Sanofi has managed to solve a daunting task facing managers around the world: getting their employees back to the office with minimal effort.
It’s an impressive feat for a company that said last year it was going “all AI.” The $50 billion French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi is rapidly transforming its business into AI-first model. Thousands of employees use its automated app Plai, powered by German startup Aily Labs, every day.
Managers at the company can pinpoint production capacity at facilities around the world and quickly schedule meetings with colleagues using its AI agents, reducing communication barriers in Sanofi’s multinational operations.
However, despite all this global digitization, the company has increased the need for face-to-face contact to drive innovation.
‘Serendipity’ in the office
Sanofi employees work in the office three days a week in a hybrid model, usually coming in on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Speaking with Wealth in Paris, Sanofi’s chief digital officer, Emmanuel Frenehard, said the change was key to bringing innovation to the company after employees kept things going during the upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Arguing that AI augments work, not takes over, Frenehard reiterated the value of humans in the future of work, but only if they can work together in person.
“This technology is a relief. Technology will not overtake us. Technology will not occupy our space. Technology will complement us. So you really need people who will still be able to drive it,” Frenehard said Wealth.
“And you need something very special that people have called serendipity,” he added.
“When you work from home, every part of your day is arranged because that’s how my calendar is. There’s no moment of, ‘Hey, have you thought about that?’
“How many great inventions are planned? How many big moments of innovation were planned? They didn’t. These are conversations, these are challenges. And so it’s very hard to get (working from home).
“Now you’re going back to the office, because in order to keep doing something when you’re away in one of our biggest existential crises, that’s what you do.
“Creating new innovations, I think is partly difficult, so we told people, we’ll give you flexibility, but Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, you’ll be together because that’s where you’ll be most productive.”
Frenehard said when Sanofi implemented this change, very few candidates dropped out of the hiring process.
“But I think we were opponents,” he said. “I think opposites are becoming the norm.”
Indeed, a large number of companies have cracked the whip on their workforce who have gone remote during the pandemic. Several major companies have joined Sanofi in calling for employees to return to the office on a hybrid basis.
Others, however, including Amazon and iPhone challenger Nonethey asked staff to return to the office five days a week or face being fired. The news is usually not well received by the employees.
A common rationale for these RTO mandates among bosses is the intangible innovations that result from personal collaboration. Frenehard’s eloquent explanation of these trends might explain why Sanofi employees were willing to return without much fanfare.
Sanofi’s AI hiring push
Because of the AI overhaul, the nature of the talent Sanofi is looking for has changed to hiring data scientists and engineers. That leaves the company battling tech groups in an increasingly competitive job market.
There’s one particular reason, Frenehard says, that in-demand tech workers, whom Frenehard said he’s had no trouble hiring, haven’t been turned away by Sanofi’s RTO mandate.
“You can work for a digital bank or a fund. You can work for TikTok, it can be fun. Or you can work and really see the impact you have on people’s lives,” Frenehard said.
“It took us some time to discover that voice in the public. But we have no problem with hiring at this stage, because after COVID, there is a better understanding in our industry that health is important. There is a better understanding that life-saving medicine is extremely important.”
