A line of unemployed overflowing on the sidewalk, long minutes of waiting and without surprises, some tensions between job seekers. The scene, observed in several towns in Ile-de-France, has been repeated tirelessly since the reopening of the Pôle Emploi agencies.
Health measures oblige, the functioning of the public establishment has changed and in the face of the flows, everything is done to encourage job seekers to travel less. The specter of a massive increase in unemployment looms and like everywhere else, strict health instructions must be observed. It is therefore urgent, because the slightest updating process in an agency can quickly turn into an obstacle course.
In response, Pôle emploi is developing remote appointments, online or by telephone. This is also the theme of "The show", his new video program available on YouTube. Launched in early July, the first episode garnered 335,000 views in one month. Michael Ohier, deputy general manager at Pôle emploi, explains in detail this profound reorganization.
Are the impressive queues in Ile-de-France a sign of difficulty in handling the flow of new unemployed?
MICHAEL OHIER. We were never overwhelmed. 30,000 people visit the 900 Pôle Emploi agencies daily. Between May 18 and July 24, the number of visits even decreased by 48%, with a tendency to return to normal in recent weeks. Over the same period, the number of visits fell by 56% in Ile-de-France and by 66% in towns such as Aubervilliers, Saint-Denis and Montreuil. Here is the result of new organizational ideas. As for the queues that we can observe in front of the agencies, they correspond to a magnifying effect linked to the health situation: we bring in people in small groups. The other magnifying effect is linked to the discount period, which attracts a lot of people.
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Is the idea to encourage people to travel less?
The idea is to encourage people to adopt different reflexes in order to come back to an agency less, or to come back for different reasons. With the lockdown, job seekers have done differently, especially those who travel to ask questions of advisers. These, by necessity, have asked their questions by telephone or the Internet and continue to do so. We have a reliable indicator: between May 18 and July 24, the number of uses of Internet terminals available in branches fell sharply. There were 11,000 per day, compared to 40,000 per day over the same period in 2019.
From April to June, 800,000 unemployed people arrived at Pôle Emploi and the government expects the situation to worsen. How will the agencies cope?
Reinforcements of several thousand positions were announced by the Minister of Labor, Élisabeth Borne. They are expected even if we have managed to organize ourselves well thanks to remote work and telephone appointments. Between March 16 and May 17, Pôle emploi agents received 3.2 million calls to 39-49, against 2.4 million last year at the same period. In addition, two thirds of the interviews were carried out by telephone against only one third last year.
Do these means allow the development of new 2.0 recruitment methods?
Since August 1, we have been using virtual reality during recruitment by simulation (MRS). This concerns technical or very specialized trades, in particular in industry, the agri-food sector or delivery companies. Above all, we test the skills of the candidates by doing role-playing, practical tests that recreate the conditions of the job to be filled. This method makes it possible in particular to cope with large-scale recruitments or to fill positions for which there are recruitment difficulties.
