You have probably come across both acronyms in a job posting, a company agreement or a works council presentation: GPEC on one side, GEPP on the other. They describe the same family of approaches, but the second shifted the focus: you no longer manage only positions and skills, you support career paths. This article explains what GEPP changes compared with GPEC, which companies must negotiate it according to the French Labour Code, which tools make it concrete, and how to showcase it in your application.
From GPEC to GEPP
What GPEC covered
Forward-looking management of jobs and skills (GPEC) means anticipating the gap between the resources a company has (headcount, jobs, skills) and those it will need in two or three years. It starts from strategy: a site that closes, an activity that goes digital, a regulation that changes. From there it draws action plans: training, recruitment, redeployment.
What changes with GEPP
The Labour Code now speaks of "management of jobs and career paths" and of gender balance across occupations. The change in vocabulary is not just cosmetic. It brings three ideas to the front:
- the employee’s career path, and not only the position to fill;
- internal mobility, which becomes a full topic of the negotiation;
- balance across occupations, meaning access for everyone to every occupation.
In practice, many companies still say GPEC out of habit. When you read a job posting, look at the content of the duties rather than the acronym: job mapping, succession plans, mobility, skills development.
Why companies care
Hiring externally costs time and does not solve everything: some occupations are becoming scarce, others are being transformed. A GEPP approach helps spot skills in short supply, move employees along before their occupation disappears, and make the company more attractive to people who want to grow without leaving it.
The companies concerned by the negotiation
The 300-employee threshold
The Labour Code requires companies and groups of companies with at least three hundred employees to negotiate on the management of jobs and career paths (articles L. 2242-2 and L. 2242-20). Smaller companies are not required to negotiate, but nothing prevents them from running a voluntary approach, with or without an agreement.
Note that the obligation concerns opening the negotiation, not concluding an agreement. The employer must start the discussion with the trade unions; a final disagreement is possible.
What the negotiation may cover
Article L. 2242-20 lists the subjects of the negotiation. They include in particular:
- setting up a system of forward-looking management of jobs and skills, with its support measures (training, validation of prior experience, skills assessment, support for mobility);
- the conditions of internal occupational or geographic mobility, which get a dedicated chapter if an agreement is concluded;
- the main orientations of vocational training;
- the outlook for the use of the different types of employment contract, part-time work and internships, and the means of limiting precarious jobs;
- informing subcontracting companies of the strategic orientations that affect their occupations;
- the career progression of employees who hold union responsibilities.
The next article, L. 2242-21, adds possible subjects, such as identifying the job categories threatened by economic or technological change. A review is carried out when the agreement expires.
How often
The law provides a rhythm for renegotiation, but that rhythm can be adjusted by the agreement that sets the topics and the calendar of the negotiation (article L. 2242-11). The texts available online do not give the same interval depending on the article: check the version in force on Légifrance before quoting a figure in an official document or in an interview.
The tools of a GEPP approach
A GEPP approach is not a document: it is a chain of tools that feed one another.
Job mapping
This is the foundation. You list the company’s occupations, their headcount, their age pyramid, their key skills, then you classify them: stable, growing, declining, or in short supply. The skills framework that goes with it is then used for job descriptions, interviews and training.
Bridges between occupations
From the mapping, you identify the skills two occupations have in common, and therefore the realistic moves. A bridge tells an employee: "with a few months of training, you can move from this occupation to that one". It is the tool teams appreciate most, because it makes mobility readable.
Talent and succession reviews
Every year, managers and HR go through the teams: potential, career wishes, key positions with no identified successor. This exercise demands rigour and confidentiality, because it leads to decisions about people.
Internal mobility
Job board, priority internal posting of vacancies, discovery placements in another occupation, support for internal candidates: mobility is the moment of truth of the approach. A GEPP that produces no mobility remains a theoretical exercise.
The skills development plan
Training follows from the gaps identified. The link with the career review interview is direct: that is where the employee expresses career wishes, and where the collective approach meets individual paths.
Tracking with indicators
Number of internal moves, positions filled internally, training completed, successors identified for key positions: a few indicators are enough to steer. They fit naturally into an HR dashboard.
The role of HR and managers
HR builds the framework
HR runs the mapping, keeps the framework up to date, prepares the negotiation with employee representatives and manages the calendar. It produces the analyses, but it does not decide alone: a GEPP approach commits management.
Managers bring the approach to life
A manager who never talks about career progression with the team empties GEPP of its meaning. The manager spots talent, accepts seeing a colleague leave for another department and prepares a succession. A good part of HR’s work is to equip managers: interview guides, training, clear rules of the game on mobility.
Employee representatives
GEPP is negotiated, and the elected members of the social and economic committee are informed and consulted on strategy and its effects on employment. Knowing how to present a mapping, explain a training choice and argue for a project is part of the job. If this aspect interests you, the article on employee relations details what recruiters and managements expect from a profile at ease with social dialogue.
Supporting change
A GEPP touches sensitive things: the future of an occupation, a training course to follow, a move. Change management is part of it: communicate early, listen to concerns, show examples of success.
Showcasing a GEPP project in your application
Describe your exact role
In a GEPP approach, several people are involved. On your CV, say what you did yourself: you built the mapping, ran the talent reviews, prepared the negotiation, designed the bridges, or managed the tracking.
Before / after
Before
Took part in the company’s GEPP approach.
After
Built the job mapping of three departments and the bridges between declining occupations and occupations in short supply, presented to managers and employee representatives; set up an annual succession review for key positions.
The second version says what you produced, for whom and in what framework. You can complete it with an effect you are able to demonstrate (internal moves made, positions filled without external hiring), provided you rely on data you actually have.
Keywords to reuse
Job mapping, skills framework, talent review, succession plan, internal mobility, skills development plan, agreement negotiation, social dialogue. Reuse the ones in the posting, exactly as it writes them: applicant tracking systems look for precise terms.
Models
The sample CV for an internal mobility and GEPP manager shows how to present these duties, and the one for an HR development manager covers career paths and succession. Next, create your CV for free: the tool handles the layout for you and the PDF stays readable by tracking software, which discards badly structured documents before a recruiter reads them.
Sources
- Labour Code, article L. 2242-2 🔗: negotiation on the management of jobs and career paths, headcount threshold.
- Labour Code, article L. 2242-20 🔗: content of the negotiation, companies and groups of at least three hundred employees.
- Légifrance, article L. 2242-20 of the Labour Code 🔗: threshold of three hundred employees for the companies and groups concerned.
- Labour Code, article L. 2242-21 🔗: additional subjects of the negotiation.
- Labour Code, article L. 2242-11 🔗: topics and frequency set by agreement.
Questions fréquentes
Are GEPP and GPEC the same thing?
Both describe the same approach to anticipation. The term GEPP, used by the Labour Code, puts more emphasis on employees’ career paths, internal mobility and balance across occupations. In companies, both acronyms coexist.
Can a company with fewer than 300 employees do GEPP?
Yes. The obligation to negotiate applies to companies and groups of at least 300 employees, but a small or mid-sized company can map its occupations, organise moves and plan the transfer of know-how without a formal agreement.
Is GEPP a subject for lawyers or for HR?
For both. The negotiation follows precise legal rules, but the approach relies on HR tools and on managers’ commitment. A profile that can connect the two is valuable.
How do you talk about GEPP in an interview?
Choose one case: a mapping, a talent review, a supported move. Explain the starting problem, what you set up, how managers and employee representatives got involved and what it changed, without exaggerating.