French ICMIF member MAIF has held a long-term commitment to a management style which is based on trust and which is in turn based on the empowerment of its employees. As an extension of this commitment, MAIF has announced that the organisation is now making remote working possible for 100% of employees (except for some specific professions). With this agreement, which was signed unanimously, MAIF says it is meeting one of its objectives as a company with a mission: to promote the development of its internal players.

A unanimously signed agreement

The MAIF Group last week decided to take a further step towards a business model which aligns the interests of members, employees and the company, by proposing to expand the possibilities of using teleworking to its trade unions.

The mutual insurer therefore proposed an amendment to the working agreement that was in place with the unions, signed in 2017, which proposed new ways of working, serving the satisfaction of members, the development of employees, and the performance of the company. This amendment was signed unanimously by the union representatives of the MAIF Group (CAT, CFDT, CFE-CGC, CGT, FO and UNSA).

Set the framework for the benefit of individual and collective fulfilment

As an extension of its model of management through trust, MAIF wanted to offer each employee the option to choose whether to opt for remote working. The objective for MAIF is not to lower property costs but to promote the development of employees. Convinced that the company is a place for socializing and building the collective, the agreement allows employees to alternate between periods of working in a MAIF office or workplace and working from home, to maintain a necessary social bond. Employees who choose to take the option to work remotely must be present in the workplace between two and three days a week. The operation of remote working within each business unit is a managerial decision and will depend on the group and the team dynamics.

Access to remote working for 100% of employees*

Among the key points:

• The remote working quota (currently set at 20%) is abolished;
• The need to have two years’ experience in a position to be able to telecommute is removed and replaced by the need for the employee to have a sufficient level of integration into his/her work group;
• The flat rate for the number of days worked remotely is monthly (there are no longer any pre-identified telework days in the week);
• Employees of member contact centres can telework more than four days per month by committing to a number of Saturday mornings teleworked per year;
• Employees in certain “face to face” roles (in direct contact with members) can now telecommute as part of an experiment
• The remote workplace may be different from the employee’s home.

This agreement has been negotiated and agreed with all the relevant union organizations and will be in effect until December 2022. The agreement constitutes a major advance for employee empowerment and fulfilment but also for improving the satisfaction of member policyholders.

These arrangements will start in September 2020.

Pascal Demurger, Managing Director of MAIF Group, said: “By expanding the possibility of working remotely, we wanted to take an additional step towards management through trust. We have therefore made the choice to listen to our employees and I am firmly convinced that the implementation of this system will ultimately be a source of long-term performance for the MAIF Group, by fuelling a virtuous circle promoting both employee development and the satisfaction of our members.”

Evelyne Liauro-Barres, Director of Human Resources at MAIF said: “I am delighted that this agreement was signed by all the union representatives, only two months after the end of the confinement, taking into account the wishes of our employees. The result of these negotiations bodes well for the development of our working methods for all Group employees. We are learning from this health crisis and are now better equipped to meet the needs of our members, especially on Saturday morning, and to cope with a possible new health or climate crisis.”

*Except specific professions within the organisation