Two months left. Three weeks. More than two days. Still no news from HRD. Despite everything, a little anxiety grips because tomorrow is the end of the trial period with the risk of stopping the CDI. Why worry when the goals are achieved and the congratulations are raining down? It wouldn’t be the first time a change in strategy has demolished a good, patiently knit relationship. Next. Next… sang Brel. Verification in article L 1221-19 of the Labor Code: “The employment contract of indefinite duration may include a trial period whose maximum duration is: 1° for workers and employees, two months; 2° for supervisors and technicians, three months; 3° for executives, four months”. On the employment contract, the employer took care to indicate that it could be renewed (art. L 1221-21 And L.1221-23) : for twice four months, we sweat under the sword of Damocles. “Coming to see me?” A call from management. Big angst. “We stop the trial period”. Damn. “You are on a permanent contract. Welcome”. What torture! “18.2% of permanent contracts are not confirmed at the end of the hiring period and almost two times out of three, at the initiative of the employee”, indicated Victor Waknine, president and founder of Mozart Consulting in a study by WillBe group in 2017 (“Recruitment and retention”). What if the solution to avoid stress on both sides was to work without a test period?
“The trial period can block when you want to settle in a new region”
“When I go looking for collaborators, I remove the trial period”, confides Joan Montesinos, president of Gerimalp (real estate agency, trustee of co-ownerships and rental management in Annecy). A treatment reserved for those he hunts. He believes that when they ask him to work alongside him, debauched employees take a risk by stepping out of their comfort zone. This removal of the test is a kind of rebalancing in their relationship. It’s a concept he believes in. “I consider it important. I recruit mature employees and I trust a priori”. Could the ulterior reason not be strong tensions in this sector of activity where 91% of companies find it difficult to recruit and where 86% of talents are regularly solicited (Recrutimmo, October 2022)? “It’s a method that I have been using for ten years,” retorts Joan Montesinos. If either party made a mistake, contractual termination is a good tool. In fact, this abolition of the trial period is an argument increasingly used by companies seeking to hire in competitive sectors: Laurent Delcamp, co-founder of Solinki (network of 190 independent recruitment consultants), reports to important contractual changes, such as the end of the trial period in 22% of vacancies in the first months of 2023 compared to 7% in 2022. According to him, this change is mainly linked to executives who move far away. “There are significant population movements. The trial period can block when you want to settle in a new region. It is an obstacle to resettlement. Rental companies, like banks to grant a loan, are more cautious”. It is a lever that he recommends to recruit rare talents, in the same way as teleworking (58% in 2023 against 52% in 2022) and the removal of the non-competition clause (17% / 6%).
Long live the trial period?
However, this analysis is not unanimous. “The trial period is necessary”, judges for his part Maxime Cariou, CEO of Aymax (expert group in IT consulting), increased from 2 people in 2014 to 200 today in several countries and whose objective is to recruit 50 this year. “You have to know what the candidates are looking for: a freelancing format? A fixed-term contract? If it’s for the long term and we’re on a permanent contract, we go on a three-month trial”. Without a renewed trial period. “Afterwards, it tends towards precariousness and it is not a good message to the candidates”. Such is not the analysis of Ludovic Girodon, consultant and trainer. In his work DreamTeam (2019), he points out that “the most experienced managers recommend systematically renewing the trial period”. A long engagement, the secret of a happy marriage? On condition of saying it at the time of hiring with the common objective of validating on both sides that the employee “is in his rightful place and that he indeed wishes to continue the adventure”.