"Going beyond regulatory obligations by identifying ways to promote quality of life at work".
With its new "Improving the quality of life at work and preventing psycho-social risks" 2025-2026 program, the University of Montpellier takes stock of the action program implemented within the establishment for the 2023-2024 period, and presents the prospects envisaged for the next two years. Julie Boiché, vice-president in charge of social responsibility, explains.
Why did you design this program to improve quality of life at work and prevent psychosocial risks?
The process goes back to the establishment's creation, since there were already initiatives in this direction as early as 2016. The philosophy behind these plans is to go beyond regulatory obligations, by trying to identify areas that will improve the quality of working life within the establishment, and prevent psychosocial risk situations as far as possible. This approach involves reflecting on the priorities and specific characteristics of the university's staff.
Our aim today is to maintain the continuity of previous plans, so as to keep the basic actions constant, while adapting them to the assessments we carry out, and also to highlight new areas for improvement based on the needs, concerns or difficulties we have identified for our staff.
The 2025-2026 program is structured around five key areas, the first of which is risk analysis. How did you go about conducting this analysis, and what indicators did you look at or put in place?
Today, we are able to track common indicators over a period of 5 to 6 years, such as staff absenteeism. In fact, these figures change very little, which is reassuring, as it shows that the company is stable. Discussions within the steering committee have encouraged us to go further, not only by looking at these fundamental indicators, but by trying to enrich them and cross-reference sources of information.
For example, we use EVRP (Evaluation des Risques Professionnels) software, which provides information on psycho-social risks. The increased skills of prevention officers, who have received specific training, mean that information on this type of risk is better documented.
All this quantitative data is interesting, but the expertise and day-to-day activity of our support staff also played an important role in drawing up the plan. They are all represented on the steering committee, providing an insight into realities that are not always captured by indicators.
The second axis is entitled "Acting for QWL throughout the establishment", with a challenge that concerns remote sites: how can actions linked to quality of life at work be deployed everywhere?
As far as possible, we want to provide remote sites with the same level of information and services as Montpellier. At the present time, and this was already committed to in the previous plan, we are systematically considering all actions concerning quality of life at work in terms of format (either face-to-face, in Montpellier or elsewhere, or remote) to reach a wider audience.
We will also be setting up a toolbox that will enable us, for example, to retrieve videos of webinars and other materials used at events that certain agents were unable to attend. This toolbox will be available to all agents, but it will also be designed in particular for researchers, teachers and Professors , who we sometimes have difficulty in "catching" on certain types of event.
Finally, after a number of experiments of this type, with very positive feedback, we would like to set up a permanent presence of certain support professionals at the various remote sites. This local contact is important for relaying information and directing staff to the right services.
Another dimension of this program is devoted to training and communication. What actions have been put in place at the plant to integrate these dimensions?
As far as training is concerned, teachers and Professors are often less likely to take advantage of existing training schemes, so we're going to step up our communications to help them find out more about what's on offer and take advantage of the opportunities available.
Another action concerns communication about the helpline and the reporting system. Many staff consider this system to be useful and satisfactory, but it seems to be best known as a resource in situations of SGBV (Sexual and Gender-Based Violence). It is therefore planned to deploy specific communication tools to ensure that it is also used in cases where staff feel they are victims or witnesses of violence, harassment or discrimination, be it racist, homophobic, etc.
Axis 4 is entitled "Prevent, detect and support", and it's a dense axis in terms of actions. Can you give us more details on what this program plans to do in this direction?
We have taken a number of steps to improve the reception of staff, notably by creating a guide listing all the main services and resources available at the UM. In the future, we will ensure that it is distributed to all staff, including those arriving during the year, and we will offer an English version. Another project is to prepare a memo for supervisors, summarizing what they need to anticipate in order to properly welcome a person joining a team.
We are also working on the return of staff who have been absent for a long period of leave, in particular due to a serious health problem, which requires our vigilance. What should we do in such cases, as managers or as a team? How do we go about it? Can we maintain the link during the absence? How can we prepare for their return and welcome them back to work? The idea is to formalize possible answers to these questions, to help teams deal with this type of situation.
For teachers, teacher-researchers and Professors , who are sometimes unaware of certain measures that directly concern their careers, the HR Department is planning to make "flash" sheets available.
Finally, with regard to prevention, we are following on from the previous plan by pursuing actions on addictions and sedentary lifestyles. While continuing to raise awareness on these subjects, we will be going further to provide staff with the means to take concrete action in their working environment.
Finally, the program devotes a section to the formalization of procedures: why is this important, and how will it be implemented?
These procedures cover two very different situations. The first, which is very rare, concerns staff who have not been seen or heard from in the absence of any justification for their absence. A flow chart has been drawn up to identify who should act, and in what order, and has been circulated to the network of HR correspondents. The other, more frequent, procedure concerns what to do in the event of an accident or illness, particularly in intermediate situations that do not involve the fire department. As this procedure is likely to be used more frequently, it is intended for wider distribution.