OREANDA-NEWS. July 16, 2015. Carrefour France's Director of Human Resources, Thierry Roger – Director of Carrefour’s Employment Centre and Thomas Cazenave – Deputy Managing Director of Pole emploi (France's state-funded body set up to help people find local employment) entered into a nationwide framework agreement to renew the existing partnership between Carrefour's and Pole emploi.
The purpose of this agreement is to promote long-term employment, training and staff recruitment, as well as guaranteeing suitable professional career paths for employees and promoting digital technologies.

This nationwide initiative between Carrefour and Pole emploi involves action in three areas:
-    Implementing initiatives focused on digital technologies
-    Securing and simplifying the process involved in recruiting jobseekers
-    Supporting jobseekers who are returning to work and helping to secure the career paths of newly-recruited employees

Implementing initiatives focused on digital technologies
P?le emploi has set up four online training programmes (or “MOOCs”) designed to help people looking for employment. They help people prepare their applications, chase up recruitment managers, etc. The online courses will be delivered in the form of videos by P?le emploi consultants with help from outside experts, including Carrefour employees.
Following on from this initiative, one of the things that Carrefour intends to do is to develop a digital tool designed to orient people towards the 120 job types available in retail. This tool will be listed on the Pole emploi’s Emploi Store – a digital platform which offers jobseekers a wide range of services, applications and online courses.

Securing and simplifying the process involved in recruiting jobseekers
Through this agreement, Carrefour and Pole Emploi are seeking to create career paths that result in qualifications, the aim being to enhance the employability of jobseekers and increase their chances of being able to gain a foothold on the job market or return to work. The agreement provides special measures designed to promote the sourcing of lessee and franchisee managers: working closely alongside the P?le emploi, Carrefour will develop a recruitment process for franchise opportunities offered by its convenience division.

Supporting jobseekers who are returning to work and helping to secure the career paths of newly-recruited employees
In order to help professionalise both young and older jobseekers, Carrefour is entrusting Pole emploi with details of all of the posts has to fill as part of its work-study contracts. It will provide precise details of the positions in question, together with information about the types of applicants sought and the means it will use to shortlist them.
Carrefour will also continue with its drives to implement orientation and training programmes designed to help recruited employees adapt and stay in post, as well as further professionalise them.
 
Says Isabelle Calvez, Director of Human Resources for Carrefour France: "As France's leading employee in the private sector, it seemed vital to us to continue with our employment commitments alongside P?le emploi – with which we have been working since 1992. We are delighted to be setting ourselves ambitious targets within the framework of this agreement, particularly in relation to new uses of digital technologies".

Thomas Cazenave, Deputy Managing Director Strategy, Operations and External Relations at Pole emploi: "Developing relationships with companies is central to P?le emploi’s strategy. In 2015, we deployed some 4000 dedicated consultants so that we could better understand and meet employees' requirements. This agreement with Carrefour is in line with our aim to develop a relationship based on trust. As a result, we have thus been able to work together in areas such as increasing the transparency of the labour market (we have published 12,000 additional job offers for Carrefour), as well as making the digital shift by using online job fairs or helping to produce MOOCs available on the Emploi store. And by using professional simulations, Carrefour will be able to provide immersive experiences for 3000 jobseekers, thus widening its net for certain job types, while at the same time making it easier for these jobseekers to access employment".

In 2015, Carrefour France is aiming to hire:
– 11,000 people on permanent contracts
– 5500 people on work-study contracts
– 25,000 seasonal workers
For more than 120 general or specialised job types that applicants can get with or without qualifications.