During France’s second lockdown in November 2020, Klépierre kicked off a fully digital internal initiative called Let’s Stay Connected. Open to all Group employees, it was born out of a desire to give people time to share, stay informed and reach out, and to ensure they stayed close despite being physically apart.

Several events were held every week on Teams. They included keynotes and prospective analyses on retail and consumer trends by experts; talks by managers to offer explanations, reassurance and answers to employees’ questions; conferences on innovation, architecture and biodiversity by international speakers; and personal development sessions, yoga classes and cooking sessions.

On these occasions, we had the pleasure of listening to and talking with such prestigious speakers as Bjarke Ingels, Bruno David, Laëtitia Vitaud, Abdel Alaoui, Martial Vidaud, Patrick Scharnitzky, Florence Sandis and Roxane Baché. The program was a success, with employees in an internal satisfaction survey giving it a score of 4.5 out of 5, saying they took part in three events per month on average. More than an amusing interlude, Let’s Stay Connected was a breath of fresh air in employees’ daily lives, helping to bring them together.

The sessions were available as replays, but were extremely popular live, with easy and engaging interactions made possible through questions asked via the “chat” function.

This initiative followed on from others that emerged during the pandemic. A weekly newsletter called Connected, for example, was launched during the first lockdown. Its aim was to provide employees with updates about our shopping malls and the teams in our various host countries. It also offered glimpses into other subjects related to retail, real estate and architecture. There were even podcasts, videos, digital visits of cultural exhibitions, games and puzzles.