French employment law is dense, constantly evolving, and particularly demanding for foreign businesses lacking in-house legal expertise. An HR compliance audit is a bespoke HR project that tells you exactly where you stand: what is compliant, what presents a risk, and what needs to be rectified before it becomes costly.
As part of our HR Project Management service, this is a structured assignment with defined deliverables, not an ongoing subscription.
Most of our clients don't request an audit because something has gone wrong. They request it because the cost of uncertainty has become too high.
The most common scenarios:
You wish to understand your exposure before the inspector does.
HR due diligence prior to or post-transaction.
A clear baseline assessment before making any decisions.
Regulatory obligations change; compliance must be re-verified.
“We have been operating for three years, but no one has ever reviewed the contracts or the payroll configuration end-to-end.”
A British reinsurance firm commissioned an HR audit upon acquiring a French subsidiary, uncovering 14 contractual discrepancies and three payroll anomalies within five weeks.
We review the employment and HR framework of your French operation against current employment law and the applicable collective agreement.
Areas covered:
Employment contracts and contractual obligations
Application of and compliance with the collective agreement
Payroll compliance and accuracy of social security contributions
Working time regulations and leave management
Social declarations (DSN and URSSAF returns)
HR documentation and mandatory statutory obligations
Obligations relating to staff representation (CSE) where applicable
We benchmark your current practices against statutory and collective requirements, identify discrepancies, and assess the risk level associated with each finding.
Depending on your circumstances, we offer two formats:
Targeted review of the highest-risk areas, typically employment contracts, payroll configuration, and DSN submissions. Ideal for businesses requiring swift answers ahead of an inspection or transaction.
Exhaustive coverage of all employment and HR compliance domains. Suited for new market entrants, post-acquisition integrations, or entities that have never undertaken a formal review.
The scope and timeframe are defined together based on your situation.
Employment contracts, payslips, collective agreement, HR policies, and 12 months of DSN. You provide; we analyse.
We compare your current practices against the requirements of French employment law and collective obligations. Each discrepancy is evaluated by risk level: administrative, financial, or legal.
Two concrete outcomes:
A gap report summarising the findings by risk tier, and a prioritised action plan detailing corrective measures and deadlines. Absolute clarity.
Identifying and rectifying discrepancies proactively is always simpler and more cost-effective than belated regularisation. An HR compliance audit gives you a transparent view of your situation, empowering you to act with confidence before an issue becomes critical.
The foreign companies that partner with us do not lack rigour; they are navigating a complex French regulatory framework without having on-the-ground internal expertise. Our role is to deliver this expertise, practically and in complete confidentiality.
Describe your situation to us, and we will define the audit format best suited to your needs.
Request my HR compliance audit