Rather than a classic “job dating” in an agency, the Pôle emploi team at Roissy-en-France (Val-d’Oise) decided to innovate on this Monday morning. It invited 200 job seekers to the headquarters of the ADP group (Aéroports de Paris), a few steps from Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport, for an event centered on the profession of airport security officer, in which five companies. A profession in tension which has difficulty in recruiting.
With the image – and sound – of planes taking off in the background, Farhat makes the rounds of the recruiters, each seated at a round table in this long glass room, decorated in honor of illustrious aviators. He has no experience in the security sector or in the aeronautical world, but says he “likes people who travel”. “I would like to end my career as an employee,” slips the 58-year-old man who, after a long career as a freelancer in commerce, was made redundant from his position as a receptionist in 2020, when the Covid-19 crushed the global economy.
These so-called “outside the walls” actions, the Pôle emploi agency at Roissy have been multiplying them for a few years. “With the labor shortages observed in certain sectors, we are trying to innovate to match supply and demand,” explains Orée Le Coz, deputy director of the Ile-de-France agency. Like the hotel and catering industry or construction, the airport sector is in fact sorely lacking in manpower. A few weeks ago, the CEO of ADP, Augustin de Romanet, indicated that he needed 4,000 people. Among the professions most in tension, that of security officer.
If the needs are enormous, there is no crowd this Monday morning at the headquarters of ADP for the “job dating” organized by Pôle emploi. Only a few dozen people, CVs under their arms, out of the 200 guests, with varied profiles. From Cassandra, beneficiary of the very recent “youth contract” and who says she is interested in the job of security guard, to Hayat, a 45-year-old “jack of all trades” whose contract as a child driver disabled ends at the end of the month. “I worked in the municipal police, I like the authority and protection sides of the profession of security officer. And then it’s prestigious, ”explains the dynamic forties.
Between on one side recruiters on the lookout and on the other rare job seekers strolling in the large room, a little mutual game of seduction is set up. “Security is the image of France. We are fighting against terrorism,” says a recruitment manager to five candidates. At another table, a young Bulgarian, with still hesitant French, mentioned on her CV that she spoke four languages. But if the mastery of at least one foreign language is “a big added value”, says another recruiter, this is not what is mainly sought. “We look at the presentation, the smile, the ability to communicate, and above all the motivation, because a security guard is intense work,” continues the same man.
Know-how, therefore, more than technical skills. The latter will be taught to the candidates thereafter, during a six-week training course, financed by Pôle emploi. But recruiters sometimes come across good surprises. “We had a candidate who was already trained and who had already worked at Roissy. So we decided to hire him immediately,” rejoices his future employer. Time is running out: “By the end of the summer, we need 50 to 80 people at the airport.”
Faced with the striking observation of an event that has not found its audience, Delphine Philippe-Giraux, Val-d’Oise East delegated territorial director of Pôle emploi, is disillusioned. “We sent them an email on Friday evening, we called them back by SMS this morning, giving them the address, everything… But hey, we still have a very high absenteeism rate for this type of workshop”, breathes she. According to the local head of Pôle emploi, the attendance rate generally oscillates “between 30 and 60%”. “The real difficulty is the mobilization of the public,” she points out.
The airport’s particular job pool probably has something to do with it, with no less than half of job seekers who are long-term unemployed – either in search for at least a year -, against less than a third at the national level according to INSEE. It is therefore more difficult to seek out this type of public. Even if this challenge seems essential if the government wants to achieve its objective of full employment by 2027, i.e. around 5% unemployment, against 7.3% in the first quarter of 2022 according to INSEE. Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne repeated on Monday that it was “at hand”.
If the shortages of manpower in Paris airports, in particular of security agents, are explained by a sudden and unexpected resumption of air traffic, the reasons are also deeper. “The Covid crisis has revealed things that were already present before but which we refused to see”, admits Xavier Gondaud, CEO of the company Securitas, present on “job dating”. “In the first place the degraded working conditions of the agents, whose schedules do not allow to have visibility over several weeks.” To which are added often staggered working hours.
Since the pandemic, these elements have been red lines for many job seekers, and more generally French people, many of whom now prioritize their personal life to the detriment of their professional life. The same problems are thus found in other sectors under pressure, such as hotels and restaurants, construction and industry. According to Xavier Gondaud, in the airport at least, “companies will adapt, because the production apparatus is jeopardized by these shortages”. Because of this lack of staff, additional waiting times are indeed expected this summer at Paris airports.
