Three tips for hiring employees in France
1) Do not take employment contracts lightly
A French employment contract is more extensive, than a Belgian or Dutch contract. One of the reasons for this is that in France, internal regulations are only mandatory for more than 50 employees, which means that a lot of information needs to be included in the employment contract.
Besides the informative aspect of such a contract, there are also a lot of interesting clauses which can be advantageous if things ever go wrong with an employee: a clear job description, a non-competition clause or a clear regulation of working hours are just a few examples. The more thorough the employment contract, the stronger you will be in the event of a dispute!
2) Keep track of your employees
Once the employment contract has been drawn up and signed, the working relationship really begins. So avoid at all costs losing out of sight your employees as an employer, but maintain good contact and follow up with them properly. A few interesting tips:
- Hold regular follow-up interviews and put this on paper, e.g. in a report. Both evaluation interviews and development interviews are a must.
- Determine in advance how the employee will need to report to their supervisor (CRM system, mail or phone).
- Don't forget to review the employee's objectives annually if you pay out a bonus linked to objectives.
- Check the working hours of your employees as much as possible.
3) Watch out for overtime!
Working hours in France often remain a tricky issue: a statutory working week of 35 hours seems rather low compared to Belgian or the Netherlands.
It is therefore extremely important to clearly establish in advance which working hours you prefer. All overtime hour must be paid at an increased rate of +25% or +50%. Moreover, there is a maximum number of overtime hours to be taken into account on an annual basis.