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Would your career benefit from an EMBA?

An Executive MBA is by no means just another upward step on the executive career ladder. In fact, it’s a transformational business qualification that can provide immense value for people at many crucial points in their professional life – and for those wanting to change careers altogether.

Published: 5 December 2022 09:44 CET
Updated: 16 February 2023 17:10 CET
Would your career benefit from an EMBA?
An MBA is an excellent way of refreshing or changing your career. Photo: Getty Images

As long as you have at least eight years of management experience, and motivation to invest in yourself and your career, an EMBA can revive careers that feel in the doldrums, reinvent them in a new industry or help smash a professional glass ceiling. 

Together with EDHEC, one of the leading schools in both France and Europe for executive education, we give examples of career professionals who could reap the benefits of this powerful qualification. 

Early risers

‘Early risers’ are those with a plan to rise through the ranks early in their career. If you know what you want and where you want to be, yes, an EMBA is an ideal way to ensure rapid career progression. An EMBA – especially one that can be completed part-time – allows for the latest strategic thinking and research to be applied in your workplace, with all the career benefits that follow.

An EMBA is, for many organisations, a strong investment in an individual that has long-term benefits. Not only does it expose them to the latest ideas, but also inspires loyalty and employee retention. It can even form a step on a negotiated career plan, giving you stability as you study.

That said, an EMBA can be of solid value to many more than those towards the beginning of their careers.

Career revivers

We can all reach a point where it feels like, professionally, we’re ‘spinning our wheels’. You may seem as if you have reached as far as you can go without further qualification, or that your knowledge and skill base no longer feel as fresh and current as they once did. It could simply be that you feel removed from what you began doing within your organisation in the first place.

An EMBA is the ideal ‘career reviver’ for several reasons. Alongside high-quality teaching, EMBAs often prioritise experiential learning, project-based assessments, and other forms of ‘learning by doing’. EMBAs also, by necessity, expose you to a wide range of experienced professionals within your cohort, each with their knowledge and skills to share.

Speaking of your cohort, you will find they may introduce you to a broad range of management styles and techniques that you can apply to your career. Alongside continuous coaching programs like EDHEC‘s ‘Transform360’, personal development happens both within and outside of the classroom and helps you grow as a leader.

What if you’re looking for something else, however?

Whether you’re wanting to refresh or reinvent your career, an EDHEC MBA is the highly personalised tool you need to thrive. Apply now for March 2023’s intake

Always moving forward: Whether its a seat in the boardroom, or creating the world’s next great app, EMBAs propel careers. Photo: Getty Images

Career changers

For many of us, years of experience lead us to want to try something new. A fresh career calls, in a completely different field – but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to start all over again.

EMBAs are ideal for those changing careers as they allow participants to ‘dip their toe’ in various aspects of their new field of work. You can gain a clear understanding of ideas, systems and processes in a structured, supported manner, both in class and throughout the practical components of the qualification.

An EMBA also has incredible value for those going into business for themselves, such as entering the start-up world. Flexible and personalised EMBA programs, like that offered at EDHEC, make sure that you can tailor your program to fill your knowledge gaps, without having to tread over old ground. EMBA graduates are given a comprehensive understanding of business skills, with a global outlook – vital in the digital 21st century.

Ceiling breakers

Perhaps you feel as if there’s a ‘glass ceiling’ within your professional environment – a distinct lack of those like you within senior management. If you feel it’s time to crash through that barrier, an EMBA is an essential tool.

EMBAs are impressive  to senior leaders. They demonstrate a great deal of commitment, in terms of time, energy and sheer hard work. Those graduating from an EMBA program are equipped with the latest in business intelligence and technological understanding. They are a very hard qualification to ignore when it comes time to demand a seat at the table.

What if that’s not recognised within your organisation? Simple – an EMBA turbocharges your employment prospects through your suite of skills and the wide alumni network that you can draw upon.

Your best next step

If you’re still wondering whether an EMBA is right for you at this point in your career, consider the data. In a 2021 survey carried out by EMBAC, the key body overseeing EMBA programs, 39 percent of participants received a promotion before the end of their program and 53 percent were given new responsibilities (and the accompanying salary benefits).

An EMBA can provide immense benefits, no matter where you are in your career journey, whether it’s climbing the organisational ladder, or trying something completely new. Now, it’s time for you to consider the right program for you, one that suits both your personal and professional situation.

EDHEC’s EMBA can be tailored to work for and around you. Learn more about one of Europe’s strongest programs before the next intake begins in March

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WORKING IN FRANCE

What are France’s laws around working from home that I need to know?

Remote working has become more common since the Covid-19 pandemic, but what are the rules in France? Can your boss really force you to work in an office?

Published: 8 January 2024 14:20 CET
What are France's laws around working from home that I need to know?

The French aren’t especially fond of remote working – known as teletravail – figures published in 2023 show. 

According to a study led the German economic institute Ifo and Econ Pol Europe and published in Les Échos last August, the French are among the least likely of workers in 34 industrialised countries to work from home – averaging 0.6 days per week, compared to the European average of 0.8, and the global average of 0.9.

The policy is more in vogue in the USA (1.4 days per week), the UK (1.5 days), and Canada – where workers average a world-leading 1.7 days per week remote working.

Reasons for this appear to be open to interpretation – a certain hesitancy among employers to allow staff to work remotely, and a resulting lack of employees asking for the option because they believe their bosses are likely to say no. 

Officially, this appears not to be the case. A 2022 study found that 58 percent of company bosses in France were “ready to facilitate teleworking for employees who wish to live in another region”. But, “43 percent of managers believe that remote working has made their managerial position more complex.” The reasons for their concern? “The reduction of informal exchanges (for 37%), maintaining team cohesion (36%), and managing employees (34%)”.

Furthermore, the Ifo and Econ Pol Europe study found that 62 percent of employees cited work socialising as one of the key advantages of in-office working, while 43 percent welcomed the work-life distinction.

The fashion today in France, in light of the pros and cons of homeworking highlighted during the Covid 19 pandemic, appears to be for hybrid working, in which workers spend part of the week in the office and the rest working remotely.

But what are the rules if you do want to work remotely in France?

Private sector employees can negotiate an agreement to work remotely full or part time. If you request to work from home on a long-term basis, your boss has the right to refuse, but must give a reason.

The remote-working rules for public sector workers are different and slightly more complex.

But first, it’s a good idea to check any conventions collectifs – collective agreements – that exist in your profession or workplace. They may well have covered remote working already, so it is well worth checking out what this covers before beginning negotiations.

Your boss can also ask you to work from home. In normal circumstances, you can refuse and don’t have to provide a reason. However, in the event of exceptional circumstances (such as, for example, a pandemic), remote working may be imposed on employees without their agreement.

Contract conditions

Assuming you are not a self-employed contractor, you will remain an employee of the company with the same rights as before, but if you switch to home-working permanently your employers must provide written conditions of your new working practices.

Among these must be a protocol for working hours and workflow regulation.

Employer and employee must also agree – before you start remote working – time slots during which your boss can contact you at home, in order to preserve your right to a private life.

In all other aspects, the employee is under the same obligations as if they worked in the office full-time. You must respect your employer’s instructions, working hours and conditions of use of equipment.

Work equipment

When an employee is working from home, the employer must provide, install and maintain any necessary equipment.

If, exceptionally, the teleworker uses his own equipment, the employer has to ensure it is appropriate for the job and is maintained.

In principle, setting up home-working should not entail any additional cost to the employee, so employers must supply and maintain any equipment that you reasonably need. Whether that is supplied directly, or through you ordering a work-station and claiming the expense back can be agreed between you and your employer.

The employer must also ensure that the employee is aware of restrictions on the use of computers, or electronic communication services. This includes limits on personal use, for example, and will likely remain the same rules as those in place in the office.

Allowances and expenses

Working from home can mean that electricity bills rise as workers use their own electricity for lights, coffee machines/kettles and computers.

Any fixed expenses – such as stationary, phone calls, printer cartridges, for example – can be claimed back from your employer on the production of receipts.

You are also entitled to ask your employer to share the cost of utilities like electricity, internet and heating.

If you work in a job where you receive restaurant vouchers, these cannot be withdrawn if you switch to home-working.

Data protection

The employer has an obligation to protect the data used and processed by its employees, including teleworkers.

This obligation applies whether the teleworker uses the employer’s equipment or their own.

Health and safety

If you are working at home, your residence becomes your workplace for that day, with all that implies legally. For example, if you fall down your own stairs on a day you are working from home, that could count as a workplace accident and your employer could be liable.

Employer liability can be strict in France – remember this case when a court ruled that a man who died while having sex with a stranger on a business trip was the victim of a workplace accident? Not that we’re suggesting any hard-working readers of The Local would be frittering away their working hours on casual sex, but it shows how strict the rules around the workplace can be for employers. 

Transport costs

Maybe you have agreed to work somewhere that’s closer to home. If so, an  employer is expected to cover half the cost 50 percent of subscription tickets for travel on public transport, or cycle rental, between their usual residence and their place of work.

If remote working is part-time, say one or two days per week, the level of support provided by the employer remains identical to that of an employee who is permanently with the company.

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