Christophe Junod's Boomerang Employee Story
We call someone a boomerang employee when they leave a company and later return to it. At ELCA, that's the story of Christophe Junod, a Lead Manager within our Digital Agency. He joined ELCA in 2005 and is now in his 21st year here, but his path hasn't been a straight line: a few years after joining, he left, only to come back later. In this edition of Inside ELCA, our series giving a voice to the people who shape everyday life at the company, he told us why he left, what he learned elsewhere, and what convinced him to return.
What made you decide to leave ELCA at the time?
Back then, I had a strong interest in e-commerce technologies. There were some internal discussions about developing that kind of activity, but we weren't yet building e-commerce platforms or webshops. I wanted to explore that space. An opportunity came up with a company whose two partners I knew, to take over part of their activities and develop the e-commerce side in particular. Between leaving ELCA and starting that new role, I even paid for an intensive Magento training myself, a well-known e-commerce solution, to really get to grips with it.
And how did that first experience go?
Pretty short, actually: just two months. It was a small company, and between the time I signed and the time I started, they didn't really have that many new contracts lined up. Due to economic conditions, I couldn't continue the collaboration. I moved on fairly quickly to Virtua SA, a well-known web agency in the Lake Geneva region, which had a much more dynamic feel. It was a younger company, without all that many processes in place, a bit chaotic at times, but with great projects and very talented people.
When you made the decision to leave, was it linked to any management issues or team dynamics?
No, not at all. It was never linked to any particular problem with the company. It was really about wanting to develop new skills, especially in e-commerce, which I couldn't do at ELCA at the time. The decision was pretty clear-cut, I didn't have any doubts or regrets at the time. It was an opportunity to seize, and I was still fairly young, keen to take on a challenge. I didn't overthink whether I'd actually enjoy it, I left mainly to give it a try.
Was there a moment, during those experiences, when you realized the grass wasn't actually greener on the other side?
Yes, definitely. When you come from a company like ELCA, which is very well organized, with clearly defined project management methods, and you join a smaller structure, you realize things aren't always as buttoned-up. That was a bit of an issue for me: I found that kind of company quite disorganized overall. I lost the structured reference points I was used to, and that threw me off a fair amount.
What made you want to come back to ELCA?
I always stayed on very good terms with my former colleagues, both directly and more broadly within the company, and I had pretty accurate updates on what was happening at ELCA. I was contacted again by several people, including my former manager at the time, who explained that there had been some internal reorganizations, with a new unit created dedicated to CRM and web activities. They were interested in having me come back to take over the web activities. Part of that unit would later become the Digital Agency.
By the way, it was also at Virtua SA that you crossed paths with Félix Gros, your current manager?
Exactly. That's where we met. On my side, I was called back by former ELCA colleagues; he landed at ELCA a month after me, through his own connections. You could say we ended up building what is now the Digital Agency together, later on.
What seemed different at ELCA when you came back, compared to when you left?
The organization had been restructured quite a bit, with the introduction of new Delivery Business Lines. That transition continued gradually over time, up to the creation of the Digital Agency, to highlight UX, web, and mobile activities. There was also a lot of work done on digitalizing processes: new project monitoring tools with quality tracking, more recently client feedback management, tools for managing license costs on projects, all the collaborative tools around project spaces and client user account management with Jira and Confluence, and also the tool for managing CVs and project references, which was still in its early stages back then and has improved a lot since.
And on the flip side, what did you find again that you were glad hadn't changed?
I think there's a very professional and very positive dynamic overall at ELCA. You can always get help or professional advice on a project, tap into specific expertise within the company, and the answer is almost always positive. That willingness to help each other out between colleagues is really a strong value at ELCA. If you run into a problem, you're never on your own in a corner, you have access to the whole company and all the skills within the group.
How have your ambitions or your role evolved since you came back?
My ambition has always been to take back the web activities and grow them, everything related to web projects and using the CMS: that's always been close to my heart. When I came back, there weren't that many projects, we relied a lot on existing partnerships, like Paléo. Since then, we've grown the range of clients a lot, and managed to work in industries we didn't address before, like transport or energy. Today, we have a great team and a great business built around the web.
Speaking of which, how would you describe the Digital Agency today?
We have three key areas of expertise. First, everything related to user experience and client interfaces, with part of the team dedicated to that. Then, web development: client portals, corporate portals, high-traffic websites, not small showcase sites, but real web projects that require an enterprise-grade CMS. And finally, the whole mobile side, with teams dedicated to building hybrid apps in Flutter or native iOS and Android apps. What's great is that we have an extremely wide range of projects within the agency, with people who are really motivated by their work. I think that's genuinely one of our teams' strengths.
To wrap up: what would you say to someone considering leaving ELCA, or any company in general?
What I'd say is that the grass isn't necessarily greener elsewhere. Before looking elsewhere, I'd suggest first exploring what's possible internally: ELCA is a large group with many different entities, and it is possible to grow or move to another division without leaving the company. That kind of diversity isn't something you find everywhere.