“We have a volunteer program that reflects our expectations. People who are extremely enthusiastic and motivated.” When we interview him on July 26, a few hours before the opening ceremony, Alexandre Morenon-Condé is a happy man. The man who walked the streets of Athens as a volunteer for the Olympic Games just twenty years ago, is now responsible for the 45,000 volunteers (30,000 for the Olympic Games and 15,000 for the Paralympics) in turquoise green uniforms who enthusiastically welcome and guide spectators from all over the world who have come to watch the Paris Games. “Our real surprise came from the international volunteers,” confides the deputy director in charge of recruiting volunteers for Paris 2024. Foreigners, from over 150 countries, represent 20% of the workforce. But how do you recruit, manage and get 45,000 people of all ages, from different regions and with varied motivations to work together? Alexandre Morenon-Condé has a deep conviction: “A team is stronger if it is diverse”. This human resources professional who has worked at L’Oréal and Eurosport shares with L’Express his vision of management and the ingredients that, according to him, make it possible to build a fulfilled and therefore efficient team. Interview.
L’Express: In concrete terms, how did the recruitment of these 45,000 volunteers for the Paris Games take place?
Alexandre Morenon-Condé: First, there was a pre-phase during which sports federations, 2024 Games partners, host communities and “Terre de Jeux” communities as well as associations that support people with disabilities helped us pre-identify candidates. Based on several criteria that were important to us, such as parity. These candidates were then able to apply in advance to the volunteer program. Then we opened the campaign to the general public for six weeks.
The most important thing for me was to ensure that volunteers were mobilized for the missions that motivate them on a daily basis. So we developed a 180-question personality and motivation questionnaire. I want to stress one thing: no one was rejected based on these questionnaires. It was simply a matter of directing people towards the missions that suited them best. They were given the opportunity to uncheck the missions they did not want to do. Like a doctor who did not want to be assigned to a medical mission. After that, we used an algorithm that directed candidates towards mission types and geographical sites based in particular on their place of residence during the Games. Then our teams selected the volunteers based on their responses to the questionnaires or, depending on the mission, through interviews or additional information.
What principles guided you when putting together this large team of volunteers?
My deep conviction is that a team is stronger if it is diverse. This is also the ambition of this volunteer program. In addition to gender parity, all age categories are represented. 30% of volunteers are under 25% and 10% are over 60 (the youngest is 16, the oldest is 94). The rest is in between. All departments are represented. More than 5% of people are disabled. Each team includes senior executives, retirees, students and unemployed people. So many people with diverse profiles who all wear the same uniform.
During my professional career, I have seen how difficult it is to implement this diversity. It requires effort. Depending on the priorities, the issues and the context, some give up along the way… Diversity becomes secondary. If we are not prepared to put in the energy, effort and cost that goes with, it’s very complicated. I’ll give you an example: we worked with our partner Toyota to have vehicles in our fleet that could be driven by volunteers with disabilities, requiring adapted vehicles. We could very well have said to ourselves: we will not give driving missions to people in wheelchairs. But we refused the idea of putting a person already in a situation of disability in a new situation of disability.
How do you get 45,000 people to work together when they don’t necessarily have the same motivation to start with?
First, it was necessary to understand, during the recruitment process, what were the sources of motivation of the volunteers. There are some who are there to have social ties, others to develop skills and for some, it is simply out of patriotism. As I was telling you, we were keen to assign volunteers to missions that would satisfy them. We then worked in permanent contact with these 45,000 people. Even before this recruitment process, we launched a podcast “In the uniform of a volunteer” to introduce them to the Games from the inside, but also a monthly newsletter, recognition gifts, etc.
You have a long experience in human resources behind you. What are the key points of a successful hiring process?
You have to be honest with the person in front of you. Overselling a position or a company means betting on the short term. With the volunteers, we were transparent about the missions from the start. This also applies to the world of work. Furthermore, if you want to have a high-performing team, it is imperative to surround yourself with employees who are different from yourself. Personalities that complement us. Of course, this requires more effort than managing a candidate who is in some way your double. Then, each employee has intrinsic motivations. It is therefore essential to understand what motivates each of them. This is how you keep people.
Finally, when you want to have the best profiles in your team, if you want them to flourish and want to stay, you have to delegate and give them autonomy. The most important thing in a manager is to trust. From the moment an employee does their job with rigor and with the desire to succeed, they must know that mistakes are allowed. Having this psychological protection from their manager is the key to success. This must work throughout the hierarchical chain. It is It is indeed complicated for a manager to grant this right to make mistakes to his collaborator if he himself is not granted this right by his hierarchy, collectively or individually. In fact, when an error occurs, the first reflex is often to go and find the person who did not do his job well. Of course, the post mortem analysis of the causes of the failure is important but the first subject must be: how we solve this problem collectively.
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