To address their dual need for dematerialization and digitalization of annual evaluation and professional interviews, as well as to gather precise data for developing a skills development plan, Les Petites Canailles opted for the Zest platform in a context of talent shortage.
We aimed to simplify and optimize the process to encourage genuine reflection before the interviews, both for managers and employees, and to ensure that the interviews were not just a mere administrative exercise.
Delphine Prieto, Group HR Director
Delphine, what were your initial objectives when you launched the project?
Delphine Prieto has been the Group HR Director since 2020 and initiated the project.
First Objective: Ensure Legal Compliance
When launching the project with Zest, our primary motivation was to ensure compliance with legal requirements for interviews (to be conducted every two years). Beyond this requirement, we sought to simplify and optimize the process to foster genuine reflection before the interviews, both for managers and employees, and to ensure that the interviews were not just a mere administrative exercise. Previously, management was done individually and in a decentralized manner, using standard office tools (Excel or PowerPoint), which hindered our ability to develop an effective HR action plan.
Second Objective: Digitalize Interviews
We wanted to digitalize the interviews to obtain a digital summary and an overview of their progress and completeness: the status of interview campaigns, the level of completeness of interviews (preparation by the employee, contribution by the manager and/or a third party), and the compilation of key KPIs.
Third Objective: Map Skills
Finally, we needed to map our employees’ skills to better target our training and development actions. This is a highly prioritized issue for us because our sector faces a shortage of qualified personnel, and we must pay particular attention to training and retaining our employees through a comprehensive training policy.
What struck me about the launch of Zest was the ease of adoption by users, thanks to the intuitive nature of the tool, which is really easy to handle.
Mélanie Guivarch, Group HR Manager
Mélanie, how did the project launch go?
Mélanie Guivarch is the Group HR Manager and played a key role in supporting the teams during the project deployment.
What struck me about the launch of Zest was the ease of adoption by users, thanks to the intuitive nature of the tool, which is really easy to handle. Of course, given that 85% of our employees are in the field and do not use digital tools in their daily professional lives, there were connection difficulties. That’s why we provided very detailed and step-by-step video tutorials to assist employees in getting familiar with the tool.
Another noteworthy aspect of the project is the premium support from the Client Success service, which is very present and proactive in training users on the platform and ensuring that its full potential is exploited. Unlike other digital solutions that offer only raw access to features, Zest provides a complete service, from platform provision to human support by real HR and tech experts. We particularly appreciated the active listening to our specific needs and the co-construction approach to find solutions.
In the end, our first assessment—after a year of use—is very positive, with good participation rates (up to 86%) and significant time savings for managers.
Magali, how did the project launch go in your nursery ?
Magali Gueit, Director of the Vanves Nursery
I am responsible for a nursery with 13 employees, with an average age quite high for our sector (around 40 years) compared to other nurseries in the group. Thus, some of our employees are not very comfortable with digital tools. Thanks to the strong communication and support campaign from the headquarters, we were able to provide individualized support to some employees.
Specifically, we offered personalized assistance to help them install the application on their phones, scan the QR code to access the tutorial, and connect to the application easily.
This had been a barrier to the project launch by the Works Council, which had raised the issue of the digital divide, but we were able to convince them thanks to the measures put in place and the simplicity of the platform.
Delphine Prieto, Group HR Director
In the end, once the connection issues were resolved, the outcome was extremely positive:
- For Employees: The interview exercise, previously seen as boring and tedious, became rather enjoyable thanks to a very smooth user experience. Finally, unlike previous campaigns, we were able to meet deadlines thanks to notifications set up in the application and also via email.
- For Managers: The contribution experience is very smooth; it is very easy to add comments and revisit the interview multiple times, allowing us to adapt to our pace and constraints. The big plus is access to a global analysis of my nursery’s scope, which allowed me to quickly identify issues to address and implement action plans. Finally, I saved considerable time and shed the non-value-added administrative aspect to focus on the actual exchange with employees.
The application is very intuitive and enjoyable to use.
Anita Invernon, Early Childhood Educator and Zest User
Anita, what was your personal experience with the Zest platform?
Anita Invernon was an early childhood educator and Zest user at the time of Zest’s launch and is now the deputy director of the Saint Mandé nursery.
I found the application very intuitive and enjoyable to use, especially with the ‘smiley’ type questions, which make it accessible even for those not very comfortable with digital tools. After experiencing paper-based interviews, digitalization allowed me to better prepare, as well as my manager, thanks to contributions made in advance of the scheduled date. Through Zest, my desire for internal mobility was communicated in real time to the HR department, leading to a promotion to deputy director a few months later. Thus, Zest opened up new professional opportunities for me and enriched my employee experience.
These future deployments will help us increase retention and loyalty among our talents, which is a key issue for us as the market becomes increasingly tight with a growing talent shortage.
Magali Gueit, Director of the Vanves Nursery
Mélanie, what are the next steps?
For the next interview campaign, which we are launching very soon, we will be able to collect training needs directly in the tool during the interview, allowing us to have a comprehensive view of requests, manager approvals, and thus more easily launch training plans.
Additionally, the “People Review” feature will allow us to identify struggling profiles and talents to develop more quickly and easily.
Finally, we will integrate a question about mobility in the interview to better manage and promote internal mobility. Indeed, due to our territorial network, too many employees still leave us when we could have offered them internal mobility opportunities in their new areas of residence.
These future deployments will help us increase retention and loyalty among our talents, which is a key issue for us as the market becomes increasingly tight with a growing talent shortage.
