English 
French 
Please note that this article is targeted at international HR professionals and international hiring managers who are looking to recruit employees in Paris.
As a Paris based, Anglo-French recruiter, my most valuable service has previously been the local insights I can provide to my international clients looking to build their staff base here. This includes a physical presence, a knowledge of regulatory frameworks, bi-lingual and ‘in person’ candidate interviews, in-depth summaries of the main banking and financial market firms (local and international) as well as local salary benchmarks.
For the candidates, an ability to engage at a linguistic and cultural level, providing in-depth client insights and building trust.
Over the last 4 years I have realised that this is not enough. if you are going to really move candidates in this market and offer them a compelling service then you have to speak their language. No I do not mean French. Most candidates will speak with a London based recruiter in English. I mean the language of employment contracts : Benefits, core protections under French employment law and retirement planning. French candidates hold these elements as sacrosanct and will often turn down the carrot of a large salary increase if their employment contract does not reference these sufficiently. Retirement is a theme which dominates the social narrative in France. It is almost impossible to avoid a discussion at any post work apéritif.
On the benefits side we are talking :
- Variable Bonuses : Intéressement, participation and prime (pension fund, profit share and performance bonus). Note that intéressement helps reduce income tax via a PER (Plan Epargne Retraite) retirement scheme with a max annual ceiling of €34,776 per employee.
- RTT (Réduction du temps de travail). Holiday accrued beyond the 35 hour work week. If you want to attract strong talent then it is best to try and implement this in some form. The legislation is here to stay.
- Employment protection – PSE (Plan de sauvegarde de l’emploi). Prioritise re-training or re classifying employees who are subject to redundancy.
- Le Conseil de Prud’hommes (employment tribunal).
- Which Convention your company has adopted? There are different protections available to employees dependent on which one their employer operates under – ie a ‘bank’ or ‘a financial markets participant’. These include length of annual leave, length of maternity leave and long-term sickness leave .
- What professional ‘Cadre’ status the employment contract offers? There are various co-efficients ie 500, 700, 900 which have an immediate impact on classification for insurance and state retirement schemes.
French candidates definitely expect their employers and the HR teams to have an awareness of all of these factors. A failure to show this awareness or worse to impose an alternative structure will leave you facing a very long and painful recruitment campaign.
In the early stages of my business I never had the appetite to tackle French employment law.
I learnt however, that to be an impactful recruiter in the Paris market I had to embrace these elements. Perspective is more important than perception.
What motivated me to write this piece was the regular complaints I receive from my Paris candidates who are contacted by international recruiters with very little or no awareness of this content. Their frustrations were very clear.
So for those of you who are looking to recruit for talent in Paris, it is essential to consider the candidate experience you are offering. If you work with recruitment agencies, look to prioritise local experts or those who truly know this market. Mistakes and inaccurate information create poor processes which cost time and professional reputation. These are risks that you can easily avoid. Roly offers high quality recruitment, HR and consulting services, allowing you to hire talent in Paris with success and comfort.
Contact us today to discuss further
simon.bradbury@rolyrecruitment.com