European HR leaders are blazing a new trail. They’re championing pay transparency, offering flexible work arrangements, experimenting with high-stakes use cases for AI, and prioritising diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) more than people teams in the US.

Our 2025 State of People Strategy Report uncovered the results, but now we’re taking a closer look at the key trends. To discover how leaders across the globe can learn from Europe’s progressive, effective HR strategies, we’ve spoken to human resources professionals with a deep understanding of the European market. Here’s what we learned: 

HR priorities are shifting in Europe

DEIB made its debut in the top five priorities in Europe for the first time in the history of our report. HR respondents in the region are 2.8 times as likely to rate DEIB as a priority than their US counterparts (28% vs. 10%). Even so, that’s still less than a third of respondents.

According to ‍Lucas Botzen, founder of Rivermate, an employer of record platform based in the Netherlands, for DEIB to become even more of a priority, it needs to be a core component throughout the employee lifecycle, not just an add-on.

Botzen recommends companies develop a clear vision and strategy for DEIB, aligned with overall business goals. “This involves setting measurable objectives while ensuring accountability of the leadership toward the delivery of such goals,” he said. 

Engagement Strategies: Why European HR Policies Outpace US Counterparts 

HR departments in Europe are more likely than US people teams to have rolled out benefits designed to boost engagement. These include learning and development (L&D) programming, flexible time off, remote work policies, stipends and four-day work weeks.

Joaquin Migliore, director of people experience at Superside, said these benefits are a likely result of a long history of policies and regulation: “These benefits – especially when American companies open up offices in Europe and have to adapt to the local reality – tend to be more appreciated and more utilised. In comparison, implementing the same benefits in the US may fall flat because culturally (and even morally) folks will likely not utilise them as heavily, as they might be perceived as impacting performance or chances of promotion.”

Managers recognise the work of HR

For the first time, our 2025 State of People Strategy Report features insights from managers outside of HR, offering valuable perspectives from the other side of the table. 

There’s incredible alignment between European managers and the HR teams that support them. Here’s what that looks like across a range of workplace topics for respondents based in England, France, and Germany:

To what extent does HR provide all the support needed for:

• Training on performance evaluation: according to managers (84%) vs according to HR (84%) 
• Training on giving constructive feedback: according to managers (84%) vs according to HR (85%)
• Training on how to help employees who are lagging: according to managers (79%) vs according to HFR (82%) 
• Information on how promotions are handled: according to managers (78%) vs according to HR (86%)
• Useful tools and platforms to consolidate or track information: according to managers (80%) vs according to HR (82%) 
• How to help direct reports handle burnout: according to managers (81%) vs according to managers (76%) 

Despite this strong relationship, data from our 2025 State of People Strategy survey also showed that in Europe, managers tend to view HR as solely an administrative function – when in reality it’s so much more. 

To shift the focus from admin to advocacy, Anna Amosova, HR director at Mellow, concentrates on turning HR’s efforts toward providing strategic value through its ability to solve business problems. “This could involve improving internal processes, hiring the right people and organisational design.” 

The key to proving this strategic value is good data – budgeting, forecasting and the right metrics to justify decisions are all crucial, says Amosova: “Without this, it’s difficult to convince the business that HR should focus on strategic tasks rather than getting bogged down in bureaucracy,” she explained. 

Botzen also recommends that HR becomes “more active and strategic in discussions, [by] showing how they contribute to organisational outcomes, HR can reframe its role from being an administrative function to becoming a key partner in building a well-performing company culture”.

European HR teams are embracing AI 

Artificial intelligence is changing how HR functions operate – some of the top use cases for AI among European HR teams involve the mundane, repetitive tasks that typically take up a lot of time “…but barely contribute to cultivating the desired work culture or actually managing employee relations or talent acquisition,” explained Tetiana Hnatiuk, head of HR at Skylum, a Ukrainian company producing photo-editing software. “AI is better at performing those technical tasks without the possibility of human error, and you are better at focusing on people. So, it can be really beneficial for both HR and AI to do what they do best,” she added.

For these kinds of applications, AI is mostly meeting or exceeding expectations. But the real magic happens when HR teams are open to experimenting with AI in higher-stakes use cases.

Our survey shows that using AI to identify bias in reviews, raises and promotion opportunities is the least popular AI implementation for European HR teams – but it’s exceeding their expectations the most. 

Novel use cases for AI in HR have huge potential, but there’s still a strong argument for a human touch. “Maybe you want a chatbot for your employees – but don’t forget how crucial the human factor is for the HR field,” cautioned Hnatiuk. “It’s better to implement AI in moderation and as an assistant to HR, not a replacement.”

HR teams in Europe are performing but at risk of burnout 

From the data it seems as though European HR teams are outperforming their US counterparts, with 16% of European HR professionals saying they’re exceeding their goals, compared to 11% of teams in the US. 

But while HR teams in Europe are working hard to do the best for their people, they’re also feeling the effects of burnout. Indeed, 45% said they feel too overwhelmed by their management responsibilities to do their best work. Some of this overwhelm potentially stems from administrative burdens, with HR teams in Europe more than twice as likely as their US counterparts to list paperwork and policies as a significant contributor to burnout.

This signals that HR teams in Europe might need more support from their organisational leaders. At Mellow, Amosova uses a blend of automation and outsourcing to reduce the administrative burden on HR, allowing her team more time to focus on strategic issues. 

Amosova added that it’s also important to remember that some administrative work will always remain with HR, so it’s unrealistic to try to eliminate it completely. Hnatiuk agreed that the right HR tech, including HR management systems, can help reduce the burden of administrative tasks. 

There’s a lot to learn from how Europe is approaching HR – but much of it comes down to knowing which resources to use, and when. By gathering the data needed to prove strategic value, building custom AI systems that support performance management, and embracing a wide range of employee benefits, European HR teams are proving the impact of an innovative approach.