A Dutch software company with 30 people in Lyon wants a responsable administratif et financier, a hands-on finance manager, and three customer-support agents who speak French and German. Its Amsterdam HR lead posts all four roles in English on LinkedIn with a “competitive package” and a link to an English application form. The French works council representative points out, politely, that adverts published in France have to be in French. The finance candidates who do apply ask the same two questions in their first call: is the role cadre, and which convention collective applies?
The company reposts in French and adds APEC and Welcome to the Jungle. It hires a strong finance manager within six weeks of the first interview. She then serves a three-month notice period set by her current employer’s collective agreement, and the start slips past the year-end close. The support agents come through France Travail’s recruitment-by-simulation test and start within a month. Same company, same city, two completely different hiring tracks.
France rewards employers who understand its structure. The labour market is split between cadres (executives and professionals) and everyone else. Collective agreements fill in details that other countries leave to contracts. French-language rules apply to adverts, and the public employment service is far more active than outsiders expect. This playbook shows where talent clusters, which channels work for which track, how to write a lawful French advert, and how trial and notice periods shape your timeline.
It belongs to the European country series in our Finding the Right Person hub. Before you open the role, settle the scope and must-haves with the role scorecard question set. The French rules then decide how you express them.
- France Travail (Pôle emploi until 2024) counted 2.28 million recruitment projects for 2026 in its BMO survey, with 43.8% expected to be difficult, down from 50.1% in 2025.
- Cadre roles run through APEC, Cadremploi, LinkedIn and Welcome to the Jungle. Non-cadre roles run through France Travail, Indeed, HelloWork and temp agencies.
- Adverts published in France must be in French, must not state an upper age limit, and normally carry “H/F” or “F/H” after the title.
- A pay transparency bill presented on 10 September 2026 would require a salary or range in the advert or before the interview and ban salary-history questions. It was not law at the time of writing.
- Cadres typically owe three months’ notice under collective agreements, so a senior hire often takes four to six months from advert to start.
Paris dominates, but the regions hire harder
Île-de-France is the largest single market by far. France Travail’s 2026 Besoins en Main-d’Œuvre (BMO) survey counted about 389,000 recruitment projects in the region, ahead of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (255,000) and Nouvelle-Aquitaine (249,000). The difficulty is greater outside the capital, though. Employers rated 35.6% of Paris-region projects as difficult, against 47.8% in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and 49.8% in Nouvelle-Aquitaine. A regional factory competes for a thinner pool than a Paris start-up.
Each cluster has its own personality. Paris holds finance, consulting, luxury and most head offices, with research concentrated on the Paris-Saclay plateau. Lyon combines life sciences and chemicals, Toulouse and Bordeaux aerospace, and Grenoble microelectronics. Nantes and Rennes mix digital and agri-food, Lille has retail head offices, and Sophia Antipolis has telecoms and software. Regional cadres weigh quality of life heavily against a Paris salary premium.
The BMO survey also shows where it hurts. The most difficult projects in 2026 include machining operators (80.6% rated difficult), roofers (79.7%), doctors (78.8%) and boilermakers (77.7%). In volume, hospitality and agriculture dominate, many of them seasonal. Only 41% of all recruitment projects are permanent contracts (CDI). That figure matters for planning. French candidates in short supply hold out for a CDI, and fixed-term contracts (CDD) are legally limited to specific situations rather than being a free probation tool.
Where French candidates look, by track
Because the cadre and non-cadre markets behave differently, the channel mix should differ too. The table reflects the market at the time of writing (November 2026). Commercial boards sell packages and credits, so the cost column describes the model, not a price.
For a cadre role in Paris, a good default is LinkedIn plus APEC plus either Cadremploi or Welcome to the Jungle, depending on whether you are an established company or a scale-up. For a technician or operator role in the regions, use France Travail plus Indeed plus HelloWork. A temp agency is often the fastest route for production roles. See our job boards by country directory for more options, and freelance and contract talent platforms if a freelance contract would fit better than a hire.
France Travail, alternance and the duties that come with headcount
France Travail is more than a job board. Its employer advisers can pre-screen candidates, and its méthode de recrutement par simulation (MRS) assesses applicants on practical exercises that reproduce the job instead of on CVs. That makes MRS useful for customer service, logistics and production roles where qualifications predict little. Its POEI scheme funds pre-hire training for a job seeker you commit to hiring, a practical answer to the “nobody has exactly our skills” problem. Since the 2023 full-employment law, France Travail sits at the centre of a wider Réseau pour l’emploi, and more job seekers, including benefit recipients and young people, are registered with it.
Work-study (alternance) is the other big lever. Apprenticeship and professionalisation contracts let students alternate between school and your company. The state hiring aid for apprentices was cut in 2025, so check the amount that applies to your contract date. Many companies still find alternance the best way to build a junior pipeline. Two headcount duties also shape hiring. Companies with 20 or more employees must employ disabled workers for at least 6% of their headcount (the OETH) or pay a contribution, and from 11 employees a social and economic committee (CSE) must be elected. Before any hire, the employer must file a pre-employment declaration (DPAE) with URSSAF, or the new hire is legally undeclared. At the time of writing the minimum wage published on Service-Public.fr is €12.31 gross an hour, about €1,867 a month for 35 hours.
Cabinets, chasseurs de têtes and the network effect
French recruitment firms (cabinets de recrutement) typically charge about 15% to 25% of gross annual salary for cadre roles at the time of writing, and executive search (chasse de têtes) often charges a third, billed in instalments. Many cabinets offer a retained or semi-retained model, with part of the fee paid at the start, more often than UK agencies do. Agree the guarantee period and the fee basis in writing: does it include variable pay, the thirteenth month or the car? Temporary work (intérim) is a large, regulated industry. Temp workers receive an end-of-assignment allowance, generally 10% of gross pay, and conversion to a permanent contract is common. Our agency fees by country guide compares the terms.
Networks matter enormously. Alumni associations of the grandes écoles and business schools act as informal recruitment channels for cadres, and co-optation (employee referral) bonuses are widespread in tech and consulting. A good referral scheme here pays a modest bonus after the trial period and tracks diversity, because co-optation can quietly reproduce one school’s alumni network. Our referral programme guide shows how to avoid that. Campus hiring works through school career centres, forums and internships. The six-month end-of-studies internship (stage de fin d’études) is the classic route to a first CDI.
Writing a French advert: language, H/F and what you may ask
The Labour Code is specific about adverts. They must be written in French, and a foreign-language version may accompany the French text. If the job can only be described by a foreign term, the French text must explain it clearly. The exceptions are narrow, mainly publications in a foreign language, so treat English-only adverts in France as non-compliant unless counsel tells you otherwise. Adverts may not state an upper age limit, may not contain false or misleading claims, and may not specify the candidate’s sex. That is why French titles carry “H/F” or “F/H”, and some employers now add a third, non-binary option.
France’s anti-discrimination list is long. It covers more than twenty grounds, including origin, sex, age, family situation, pregnancy, physical appearance, surname, place of residence, health, disability, union activity, religion and the ability to speak a language other than French. Article L1221-6 of the Labour Code limits what you may ask a candidate to information with a “direct and necessary link” to the job or to assessing professional ability. Candidates must also be told in advance about the methods used to assess them, including tests and AI-assisted screening. The CNIL, the data-protection authority, publishes recruitment guidance that is worth reading before you build your form.
French CVs run to one page for juniors and two for experienced cadres. Photos are optional, so never require one. Candidates look for three things in the advert: cadre status, the collective agreement and whether it is a CDI. State all three, plus location and remote days (télétravail, often two a week for cadres).
Salary disclosure is the moving part. France has not yet transposed the EU Pay Transparency Directive. According to Previssima, the government’s bill, presented to the Council of Ministers on 10 September 2026, would require employers to state the planned salary or salary range in the advert, or before the interview where there is no advert. It would also ban questions about current or past pay. Parliamentary adoption was not expected to be quick, and the new pay-gap indicators are planned for 2028. Even so, many French adverts already show a range, often as annual gross pay (brut annuel) with variable pay stated separately. Read our guide to the Directive after the deadline and set your band using the pay-band question set.
Trial periods, notice and the long goodbye
The trial period (période d’essai) is set by law at a maximum of two months for workers and employees, three for supervisors and technicians, and four for cadres. It can be renewed once if a branch agreement allows it and the contract says so, giving up to eight months for a cadre. It must be written into the contract or offer letter. The comparison below shows how the cadre and non-cadre tracks differ.
Notice on resignation (préavis de démission) has no general statutory length. It comes from the collective agreement or local custom. Many agreements set one month for employees, one to two months for supervisors and three months for cadres. When the employer dismisses, the Labour Code sets minimums of one month after six months’ service and two months after two years, unless the agreement gives more. A candidate who resigns also gives up unemployment insurance. Some therefore try to negotiate a rupture conventionnelle, a mutually agreed termination, with their current employer, which takes several weeks to approve and can delay your start. Ask about this at offer stage.
Counter-offers are less common than in London, but a three-month notice period gives everyone time to change their mind. Keep in contact, send the contract promptly, and agree whether you will ask the current employer for an early release (dispense de préavis). Post-employment non-competes are valid only if they are limited in time, place and scope and paid for. If the candidate has one, ask whether their employer plans to enforce or waive it. Pre-employment checks are narrower than in the UK. A criminal-record extract can be requested only where justified by the role, and references should be checked with the candidate’s knowledge. For a lawful approach, see our reference check guide by country.
Recruiting from abroad into France
EU, EEA and Swiss citizens can work without a permit. For others, the main routes are the passeport talent family of multi-year permits (including the EU Blue Card) for qualified and highly paid profiles, and the employee permit, for which the employer applies online through the ANEF platform. Shortage-occupation lists (métiers en tension) remove the need to prove a local search for listed roles, and the list was revised in 2025, so check the current version for your region. Lead times at consulates and prefectures vary widely. Start the process at offer stage, and treat the candidate’s start date as provisional until the permit is issued.
The compliance detail is in our Expat HR series: hiring expats in France: employer compliance, the France work visa guide and French employment contracts and labour law. If you do not have a French entity, compare the options in hiring where you have no entity before you post. Many foreign employers start with an employer of record.
The French question set
The French market punishes improvisation more than most. Answer these questions, in writing, before the advert goes live.
If you also hire elsewhere in Europe, set these answers beside the German playbook and the UK playbook. All three have long notice periods for senior hires, but France is the one where the collective agreement, not the contract, often decides them. For advert wording across many jurisdictions, use our job ad legal check.
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