HR Signals – First Quarter 2026: The 3 risk areas that have put your HR departments under strain
Every day, Numeum’s legal experts work alongside our member companies to secure their decisions and simplify the application of employment law. From this hotline, a real time observatory of the sector, we draw a “field” analysis of the issues that concern you.
Topics we’ve decided to share with you every quarter. Our aim? To give you a concrete view of your peers’ concerns, and the keys to anticipating your own.
In the first quarter of 2026, one thing is clear: companies are faced with increasingly concrete HR issues, where the challenge is not only to know the rule, but also to know how to apply it safely.
Working time: still a top HR concern
A central and constant theme, working hours are clearly at the top of the list of issues dealt with by our hotline at the start of the year. Far from being an epiphenomenon, this trend confirms that working time is the main point of friction between legal requirements and the operational imperatives of companies in the sector.
In addition to the legal rules, the applicable collective bargaining arrangements continue to raise a number of questions: the implementation of arrangements 2 and 3, the calculation of rest days and the conditions for access to the fixed-duty day scheme all raise complex issues.
These specificities require regular clarification, in order to ensure the security of company practices in this area. As a result, working time remains the first point of vigilance for companies when it comes to reconciling legal compliance with day-to-day HR management.
Leave and absences: a year-round HR challenge
Contrary to popular belief, leave and absence management is not a seasonal issue: it’s a major challenge that mobilizes HR departments all year round. This constant flow of questions underlines a reality in the field: the difficulty lies less in the legal rule than in its sometimes delicate articulation with the collective bargaining provisions specific to our professional sector. Whether we’re talking about situations linked to parenthood (paternity leave, birth leave or maternity leave), family events or leave for special situations, each case calls for sensitive and often urgent implementation. This quest for reliability extends to the management of paid leave, for which the organization of departures, the employer’s obligations or the rules governing the acquisition, taking or splitting of leave require specialized expertise. All in all, this feedback confirms that this is an ongoing compliance challenge for companies, requiring constant vigilance to secure every practice.
Employment relations: securing each key stage in the employee’s career
Whether it’s a question of managing the hiring of an employee, dealing with a health hazard or organizing the end of a contract, the sensitive phases of an employment relationship require a detailed reading of the texts and rigorous implementation. The management of illness and inaptitude is a perfect illustration of this need for security: beyond the human aspect, questions linked to the maintenance of contractual wages or the acquisition of rights (paid leave, seniority) during a stoppage require rapid and reliable responses. This vigilance naturally extends to the end of the contract, which represents a significant volume of questions asked, and concerns the end of the trial period, dismissal, resignation or contractual termination.
Notification of termination, rules for calculating severance pay, compliance with notice periods i: each situation calls for specific expertise. As soon as a stage in an employee’s career becomes complex or strategic, the support of our experts becomes essential to anticipate and, as far as possible, neutralize legal risks.
Behind this leading trio, the same need is expressed: to secure HR practices in a technical and changing legal and contractual framework.
It is precisely in this context that the support offered by Numeum takes on its full meaning: to provide members with clear, secure answers tailored to the reality of their business, enabling them to manage their social challenges more serenely.
