Workforce planning (GEPP/GPEC) for SMEs: anticipating skills without red tape

Quick answer. Workforce planning (GEPP, the new name of GPEC since the 2017 ordinances) is only a mandatory negotiation from 300 employees (article L2242-2 of the Labour Code). Below that, it is voluntary: a light approach is enough, built on three simple moves — map skills, spot departure risks, build a development plan. No bureaucracy is needed to capture the value.

In France, GEPP stands for "management of jobs and career paths". The term replaced GPEC ("forward planning of jobs and skills") with ordinance no. 2017-1386 of 22 September 2017. The principle is unchanged: anticipate future skill needs, take stock of current talent and build a development plan. For an SME, that means pragmatism, not regulatory weight.

Obligation or voluntary approach#

The duty to negotiate workforce planning means a formal agreement with the unions and documentation. For an SME below the threshold, the value is captured without that machinery: less turnover, prepared successions, better hires.

A light approach addresses three very concrete risks.

First, departures that catch you off guard: a key skill leaves and you hire in a rush, more expensively and less well. A simple map flags critical roles months in advance. Second, turnover that eats into the margin: every departure costs in recruitment, onboarding and lost productivity — a topic we detail in our article on the cost of a failed hire. Third, internal pools that go unnoticed: with no visibility, you hire externally what a current employee could have taken on after targeted training.

Mapping, anticipating and developing: these three moves also feed your pay and retention policy. They sit naturally alongside a coherent pay structure and the levers of retention against turnover.

1. Map skills by role. For each role, list the key skills, secondary skills, level of mastery and the risk if the person leaves. A one-page sheet per role is enough; a one-hour interview with each team lead feeds the exercise.
2. Spot gaps and succession risks. Three questions per role: can it be filled internally within twelve months? What skills will be needed in eighteen to twenty-four months? Who is a departure risk? The result fits on one page: a risk register.
3. Build a development plan. For each exposed role and each internal promotion candidate, write a short action plan: upskilling, mentoring, training, milestones. Link it to the skills development plan (the former training plan).
4. Activate the statutory meetings. Even without a formal plan, the professional interview and its six-year review feed the approach (see the next step).
5. Tool up without overspending. A shared spreadsheet is enough for an SME; a dedicated HR tool becomes useful as you grow, to link skills, interviews and training.

A grid fits on one page and is filled in during one interview per team lead. The aim is not exhaustiveness but spotting critical roles and the successions to prepare. Three columns are enough to inform a decision: the level of mastery, the risk if the person leaves and the priority action to take.

This grid becomes the basis for professional interviews and works-council consultation: it ties the daily reality of the teams to the company's trajectory. Updated once a year, it is enough to turn corridor hunches into reasoned hiring and training decisions. A director who knows today which roles would be hard to replace tomorrow has already done the essential part: the rest is simply a matter of regularity.

Three exchanges, already required by law, feed a skills approach at no extra cost:

• The professional interview, mandatory every two years (article L6315-1), covers development prospects and training needs — distinct from the appraisal interview.
• The six-year review (article L6315-1) takes stock of the path travelled and the training followed.
• The works-council consultation on strategic direction (article L2312-24), in companies with at least 50 employees, covers employment prospects and the evolution of skills.

A workforce plan for an SME fits into a few weeks of work spread over the year, with a simple deliverable at each step.

Reference. The duty to negotiate only applies from 300 employees (article L2242-2). Below that, this approach stays voluntary: its value comes not from software, but from the regularity of the attention paid to skills.

A company near the 300-employee threshold. If growth brings you close to the threshold, prepare the framework of your first workforce-planning negotiation in advance, to avoid having to improvise it. Support on growth strategy helps align the headcount trajectory with skill needs.

An SME with no dedicated HR function. Below around fifty employees, workforce planning is carried by management and field managers. Social steering and payroll provide the headcount and payroll data needed.

Using work-study contracts. Anticipating skills also means preparing work-study hires; our comparison of apprenticeship and professionalisation contracts informs that choice.

• Do not confuse workforce planning with works-council consultation. Strategic consultation exists from 50 employees; the workforce-planning negotiation is only mandatory at 300. Workforce planning feeds the consultation without replacing it.
• Keep the approach alive. A frozen map loses its value: an annual review, aligned with the budget cycle, is enough in an SME.
• Involve managers. Succession risk is steered closest to the field: workforce planning is a management responsibility, not just an HR one.
• Keep it simple. An endless skills matrix discourages adoption: start with five to seven key skills per role, then enrich.

Recently, a services SME of around forty employees asked us for help with high turnover among its junior roles. We supported a simple skills map by role. The exercise revealed that few juniors saw a clear path forward and that onboarding was uneven. A few moves — clarifying roles, setting up mentoring, opening career conversations — were enough to stabilise the teams over the following year, for an investment of a few half-days of internal work.

The finding is recurring: in an SME, the return does not come from costly software but from regular attention to skills. Spending a few afternoons a year on these conversations, naming succession candidates and funding one or two development priorities per person changes the trajectory. As chartered accountants registered with the Ordre, we tie this approach to the company's social data — headcount, payroll, age pyramid — so that it stays grounded in reality.

Hayot Expertise tip. Start small: a one-page sheet per role, three succession risks identified, then professional interviews held every year. It is free if you do it in-house, and it is enough to de-risk your key skills. Save the tools and the external support for when growth makes them useful, not before. And always tie the approach to your figures: the age pyramid, the turnover rate by department and the real cost of a vacant role turn an HR intention into a reasoned management decision.