Brive Tourisme asserts its corporate culture

Publié le 18 April 2025 par su_laetis

On Thursday 1 July 2021, Brive Tourisme brought together all its employees for its traditional Pot Gaillard at the start of the season and to talk about the company's culture.

Developing a strong corporate culture

This was an opportunity for the 50 permanent employees to meet the (many!) seasonal workers, nearly thirty for the whole summer, and have a drink in the magical setting of the Jardins de Colette in Varetz. But that's not all! Because if conviviality is elevated to the rank of an art of living in the Pays Gaillard, it's also an integral part of our corporate culture at Brive Tourisme. And the subject of corporate culture was on the agenda on Thursday evening, after we had carried out some in-depth work on the subject over the last 3 years.

Group photo at the 2021 seasonal workers' party

Uniting all the teams

This long-term task is particularly important for a number of reasons. A strong corporate culture enables us to promote what we share and what brings us together, whatever our natural affinities with so-and-so: it is a unifying factor for all our teams, well beyond the logic of individual departments.

It also ensures an identical state of mind and identical ways of doing things, regardless of where the employees work - in the administrative offices, in the reception offices, in the accommodation or at the Jardins de Colette - even if the activities themselves are very different. This harmonisation of practices helps to strengthen our links and the trust between us, including between people whose jobs mean that they don't see each other very often.

Differentiating and strengthening links within the company

Finally, identifying the unique ways in which we operate enables us to stand out from the crowd. Not only does this strengthen the feeling of belonging to Brive Tourisme, it also helps to seal our tribe around a common DNA.

Three years of collective introspection

Enhancing what makes Brive Tourisme what it is

So we took the time to look at the subject in depth, because at Brive Tourisme, corporate culture is much more than a coat of varnish to make the bodywork shine! We were keen to highlight what makes us who we are, what makes Brive Tourisme a place where you can immediately identify with the Gaillards' state of mind. And in all of this, there's no frills to make it look pretty, but rather the retranscription of our deepest values. So in 2018 we embarked on a phase of collective introspection that would last almost 3 years (but we didn't know that yet!), driven by one certainty: employees who are fulfilled, professionally and personally, are bound to be more involved and therefore more effective.

Working on employee fulfilment

In addition to a very concrete and operational action plan (revision of job descriptions, organisation chart, annual interview process, creation of social moments, introduction of teleworking, etc.), the work on employee fulfilment was based on 3 key stages:

Firstly, with the managers, we defined the purpose of Brive Tourisme; what we do on a daily basis, each in our own departments, in our different missions, with our own skills but also and above all our differences: "At Brive Tourisme, we act to promote the region, develop its appeal and encourage a sense of belonging".
Then, to create or strengthen the bonds of trust within Brive Tourisme, we stated our values loud and clear, i.e. the way in which we carry out our missions.
At Brive Tourisme, we view others with positive preconceptions: this is benevolence, a strong and essential conviction, with which we never compromise.
We act freely, within a clear and controlled framework: we are autonomous!
We relay Brive Tourisme's message, both internally and externally: it's pride in belonging.
And finally, we show solidarity, in times of triumph and in times of difficulty: this is cohesion.
To achieve all this, we obviously need to listen to each other and talk to each other: that's communication.
And it only makes sense because, as good fellows, we have a particularly strong taste for challenges and pushing ourselves to the limit!
The final part of our introspection consisted in revealing the alignment of the employees' personal values with those of Brive Tourisme, so as to respond to each person's need for fulfilment. We therefore worked in a workshop with 25 volunteers to define the raison d'être of Brive Tourisme: what are our personal contributions and their impact on others in the context of our daily missions. After a rich discussion, during which everyone put a lot of themselves into it, we agreed on a precise formulation: "Strengthened by our differences, we innovate together to create emotions and transform everyday life".

From there we had a solid foundation, but we still had to give substance to our corporate culture by clearly explaining our history, the symbols that represent us and the rituals that are specific to us.

Defining symbols specific to Brive Tourisme

While the symbols were fairly obvious, from the 100% gaillard brand to our famous moustaches, we wanted to work a little harder on our rituals. To do this, we brought together a steering committee of 6 people from various departments at Brive Tourisme, who set about identifying :

the existing rituals, and to suggest improvements if necessary, or to make them more flexible ;
existing rituals that needed to be harmonised across all departments;
new habits to be implemented, consistent with who we are and the expectations of our employees.

Each member of the steering committee is responsible for one action and will be in charge of ensuring that the plan runs smoothly, both in form and over time!

The "I work at Brive Tourisme - Gaillard, instructions for use" guide

Once this initial work had been done, it was important to set it in stone for posterity: we needed a document that would keep our corporate culture alive and avoid potential distortions linked to the effect of time or personal sensitivities; so that when a new employee arrives at Brive Tourisme, the message delivered would be the same, regardless of who welcomed him or her.

This is how the guide "Je travaille à Brive Tourisme - Gaillard, mode d'emploi" came about. The result of a collaborative effort, the guide retraces with humour our history, our values, and the way in which these are expressed in our rituals and symbols. It was handed out to all Brive Tourisme employees on Thursday evening, and will be handed out to all new recruits on permanent or long-term contracts in the future.

Because as the saying goes: "Once a Gaillard, always a Gaillard"...

Corporate culture brochure Lire

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