Brive Tourisme affirms its corporate culture
Published on July 5, 2021 by vanessa brunaud
Thursday July 1, 2021, Brive Tourisme brought together all of its employees for its traditional Pot Gaillard at the start of the season and to talk about corporate culture.
Work on a strong corporate culture
Thus, it was an opportunity for the 50 permanent employees to meet the (many!) seasonal workers, almost thirty for the whole summer, and to have a drink in the magical setting of the Jardins de Colette in Varetz. But not only ! Because if conviviality is elevated to the rank of art of living in the country, it is also an integral part of our corporate culture at Brive Tourisme. And corporate culture was in question on Thursday evening, after we had carried out in-depth work on the subject over the last 3 years.
Bring together all teams
This long-term work is particularly important for several reasons. A strong corporate culture allows us to value what we share and what brings us together, whatever the natural affinities with this or that: it is a unifying element of all the teams, well beyond the logic of services .
It also ensures an identical state of mind and ways of doing things, regardless of where employees work - in the administrative offices, in the reception offices, in accommodation or at the Jardins de Colette - even if the activities are very different. This harmonization of practices allows us to strengthen our links and trust between us, including between people whose missions mean that they rarely come into contact with each other.
Differentiate yourself and strengthen ties within the company
Finally, identifying the singularities in our functioning allows us to differentiate ourselves. Not only does this reinforce the feeling of belonging to Brive Tourisme, but it also helps to unite our tribe around a common DNA.
A three-year collective introspection
Promote what makes Brive Tourisme
We therefore took the time to address the subject in depth, because at Brive Tourisme, corporate culture is much more than a coat of varnish to make the bodywork shine! It was important to us to promote what makes us who we are, which means that when we work at Brive Tourisme, we immediately identify the state of mind of the Gaillards. And in all of this, there are no embellishments to make it look pretty, but rather the transcription of our deepest values. We therefore began a phase of collective introspection in 2018 which would last almost 3 years (but we didn't know that yet!), driven by one certainty: fulfilled employees, professionally and personally, are necessarily more involved and therefore more effective.
Work on employee development
Beyond a very concrete and operational action plan (revision of job descriptions, the organization chart, annual interview process, creation of moments of conviviality, implementation of teleworking, etc.), the work on employee development was based on 3 key stages:
- With the managers, we first defined the purpose of Brive Tourisme; what we do on a daily basis, each in our departments, in our different missions, with our own skills but also and above all our differences: “At Brive Tourisme, we act to promote the territory, develop its attractiveness and encourage the feeling of 'belonging'.
Then, to create or strengthen bonds of trust within Brive Tourisme, we loudly affirmed our values, that is to say the way in which we carry out our missions.
Thus, at Brive Tourisme we consider others with positive a priori: it is benevolence, a strong and essential conviction, with which we do not compromise in any way.
We act freely, within a clear and controlled framework: we are autonomous!
We relay the message of Brive Tourisme, internally and externally: it is pride in belonging.
And finally, we show solidarity, in victories as well as difficulties: this is cohesion.
For all this it is obviously necessary to listen to each other and talk to each other, this is communication.
And this only makes sense because as good guys, we have a particularly pronounced taste for challenge and surpassing ourselves!
- The last part of our introspection consisted of revealing the alignment of employees' personal values with those of Brive Tourisme, so as to meet everyone's need for accomplishment. We therefore worked in a workshop with 25 volunteers to define the purpose of Brive Tourisme: what are our personal contributions and their impact on others as part of our daily missions. After rich discussions, during which everyone put a lot of themselves into it, we agreed on a precise formulation: “Strengthened by our differences, we innovate together in order to create emotions and transform everyday life”.
From there we had solid foundations but we still had to give substance to our corporate culture by clearly explaining our history, the symbols that represent us and the rituals that are specific to us.
Define symbols specific to Brive Tourisme
If in terms of symbols, things were quite obvious, between the 100% guy brand and our famous mustaches, we wanted to do a little more in-depth work on our rituals. For this, we brought together a steering committee of 6 people, from the different Brive Tourisme departments, who endeavored to identify:
- existing rituals, and to propose improvements or their enhancement if necessary;
- the rituals which existed but which needed to be harmonized for all services;
- new habits to implement, consistent with who we are and the expectations of employees.
Each member of the steering committee is responsible for an action and will be responsible for ensuring that the plan goes smoothly, in form and over time!
The guide “I work at Brive Tourisme – Gaillard, instructions for use”
Once this first work was done, it was important to set it in stone for posterity: we needed a document that would keep our corporate culture alive and avoid potential distortions linked to the effect of time or personal sensitivities; so that when a new employee arrives at Brive Tourisme, the message delivered is the same, regardless of the person who welcomes them.
This is how the guide “I work at Brive Tourisme – Gaillard, instructions for use” was born. The result of collaborative work, the guide retraces with humor our history, our values, and the way in which these are expressed in our rituals and symbols. It was given to all Brive Tourisme employees on Thursday evening and will be given in the future to each new entrant on a permanent contract or long-term contract.
Because as the legend says: “Once a guy, always a guy”…
- Corporate culture brochure Read
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