La GEPP, for Job and Career Management, refers to an HR approach aimed at anticipating changes in jobs and skills based on the concept of career path.
Officially introduced by Macron ordinances of 2017, the GEPP marks a major evolution compared to the GPEC. It aims to strengthen the employability of employees while supporting the performance and transformation of companies.
In practice, the term GPEC remains widely used, which highlights the need for pedagogy. However, GEPP broadens the framework: it is no longer limited to skills, but integrates career paths, mobilities and career aspirations in a more dynamic and more collaborative way.
What is GEPP?
Definition
La GEPP, for Job and Career Management, is an HR approach that aims to anticipate changes in jobs and skills by integrating the concept of career path.
Introduced by the Macron ordinances of 2017, the GEPP marks an evolution of the GPEC in extending the approach to all career paths. It takes into account mobilities, transitions and the employability of employees in a constantly changing environment.
GEPP operates at several levels — company, branch or territory — and aims to strengthen the ability of organizations to adapt to economic, technological, social and environmental transformations.
Concretely, GEPP is based on a few structuring principles, which make it possible to align the needs of the company and the careers of employees.
What are the strategic objectives of GEPP?
Concretely, GEPP is based on a few structuring principles, which make it possible to align the needs of the company and the careers of employees.
The main objectives of GEPP
The GEPP meets 5 structuring objectives:
- Have a clear vision of jobs and know-how: Identify the strengths present in the organization in order to better anticipate future developments.
- Strengthen the employability of employees: Promote sustainable career paths, taking into account changes in jobs and skills.
- Supporting business transformations: Align job and skills needs with strategic directions, market developments and external constraints.
- Securing professional trajectories: Give visibility on internal opportunities, possible mobilities and career developments.
- Structuring social dialogue around employment: Provide a shared framework to anticipate the impacts of transformations on jobs and career paths.
These objectives are part of a regulatory framework that has gradually structured the GEPP and specified the obligations of companies in terms of managing jobs and career paths.
The GEPP and its legislative construction
The GEPP is part of a gradual evolution of the regulatory framework aimed at better anticipating changes in employment and at strengthening social dialogue around career paths. While the need to anticipate changes in jobs is long-standing, the formalization of the GEPP as it is known today is the result of several successive legislative steps.
The first bases: GPEC as a starting point
The first obligations in terms of forecasting jobs and skills appeared in the early 2000s with the establishment of the GPEC.
The programming law for social cohesion of 2005 requires companies with more than 300 employees to undertake a proactive management approach, formalized by a collective agreement, relating in particular to mobility, training and the adaptation of skills.
Strengthening social dialogue
In 2007, the law on social dialogue and employment completed this system by strengthening the obligations of periodic negotiation. It broadens the scope of discussions between management and social partners, in particular on working conditions, professional equality and value sharing.
2017: the official emergence of GEPP
The Macron ordinances of 2017 mark a decisive step with the official introduction of the Job and Career Management.
This evolution reflects a change in logic: the concept of career path is preferred, formalism is streamlined and the approach is more aimed at promoting foresight, mobility and the co-construction of professional trajectories.
GEPP and its reality in business
Despite a clarified regulatory framework, GEPP is still struggling to fully establish itself in practice. In many organizations,The term GPEC is still mostly used., which reflects both a heritage of past practices and a still incomplete appropriation of the logic of career paths.
Going beyond GPEC terminology
The persistent use of the term GPEC is not just a question of vocabulary. It often reflects an approach that is still focused on technical skills, where GEPP aims for a more global vision of professional trajectories.
By integrating behavioral dimensions, mobilities and professional transitions, GEPP seeks to overcome certain limits historically associated with GPEC.
The main differences between framework and practice
In fact, several differences can be observed between the GEPP principles and their implementation in business:
- Another logic largely descending in the definition of priorities, limiting the consideration of individual aspirations
- Partial foresight Changes in professions, often constrained by poorly updated standards
- A still insufficient visibility on internal opportunities and possible paths, hampering mobility and loyalty
A gradual change in posture
GEPP involves a change in posture for HR actors and social partners. It involves moving from a static skills management logic to a more dynamic approach, focused on the forecasting and securing of career paths.
This evolution remains gradual and depends heavily on the company's context, its HR maturity and its ability to engage in structured social dialogue.
GEPP and its tools
GEPP and its main levers
GEPP is not limited to a regulatory framework or strategic intent. It mobilizes various HR levers that make it possible to observe, analyze and support the evolution of jobs and career paths.
These levers constitute a common base, whose use and level of maturity vary between organizations.
The main levers used in a GEPP
- Knowledge of jobs and skills:A structured vision of jobs, know-how and their evolution over time.
- Analysis of demographic dynamics: A global reading of ages, mobilities and departures in order to anticipate imbalances.
- Exchange times around professional careers: Spaces for dialogue to better understand aspirations and possible trajectories.
- The projection of changes in activity: A prospective reflection on the impacts of economic, technological or organizational transformations on employment.
While the GEPP constitutes a structuring framework for anticipating changes in employment and career paths, its implementation is not without limits, linked both to its regulatory scope and to the reality of business practices.
What are the limits of GEPP?
The GEPP has some limitations, in particular a regulatory perimeter restricted to companies with more than 300 employees and a still partial consideration of the financial dimensions linked to employment decisions. Its implementation also depends on the context and the HR maturity of organizations.
These limits in more detail
Despite its contributions, GEPP has some limitations that should be taken into account in order to understand its real scope.
From a regulatory point of view, the obligation to negotiate a GEPP agreement mainly concerns companies with more than 300 employees, which restricts its application to a part of the economic fabric. Many organizations thus remain outside the formal framework of the process.
In addition, the GEPP does not deal directly with the financial dimension of decisions related to employment and career paths. The scenarios considered are based above all on organizational and HR hypotheses, without always integrating the associated economic impacts.
How to set up a GEPP effectively?
The implementation of a GEPP is based on a structured approach to anticipate changes in jobs and career paths. It is generally in line with GPEC approaches, while integrating the concept of professional career. The methods of implementation vary according to the context, size and HR maturity of organizations.
Conclude on the GEPP
Today, GEPP is establishing itself as a reference framework to support employment transformations and secure career paths in a context of rapid change.
By extending the historical logic of GPEC to professional trajectories, it allows companies to better anticipate their needs while strengthening the employability of employees.
While its implementation depends heavily on the organizational and regulatory context, GEPP is an essential basis for more comprehensive approaches to resource planning and skills forecasting, such as Strategic Workforce Planning.
