Employment strategies in response to the first Covid lockdown: A typology of French workplaces

This research connects the literature on crisis manage-ment and on firm f lexibility to investigate human resource (HR) strategies in response to unexpected crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Leveraging data from French workplaces we identify five main types of strategies im-plemented during the first lockdown, which go beyond the massive use of teleworking or the use of short-time work. The analysis demonstrates that a combination of preex-isting HR practices (teleworking agreements, wage lev-els, risk exposure, and health and safety committees) and public policies (short-time programs, legislation on short- time contracts, and temps) inf luences which of these five strategies firms adopt.