France Travail: a discreet reform or a new layer of governance?

The France Travail report has the merit of not lapsing into administrative demagoguery: "for too long, however, our system has operated in silos, creating gaps, duplications and disruptions. It inflicts its complexity on individuals and companies alike, as well as on all the professionals who work with them. Administrative overload and useless reporting, lack of transparency and coordination costs have resulted in a lack of time available for human relations and solving concrete problems, a loss of meaning for professionals, legitimate frustration on the part of elected representatives and a lack of efficiency in public spending."

France Travail is the guarantor of better cooperation between players. This co-construction and consultation approach is far more likely to succeed than a top-down approach, as the current context clearly shows. What's more, in the absence of a majority in the French National Assembly, and with a Minister of Labor weakened by the pension reform.

The approach is salutary and demonstrates an undeniable quality of listening. France Travail has big ambitions: to offer seamless career paths, unify information systems, provide appropriate learning programs and simplify reporting. On paper, it's brilliant.

Delivering on these promises will be a different kettle of fish. Steering a mega-administration of almost 100,000 employees, merging archaic information systems and betting on the goodwill of the players to work together may seem a little flimsy. In concrete terms, how will the PIC (investment plan in skills) funds on which thousands of training organizations - and their precarious employees - depend be extended? In concrete terms, how can we simplify the legibility of learning when the management of certifications remains under the supervision of another administration? In concrete terms, how can we ensure that Pôle emploi and Missions Locales advisors see each other as colleagues? France Travail has its work cut out for it, and few allies, as all players have something to lose from the project.

Coaching teaches us that naming things is already transforming them. So, for optimists, half the battle has already been won. For those who believe that naming things only changes those who name them, everything remains to be done. France Travail could lose its way by spreading itself too thinly over too many huge projects. But even worse would be to do nothing to get things moving.