How to (re)boost the morale of your teams in the context of COVID?
David Bellaïche, who are you?
A big football fan since I was 6 years old. Every two years, on the occasion of major football competitions, I have always organized prediction competitions with my friends and colleagues. Like many, we started with the famous Excel file, which I changed from edition to edition to end up making the competition 100% online in 2014 for the World Cup. Each time, we looked forward to the competition, for what it represents in sporting terms, but above all for the prediction competition between us. In any case, we knew that this month was going to be filled with laughs and teasing between us. Working in human resources, I thought that this model was completely replicable to the entire company.
So we started in 2016 with my partners Rony Msika and Vincent Daubry, with the idea of developing a prediction contest that would allow companies to speak at these major events, through a private, 100% customizable platform. , multilingual and above all accessible to all employees, football fans or not.
Corporico, what is it? In numbers, what does it mean?
Corporico was created in 2016 with the aim of democratizing sports prediction competitions between colleagues in companies and making them an ultra-friendly activity that generates good humor in companies! We have covered more than 15 major competitions, in 4 different sports (football, tennis, rugby, handball) The bet is winning for the moment since more than 500 companies, including half of the members of the CAC40, have joined Corporico for their teams.
In total, several hundred thousand French employees have predicted on Corporico, whether they are teleworking or dispatched to various agencies, offices, subsidiaries, franchises or in the field.
This represents millions of predictions entered and the revelation of the new Madame Soleil who recorded a whopping 31 correct scores (!) over the 64 matches of the last Football World Cup.
You revolutionized online team-building in 2016 by launching these sports predictions between colleagues in business. Has the health crisis we are going through had an impact on your business? How did you renew yourself?
Indeed, no one could have predicted the health crisis we are experiencing. From the announcement of the first confinement, we understood that the Euro would be postponed to 2021.
We had to give up all our initial objectives. During this confinement, we developed Café Quiz, an online meeting that allows all employees to participate together in a general knowledge competition as on the set of Question for a Champion, but from a distance. The success exceeded our expectations. The managements were happy that we offered them an original, high-quality and unifying activity in such a particular context for which no one was prepared. This year, with the return of the Euro, we are concentrating all our efforts on Corporico since we are facing an increasingly strong demand than usual because, beyond being unifying, it is an operation of large scale that meets health standards.
Today, you are offering Corporico to HR departments to boost team morale. Tell us more!
The Covid crisis has shattered what fundamentally made the life of a company: shared emotions. Nobody had the right to his surprise birthday at work organized by his colleagues. How to be satisfied with a virtual arrival or departure drink?
For a year, for a large part of the assets, daily life has resembled “Work, Visio, Sleep”. Managers have not necessarily been prepared to manage teams working from home. Everyone had to adapt very quickly. On the other hand, many workers remained at the front serving their customers. It is important to thank them and reward them. The year was unfortunately poor in corporate events. Employees were deprived of end-of-year parties, afterworks, Christmas trees, etc. The Euro, which will be held in 10 weeks from June 11 to July 11, is an unmissable opportunity to recreate social ties in the company.
We are convinced that such an operation will (re) put a good mood in the company and create strong emotions between employees for more than a month.
Why is it important today to boost the morale of the troops? Have you had any worrying HR feedback? Have companies told you about a decline in team performance?
Our 2 typical clienteles, namely the HR departments and those of Internal Communication, both mention the need to return to normal business life.
Most of the conversations in the hallways, at the coffee machine, in the elevator, in the canteen (…) evaporated overnight. All of this leads to complex situations: a newly hired employee who has never had the opportunity to get to know his colleagues, two employees who were close before the crisis and who hardly talk anymore, an employee who has been with the company for 20 years old who couldn't celebrate his retirement...
It is obvious that many of our customers fear a drop in productivity if the situation were to last. At this stage, they did not mention a drop in it on the part of employees, but rather other economic difficulties causing delays and therefore additional costs.
Shouldn't business life, in your opinion, be reinvented today?
She is already reinventing herself!
It is obvious that this crisis has taught us many lessons, which would have taken several decades to accept. This is perhaps one of the only positive points of this crisis; it has been a formidable accelerator in the transformation of companies to new methods of communication. Today, any employee in the world knows how to use a videoconferencing tool, or even online project management.
In this context, many companies have realized that bringing together 100% of their employees 100% of the time in the office was an aberration, not only from an economic point of view, but also in terms of team productivity. We will therefore see the adoption of new tools that will allow us to transpose what we were doing in business in a completely digital way. And in this landscape, we completely have our place.
Your 100% online prediction program will therefore be able to rely on the Euro in the coming weeks. Is this a good selling point with HRDs?
40 million French people will follow this competition. It will be broadcast on national channels for free (TF1 and M6). A HR manager can therefore be 100% sure that a good part of his employees will be interested in the competition. Speaking at this event, which is moreover around a playful animation, is therefore completely relevant, especially in the current context.
Which companies can use your services? Moreover, what is the profile of the companies that solicit you?
The playing field is endless for us. Our clientele ranges from local VSEs with 10 employees to large groups with 50,000 employees operating across 5 continents.
We have designed an animation that appeals to all employees of the company, whether they are football fans or not. Everyone has a chance! Moreover, many employees seek advice from their spouse, children, relatives before entering their predictions. This team building goes beyond the professional circle and it also indirectly includes the personal sphere, developing a feeling of pride in working for a company that cares about the morale of its employees by making their daily lives fun.
When a company comes to see you, what are the specifications for the two parties?
We have an exclusively B2B positioning. We know that our customers' time is precious, that's why a "Corporicoach" is dedicated to each customer to make their experience smoother. We provide them with everything they need (customized platform, communication device ready to send, animation kits, etc.) so that the operation is a great success in the company.
Moreover, we are quite proud to see that Corporico has achieved internal mobilization records with an average participation rate of 81% among our customers.
And now ?
We will continue to improve Corporico and develop other 100% online products that will make it possible to animate the corporate life of employees through fun, unifying and engaging games. And for companies that want to set up Corporico for the Euro, just fill out the form below. See you soon !
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Interview published on March 15, 2021 in the magazine's weekly 664Sports Strategies
