When a large company calls on the OFII for the integration of refugees through employment and asks for more!

When a large logistics company calls on the OFII territorial directorate in Toulouse to take up a major challenge: to help it find staff for open-ended contract positions, it is a fine partnership organisation that comes into play!

In the south of Montauban, on the border between the Tarn-et-Garonne and the Haute-Garonne, the company DENJEAN, imposing by its logistic structure with gigantic warehouses for the supply platforms of major brands such as Intermarché or Leroy-Merlin), has been developing since the end of 2021 a significant value: the integration of refugees through employment.

In great difficulty in recruiting and stabilising its teams, despite investments in training, the DENJEAN company asked the OFII territorial directorate in Toulouse to help it recruit refugees. The company offered 10 positions on open-ended contracts.

A challenge undertaken by the OFII

The OFII territorial directorate in Toulouse is very familiar with the public it receives during the half-day reception and integration session and follows until the end of the Republican Integration Contract. It was essential for the territorial directorate of Toulouse to work with the language training provider AMS Grand Sud for this project of the DENJEAN company. The OFII’s service provider, AMS Grand Sud, is heavily involved and has set up a funding project with the Occitanie Region (Innov’Emploi) for vocational French language training, specialising in the company’s vocabulary and postures.  

An effective and unusual partnership organisation

AMS Grand Sud carried out an assessment of the language level and motivation to work in the field of logistics with OFII refugees.

For its part, the OFII’s territorial directorate communicated the job offers to its public and organised a collective information meeting for refugees previously pre-selected by the language training instructors.

The pre-selection stage was essential, as most refugees had no idea what logistics jobs were like.

As for the company, it commissioned one of its employees to describe his daily life to the refugees during the collective meeting at the OFII.

Finally, the territorial directorate worked in conjunction with the Tarn-et-Garonne Departmental Directorate of Employment, Labour and Solidarity in order to facilitate the housing and mobility of the people recruited.

 

Successful integrations

Following this partnership work, the company was able to conduct its job interviews.

6 candidates were selected. They attended the vocational language training on the company’s site, in addition to the job-specific training.

All six candidates signed open-ended contracts.

The company has invested in a morning and evening shuttle service, thereby removing the barrier of accessibility to the site, which is not served by public transport.

Today, 3 refugees are still in post. For the other 3, it was not a failure, but rather an illustration of good integration, since some of them left to try their luck in other companies, strengthened by this experience and their training.

The three employees currently in post come from Sudan, Turkey or Afghanistan, and are now fully integrated into the company and society, with a home and lots of projects in mind. In fact, they are among the top performers of the group every month.

A winning mission to be repeated!

The company is delighted; it has achieved its objective and wishes to repeat the experience this autumn with a new group.

For DENJEAN, the observation is simple: truly motivated and involved employees, a guaranteed selection of quality profiles, carried out by the OFII, corresponding to the company’s expectations, stabilisation of its teams with less turnover, and a strong act of the company with regard to other employees: the welcoming of colleagues from other origins, with other cultures, an openness to the world and to difference, the demonstration that it is not only possible but beneficial.