La Casa : How did you hear about La Casa ?
Juliette Farran, Senior Project Manager at Cheval Blanc : We were looking for a solution to accommodate our new Ambassadors, because in discussions with our Human Resources Director, we realized that housing was one of the barriers to the mobility of our candidates. Many of our employees are not initially based in Paris and see moving to Paris as an obstacle. It seemed key to us to set up support that facilitates this transition.
The solution we explored was to offer turnkey housing, meaning both furnished, comfortable, and accessible from the hotel, for the first 4-5 months following their arrival. The goal is to offer them a "soft landing". This offer specifically targets candidate profiles coming from Europe or the region, for whom relocating can be a real barrier to accepting our job offer. In searching for a large house to rent to accommodate our employees, I discovered the concept of coliving, which I was not familiar with, and specifically La Casa. I contacted your team, and we decided to take the plunge.
"In a company with nearly 600 employees, this approach promotes diversity, open-mindedness, and fosters genuine team cohesion"
La Casa: Why did you implement this housing solution for your employees?
Juliette, Cheval Blanc : To ease the arrival in Paris for our new Ambassadors. Imagine arriving in a big city without knowing anyone and having no points of reference. Instead of facing difficulties in finding a place to live, you join a shared housing with about ten people in large, beautifully decorated houses with gardens. It's a dream!
For us, it's a friendly and effective way to facilitate the integration of employees into the company, in our case, the hotel. As an employee, you live with employees from other departments. This allows you to meet people from different backgrounds whom you probably wouldn't have interacted with otherwise. In a company of nearly 600 employees, it promotes diversity, open-mindedness, and creates genuine team cohesion. It's about integrating the employee and offering them a warm environment, almost like a second family, in the end.
"With La Casa, the goal of facilitating recruitment and integration has been achieved. This is, in fact, why we recently extended the partnership"
La Casa: Does it really make recruitment easier ?
Juliette, Cheval Blanc : Clearly, even though it's hard to measure. We've received outstanding feedback.
Besides easing the recruitment process, I would say it enhances employee loyalty. For us as employers, this is crucial. Recruitment doesn't just conclude with an employee signing their contract; the goal is also for the employee to engage in a medium to long-term collaboration with us. With La Casa, the aim of simplifying recruitment and integration has been realized. This is precisely why we've recently renewed our partnership.
La Casa : So, La Casa is a solution you see as sustainable in the long term ?
Juliette, Cheval Blanc : Yes, absolutely.
We are a company with five hundred employees and a hundred additional positions to fill, so we have a current need for recruitment. Moreover, the hospitality and restaurant industry experiences a high turnover rate, which means we have constant recruitment needs. We are looking for a turnkey solution that requires minimal or no intervention from us, especially since it involves the private lives of employees. For us, it's important to preserve the autonomy of the employees we offer this housing to, as it pertains to their private life.
La Casa : What profiles of employees live in the Casas del Cinema that you rent in Ivry-sur-Seine and Villejuif ?
Juliette, Cheval Blanc : The houses are set up for single individuals and not for accommodating couples or families. Due to the structure, we cater more to younger individuals rather than more senior profiles who have a spouse and/or children.
La Casa: What aspects do you value in La Casa's offering compared to other coliving housing options, as an employer?
Juliette, Cheval Blanc : Simplicity.
Interactions, whether with Victor or Charles, the co-founders, have been very pleasant, smooth, and efficient from the start.
Furthermore, we appreciate having this turnkey solution where all we need to do is provide the names of the new tenants, and then your teams handle everything else: check-in, inventory, check-out... For us, this was important from the beginning: we needed an easy-to-implement solution where we could maintain some distance to preserve the employee's privacy.
As an employer, we also observe that mixing foreign and French-speaking profiles enhances the learning of French, thereby facilitating the integration of international employees into the company
La Casa : What are the benefits for employees living in the Casas ?
Juliette, Cheval Blanc : The employees are all very happy and tell us that the houses are beautiful, well-decorated, and comfortable.
They appreciate the opportunity to meet people and share everyday moments with others their age, especially when they have just arrived in Paris. They value the social connections and friendships that are formed !
As an employer, we also notice that mixing foreign and French-speaking profiles facilitates the learning of French, thereby easing the integration of international employees into the company.
Lastly, another significant benefit is the unique quality/price ratio that employees enjoy. This is an advantage specific to our operation since we subsidize a substantial portion of each employee's rent, leaving them with only a minimal amount to pay.
Business Casas
Juliette Farran
Senior Project Manager at Cheval Blanc Paris - Luxury Hospitality
