Unlike the Royal Bank, which has just announced the end of its teleworking policy by requiring being in the office three to four days a week, iA Financial Group intends to give its 9,000 employees complete freedom.
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“The framework is very simple: do what you want today! The question for our employees: Where will you be most effective today? If it’s home, stay home, if it’s at the office, come to the office,” explains Big Boss Denis Ricard.
The company’s employees are regularly asked about their well-being at work and this flexibility they are given has a positive impact, notes Mr Ricard, who also notes that productivity is just as high.
“We can be sophisticated and efficient while being human,” stresses the leader.
At iA, a manager can ask their team to come into the office at a specific time during the week, but none of them have to schedule a weekly face-to-face meeting with a predetermined frequency.
In 2020, the switch to teleworking took place in a few days, while everything was quickly accessible remotely thanks to cloud computing.
artificial intelligence
The CEO of iA Groupe Financier says he invests heavily in technology. Artificial intelligence is already being used to determine policyholder risk and fight fraud. It will also enable a global view of the customer to “serve them better and increase the group’s income,” says Mr. Ricard.
So far it has had no impact on the reduction in the number of jobs, which is growing at 6% a year.
“There is a transfer to value-added jobs such as data scientists,” observes the CEO, who will present a conference in front of the Canadian Club in Montreal next Monday.
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