Stéphanie, QWL/HR Project Manager and Well At Work® Facilitator trained by YOGIST
Stéphanie is a QWL/HR Project Manager at Alcatel Submarine Networks. She tells us about her role and how training in the Yogist method helps her in her work.
Stéphanie, can you tell us about the business context in which you first encountered Yogist?
Stéphanie's response:
Alcatel Submarine Networks manufactures and installs submarine networks. The company encompasses a wide range of roles, as it operates two factories—one in Calais, France, and the other in Greenwich, England. We therefore manage both managerial staff and production workers, as well as all the support functions that this entails.
I first heard about Yogist through my HR director. We decided together to run a pilot program with about twenty of our managers. The feedback was extremely positive: out of 20 managers, 19 said yes, and only one person declined. So we’ve got an excellent response rate!
How has the Well At Work® method changed your daily life?
Stéphanie's response:
Today, at Alcatel Submarine Network, I’m in charge of employee well-being. I already lead meditation and sophrology workshops. So we really focus on the mind, the mind, and the body, and that’s why we continued along those lines, working on the body. We’ve developed weekly Yogist workshops, every Friday, lasting half an hour, currently held via video conference.
And during QWL Week, we also organized—I say “we” because Corine does the same thing as I do at the Calais site—Well-Being Week in June. We both held in-person workshops, each at our respective sites. Corine went to the workshops at the Calais plant, and I worked with the maintenance teams at headquarters in the Paris area.
It was the first time we’d done something in person, and this format worked really, really well. So we turned it into a weekly routine, via video chat. Our next challenge is to be able to do it in person at the site as well. We’re moving soon, and I’ll have my own Zen room, so I’m thrilled. I’ll still keep the remote option, though, for those who like to participate while they’re working from home.
What Well At Work® initiatives are you implementing at your company?
Stéphanie's response:
Another wonderful project I’d like to bring to life is to launch Yogist workshops at our factory in Greenwich, England. And then try to train someone from Greenwich so we can run these workshops in-house there as well.
What impact have your Well At Work® workshops had on your company?
“They didn’t realize their eyes were in so much pain. The eye exercises were a real eye-opener for them.”
Stéphanie's response:
As for the maintenance team, I think it’s a real success because these are also big, burly guys who work on-call shifts, do night work, are under a lot of stress, and who, at their manager’s request, came to attend my workshop. It was clear from the start that they were just doing it to please the manager: “The boss asked, so we came.” They all seemed a bit unsure of what they were doing there, but in the end, they loved it. I’ve heard that now, on the job site in front of clients and during the night, they regularly take their Yogist breaks.
In particular, what really worked well was the eye exercises! They hadn’t realized their eyes were in so much pain; the eye exercises were a real eye-opener for them.
I’ve been getting very positive feedback. I personally have about fifteen people who regularly attend the Yogist breaks. I record the sessions every time so they can access them in the Teams chat. You can really see the impact: they ask for them every week!
How long have you been implementing Well At Work® in your company?
Stéphanie's response:
It’s been almost a year now, so we can start saying it’s here to stay!
Watch Stéphanie's testimonial in this video:
