Housekeeper, hairdresser, waiter or bus driver… Working under pressure requires innovation to seduce

To attract candidates, companies in these sectors are increasing their offers and benefits. A vital issue as some have at times had to reduce their activities and limit their days of work due to staff shortages.

Maintenance workers, housekeepers and even restaurant waiters are among the top 10 occupations in greatest demand, according to Pôle emploi’s report on workforce needs. Public transport drivers and hairdressers are among the 20 most difficult jobs to hire. Faced with shortages, employers fold their cards.

Domestic help is the job that attracts the most people, with 87,780 positions to be filled in 2023, but it comes with the disadvantages of being one of the lowest paid and requiring split working hours and Sunday work. However, home services platform (cleaning, hairdressing, childcare) Wecasa manages to find 300 additional professionals every month by reaching out to self-employed people.

“They choose this status to decide on their days off,” says founder Pierre André. But to work well enough, they need to have a lot of clients coming to our platform. Paradoxically, they prefer one-time tasks, such as cleaning up after a move, because they don’t want to make a commitment over time. »

Increased salaries

To attract them, Wecasa chose a reward that was more favorable than the market one. Many companies or associations hire employees for the minimum hourly wage (€11.52 gross or €9.11 net) or slightly more. The platform offers them 18 euros or 14 euros net per hour after deducting the contributions due to self-employed people. Today Wecasa has around 2,000 workers across France paid at this rate.

The company also decided to take on liability insurance, useful if an employee accidentally breaks a valuable item, and a precaution that can provide the professional with additional income in the event of illness or an accident preventing him from working.

Hairdressing is the 15th most difficult profession to recruit, with 26,230 positions to fill in 2023. European leader in hair salons and products with 17 brands (Franck Provost, Jean Louis David, Saint Algue, etc.) and more than two thousand websites. in France (370 branches and 2,000 franchisees), Provalliance employs 2,800 specialists.

This year, 300 employees were recruited, with 150 positions remaining to be filled. The group’s personnel policy in terms of recruitment and attractiveness has been updated with several decisive measures aimed at flexibility of work and the purchasing power of employees.

Saturday offer for hairdressers

“Two actions were taken,” explains Jenna Pignerol, director of human resources. The first, which comes into force in January 2023, concerns Saturdays, the day in the hairdressing industry when staff turnover is highest. So there is currently a taboo in the profession about asking for time off, but we noted this request by surveying the teams and it was also appropriate for the times. Therefore, we offered branch employees three Saturday days off, which they had to use in agreement with their manager. »

The second measure that contract employees in salons are looking forward to is the choice of the number of days worked. “We have some part-time employees and others full-time, 35 to 39 hours per week,” the HR department continues. Big news from April 2023: They have the option to work four days to spend more time with family or save fuel. »

This opportunity is provided depending on the number and opening hours of salons, in particular because 70% of them are located in shopping centers, where days and hours are imposed. “But this choice is already possible in half of our branches, and we encourage our franchisees to follow our HR initiatives,” explains Jenna Pignerol. This year there was also an incentive with the launch in the spring of a €6 food voucher, 50% of which is financed by the employer.

In the public transport sector, if drivers are in high demand, RATP indicates that it is currently mainly recruiting mechanics and maintenance technicians for the metro, trams and RER. At least fifty days of recruitment have been carried out and management is emphasizing training opportunities and internal mobility.

In 2024, the recruitment and training of about twenty people will be tested for rolling stock maintenance under training contracts, especially open to job seekers without a diploma and those wishing to retrain in the field of technical maintenance.