integrating them into projects, you will establish a win-win relationship and turn them into true ambassadors. Empowering your employees means benefiting from their positive image.
To empower employees is to benefit from that empowerment.
In your opinion, what will the future of corporate communication look like?
It seems to me that The boundaries, once very marked, between internal and external communication are increasingly tending to disappear. Moreover, it is no longer uncommon to see leaders communicating with their teams via LinkedIn.
On the other hand, I think that tomorrow's communication will bring back more traditional formats. We live in a world where everything has to be fast, access to information must be extremely easy, and key messages must be identifiable in seconds. Also, The ease and accessibility of communication media will be a major issue. I believe in particular that the podcast, this short, incisive, easily consumable format that can be listened to anywhere and anytime, still has a bright future ahead of it.
3 things to know about Mélanie Dimberton
His favorite medium? In fact, Mélanie is a big podcast consumer, since she listens to at least one a day. Why? For the imagination that this format develops and for the power of the voiceHer recommendation: “Powerful Women”, a podcast by Léa Salamé, or “Ladies”, created and hosted by Mélanie Legendre from the COM team!
Her favorite communication strategy? The annual greetings of Maurice Levy, CEO of Publicis, because he manages to transform this sometimes rather dusty speech into an incredible event. He knows how to combine marketing success with internal communication success. His favorite video was combining New Year's greetings and moving day! … Or how to support change with humor.
His volunteer and charitable commitments? In early 2024, Mélanie made a commitment to the Grameen Foundation, from Crédit Agricole, an association for which she has just completed a mission to SenegalFurthermore, Mélanie is the godmother of a little girl in foster care (Sponsors by the Thousand Association) and mentor to a young refugee woman (UniR association).
His advertising anecdote? Quite regularly on Instagram, Culture Pub posts a slightly embarrassing image, asking users to write the advertisement that would best fit it. A fun and playful format to discover!
