Probationary Trial Period Screening
RCTReview
Strict employment protection laws make terminating open-ended permanent contracts costly, creating high hiring risks for firms evaluating candidates with uncertain productivity.
Picture this
Buying an expensive piece of equipment with a 90-day return policy gives a business owner the safety net needed to make the purchase, because they can easily return it if it malfunctions during initial real-world operation.
What the evidence says
Combining PES pre-screening with statutory trial periods resulted in a 14% increase in hires who remained off unemployment registers for at least 12 months (0.046 quality hires, p < 0.01), showing that 100% of the net permanent contract hiring increase successfully survived probation.
- Who was studied
- N = 7,438 French firms subject to standard 1 to 3 month statutory probation periods (période d'essai) for permanent contracts.
- How
- 12-month post-hire longitudinal administrative tracking of jobseekers placed in permanent open-ended contracts (CDI).
What to do
Utilize standard 1 to 3 month statutory probation windows alongside external candidate pre-screening to mitigate termination risks associated with open-ended permanent employment contracts.
From the source
"A trial period or période d'essai, typically lasts 1-3 months for permanent contracts in France in which either side can unilaterally end the contract without consequence... This provides evidence that the program helped firms hire workers that made it past the formal trial period."
Are_Active_Labor_Market_Policies_Directed_at_Firms_Effective_Evidence.pdf