HR

6 obligations to secure before your first hire in France

· 5 min · Jeanne Paul

Your organization has no establishment in France, and your first local recruitment is approaching: an assistant, a program officer, an office manager. The starting rule is simple and applies to everyone: a person working in France is compulsorily affiliated to the French social security system, whatever their nationality or place of residence, subject to bilateral agreements and EU coordination rules. Six obligations structure this first hire. Here they are, in the order in which they arise.

1. Obtain a SIRET, even without an establishment in France

A foreign employer with no establishment in France must still fulfil its French declaration and payment obligations; this follows from article L243-1-2 of the Code de la sécurité sociale. Registration goes through a single national Urssaf center, historically called the Centre national des firmes étrangères (CNFE) and now presented as the service firmes étrangères. One registration form is enough; the organization then receives a single SIRET number, used for all its exchanges with the French social protection bodies.

Two declaration channels then exist: the monthly déclaration sociale nominative (DSN), like any French employer, or the titre firmes étrangères (TFE), a free and optional Urssaf service that bundles registration, hiring formalities and the social declarations in one place.

2. File the DPAE within the 8 days before the start date

The déclaration préalable à l'embauche, the pre-hire declaration, is mandatory for every hire and must reach Urssaf within the 8 days preceding the start, trial period included. One single declaration covers five formalities: the first-hire declaration, the request to register the employee with social security, affiliation to unemployment insurance, membership of an occupational health service, and the declaration that triggers the mandatory medical visit.

In France, a compliant hire is built before day one, not after it. By the time your new colleague walks through the door, the essential declarations must already be filed.

3. Put the contract in writing and set the trial period correctly

Write the contract in a language both your headquarters and your employee understand, and keep the trial period within the legal maxima for permanent contracts: 2 months for workers and administrative employees, 3 months for supervisors and technicians, 4 months for executives, the cadres. Renewal is possible once only, and only if an extended branch agreement allows it, if the contract provides for it, and if the employee agrees in writing during the initial period.

The contract also sits within a collective bargaining agreement, the convention collective: the one covering the employer's main activity. Its title will appear on the payslip, and the employee must receive written notice of the applicable texts within one month of hiring.

4, 5 and 6. Health cover, medical visit, paid leave

Three protections open as soon as the employee takes up the post. First, complementary health insurance, the mutuelle: every private-sector employer must offer collective health cover to its employees and fund at least 50 percent of the premium, with a minimum basket of care.

Second, occupational health: the employer joins a prevention and occupational health service, and every new employee receives an information and prevention visit within a maximum of 3 months from actually taking up the post.

Third, paid leave: each month of actual work earns 2.5 working days of leave, capped at 30 working days per year, five weeks in total, whatever the contract type. Budget for this cost and this calendar from the offer letter onward; it is a statutory right, not a negotiable benefit.

Practical next steps

In chronological order:

  1. register the organization with the service firmes étrangères and obtain your SIRET;
  2. choose your declaration channel, DSN or TFE;
  3. file the DPAE within the 8 days before the start date;
  4. sign a written contract with a trial period matched to the role's category;
  5. set up the mutuelle and schedule the medical visit within 3 months;
  6. configure the paid leave counters from the very first payslip.

A first hire in France succeeds on method rather than on size, and the sequence above is the whole of it. It is a path OMAC Consulting regularly secures for embassies, international organizations and representative offices, in English as well as in French.

This is general information, not legal advice.