Career review interview in France: 2026 rules, penalty and content

What is the career path interview?

It is a meeting between the employee and the employer about the employee's career prospects, defined in Article L6315-1 of the French Labour Code. It does not assess the employee's work, which distinguishes it from the annual performance review. The employer organises it, a line manager or a management representative conducts it, and it takes place during working hours. A written record is produced and a copy is given to the employee.

Every company is concerned from its first employee, whatever the employment contract, including work-study contracts, according to the guide published by Opco EP (a skills operator) in 2026.

What changed with the law of 24 October 2025?

Point	Before the reform	Since Law No. 2025-989
Name	Professional interview	Career path interview
First interview	Information on hiring	Interview within the first year after hiring
Frequency	Every 2 years	Every 4 years (an agreement can set a shorter interval, never longer than 4 years)
Summary review	Every 6 years	Every 8 years (the first may take place 7 years after the first interview)
Mid-career	No link	Interview within 2 months of the mid-career occupational health visit
Before age 60	No specific content	The first interview in the 2 years before age 60 covers job retention and end-of-career arrangements

Company or branch agreements that set a different frequency must be renegotiated. The new wording of Article L6315-1 applies to those agreements from 1 October 2026 (Article 3 of the law). Nothing prevents an employer from keeping a two-year cycle: four years is a maximum.

When must the interview take place?

• within the first year after hiring, then every four years;
• on return from certain absences, if no interview took place in the previous twelve months: maternity or adoption leave, parental leave, caregiver leave, sabbatical, secure voluntary mobility period, long-term sick leave, trade union mandate (the employee can ask for the interview before returning);
• within two months of the mid-career occupational health visit, held, failing a branch agreement, in the calendar year of the employee's 45th birthday (Article L4624-2-2);
• in the two years before the employee's 60th birthday, with broader content.

In companies with fewer than 300 employees, the employee can get help from a career development adviser (CEP) to prepare, and the employer can ask its OPCO (skills operator) for local advice.

What does the summary review check?

Every eight years, the interview takes stock of the employee's career. It checks that the employee has had the required interviews and assesses whether they have:

1. completed at least one training course;
2. obtained certification elements, through training or through validation of prior experience (VAE);
3. received a pay rise or career progression.

A company agreement or, failing that, a branch agreement can provide other ways of assessing the career path.

What does the employer risk?

The €3,000 top-up. In companies with at least 50 employees, where the employee has not had, over the eight years, the required interviews and at least one training course other than mandatory training within the meaning of Article L6321-2, their CPF is topped up (Articles L6315-1 and L6323-13). Article R6323-3 sets the amount at €3,000, paid by the employer to the Caisse des dépôts et consignations (the public body that manages CPF accounts) before the end of the calendar quarter following the summary review interview. The employee is informed of the payment.

Penalty for non-payment. During an inspection, an employer who has not paid the top-up, or has paid too little, is given formal notice to make up the shortfall. Failing that, it pays the Treasury an amount equal to the shortfall, increased by 100% (Article L6323-13).

Below 50 employees. The duty to hold the interviews applies, but the €3,000 top-up does not.

Information for the works council. Since the law of 24 October 2025, the information made available to the social and economic committee (CSE) in the economic, social and environmental database (BDESE) includes a review of the training actions taken following the interviews (Article L2312-18). Missing interviews therefore become visible to employee representatives.

Individual claims. An employee who considers they have suffered harm from the lack of interviews or training can claim damages before the employment tribunal.

What should the interview record to support skills management?

The interview is one of the few moments when the employer formally reviews each employee's skills. The law sets the topics; what is worth recording follows from them.

Topic set by Article L6315-1	What is worth recording
Skills and qualifications, and how they may evolve with changes in the company	Skills gained since the last interview, including on the job; gaps against the level expected in the role, measured on the company's skills framework
Situation and career path in light of changing jobs	New tasks, job changes, skills that have become less useful
Training needs (job, company changes, personal project)	Needs sorted by origin and priority, with the target date
Career wishes (retraining, skills assessment, VAE)	Stated project, scheme considered, next step
CPF, possible top-ups, career development advice	Information given and date

Four questions help produce usable answers: which skill have you developed most since the last interview, and how? Which task do you feel least comfortable with today? Which skill do you lack for your next step? Which training would help you most in the next twelve months?

Consolidated, these answers feed the skills mapping and the skills development plan, which, under Article L6321-1, can take the conclusions of the interviews into account. They require a shared skills framework; otherwise gaps cannot be compared from one employee to another.

To prepare the summary review, keep for each employee the interview dates, the training completed (separating mandatory training), the certifications obtained and any pay or job changes.