
“…people who work together in harmony and deliver the best service to the business customers, beneficiaries in happy relationships and all that? That’s what gets me up in the morning. I want to make sure that people are working together fine. And what frustrates me the most is to see within our government agency how so much energy is wasted in silos, wasted because people are not communicating properly and all this nice energy is lost. And so that’s really too bad.”
— Cecile Auret, Internal Change Agent and SAFe 6.0 Practice Consultant, France Travail
Industry:
Government, Public Sector
Quick Facts:
- France Travail employs approximately 59,000 people, with 1600 working to develop digital services
- The organization paid a total of 36 billion Euros to beneficiaries in 2023
- They processed almost 8 million benefit requests in 2023
- They saw 478 million visits to their website in 2023 (59% of those on mobile devices)
- They processed 17 million phone calls to call centers
- And, they saw 6.6 million in-person visits to local branches
- After launching its first Agile Release Train more than six years ago, today, approximately 70 percent of France Travail’s software production is delivered through ARTs
Key Takeaways:
- ARTs are not enough to cut through silos. Even when trains are working happily together, they can hit a ceiling if the silo mentality and culture above the trains doesn’t change.
- Everyone is an actor in the transformation. By trying things and improving in their area, individuals can plant seeds for the rest of the organization. With persistence, at some point, it attracts sponsorship from the management level.
- Change needs to happen on every level: middle managers, top managers, change agents, and the team level.
- The Framework offers both stability and ideas for improvement, with the big picture as the main compass for the organization to navigate change.
Overview
France Travail is the French public employment service, a government organization that supports unemployed citizens and employers, offers financial benefits, and provides intermediation services. They offer assistance to people who are in transition, in between jobs, or looking for new employment. They also support small employers and recruiters that don’t have the infrastructure for recruiting.
France Travail is a big agency on its own, but in January 2024 it became part of a larger network of partners: The network for employment. Together, the network helps people not only find work, but also remove impediments to work, such as securing housing and finding daycare. France Travail also develops an IT platform of digital services for all the partners.
“Don’t accept the status quo. Try things… If you believe you can improve, try things. And don’t let others tell you that you shouldn’t try. Be confident and try… and eventually you’ll attract interest from top managers.”
— Cecile Auret, Internal Change Agent and SAFe 6.0 Practice Consultant, France Travail
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