Jules Pannier

My contract with Axéréal comes to an end on 31 August, bringing to an end two great years of work experience in the communications department at the Olivet head office. 

Over the past two years, I've been involved in a number of major projects, such as managing AXEREAL's e-reputation and its sites on Google, launching the Discover community, launching student blogs and running several events in parallel, in addition to my day-to-day tasks.  

I would like to thank all the people I have worked with, who have enabled me to significantly improve my communication skills and knowledge. 

I'd also like to thank my tutor Antoine and the communications department, where I was able to integrate very quickly and work in a good atmosphere every day. 

So now I'm finishing my Masters in Digital Communication and Influence Marketing at ESG Tours and I'm off to work on new projects, especially across the Atlantic with a Work Permit in Canada!

To maximise our visibility online, it’s important to make sure that the Google profiles for our sites are up to date, and that all the information is correct and complete. As part of this, we need good-quality photos of each site. Publishing these photos has another advantage too: it helps visitors find our sites, and simplifies access for our logistics partners.

Updating our Google profiles also ensures a consistent image across all our sites, with up-to-date information for each of them (address, telephone number, opening hours, etc.).

On 17 February, I headed out to visit around 15 grain elevators in our region, to take photos of the fronts and talk to the teams so that I could do any updating that was necessary. I very much enjoyed my day, because I met colleagues that I wouldn’t usually see, given that I work at head office, and we had a chance to chat about the cooperative and its various business. It was also a great opportunity to explore the area covered by the cooperative.

 Today, I had the chance to take part in a visit to the Axiane mill in Gallardon with several work experience students and trainees from the Discover Axéréal community.

 We were very well received with a programme including :

•      coffee and pastries
•      Workshop to shape our own baguette "La Croquise HVE
•      Visit of the mill
•      Finishing and baking of our baguettes
•      Tasting of products from the "Raoul Lemaire" organic range
•      Presentation of our baguettes and gifts from Axiane

I found this day very enriching, we were all able to discover what an Axiane mill was and how it was organised. Personally, I think it's a very good idea to promote the different activities of the Group and the Sectors within the community of work-study students and interns, who come from different fields and professions. It also helps to unite this student community around convivial events like this one. It is also important to show the actions implemented in the field to the work-study students and interns working mainly in the offices at headquarters.

I see internal communications as vital to the smooth running of any cooperative or business. It maintains links between colleagues, brings teams together and keeps everyone pulling in the same direction to achieve a common strategy that will serve the business and its future. It also provides information to staff, both in the office and out in the field, sharing the business’s news, achievements and strategic direction.

During the Covid crisis, we were careful to ensure we kept up our flow of internal communications, to maintain the strong links between staff.

As soon as the health situation allowed, we arranged events so that people could meet up again and spend time together, organising meals, picnics and food trucks on our sites and at head office.

Having the whole business use collaborative tools (such as Teams and Yammer) was also very important for direct communication between the teams, because these tools transfer information instantly and are a very useful alternative to sending emails, the volume of which can spiral when people cannot talk face to face. Managing internal communications involves supporting the use of these systems, so that they remain efficient tools for everyone.

Last but not least, there is a need for a business-wide intranet, and the importance of making sure that both the types of articles published and their frequency are gauged appropriately, so that our staff can keep up with news from the cooperative at the click of a mouse.

During my first few months in the company, I had to organise a picnic with the help of the other work-study students in the communications department at the Olivet site. The aim of this internal meal was to bring together the head office staff after the end of the health restrictions linked to teleworking.

I therefore had to contact food-truck providers, different from those present for the July picnic, a fruit provider for the dessert, and also the rental of arbours and tables to offer a space for sharing between the teams.

Organising an event like this may seem simple enough, but there is still a lot to coordinate.  It's also a good way of reconnecting people who don't see each other regularly at the headquarters because of the Covid restrictions.

I was pleased to receive very positive feedback on the event and the organisation from many employees, who were happy to be able to share a convivial moment with colleagues they no longer see regularly. It was also an opportunity for me to manage a project independently, while being able to count on the support of a team.

’m responsible for publishing news about the Group and the channels on the intranet several times a week throughout the year. The topics are very varied. They can include health, safety and risk prevention news, reports on events, articles highlighting the cooperative’s partnerships, information about organisational changes and more.

In our role as webmasters, we regularly organise staff competitions.

The aim is to make the intranet lively to get colleagues interested in the news from the various subsidiaries, which helps information to circulate.

Our competitions are generally very popular and we regularly receive several hundred quiz entries.

This all helps promote communication between Group staff, and it’s an easy way for us to keep them up to date with the latest news, upcoming events and all sorts of practical information. Sometimes, it can serve as a fun way to introduce important topics such as cybersecurity or how internal processes work too.