HR in the Netherlands and Germany: automating the function that manages change

In the second quarter of 2026, employers in Germany advertised 4,598 positions in human resources, according to the Hays Fachkräfte-Index. That was 40% fewer than a year earlier and 15.2% fewer than in the first quarter, and a long way below the peak of about 17,600 reached in early 2022. [1] Some of that decline reflects a weak German economy, which has held back hiring in almost every function. But HR leaders themselves expect much of it to last. A study by Kienbaum and the Bundesverband der Personalmanager, published in June, found that German HR departments had already saved about 9% of their headcount through AI and expected savings of around a third by 2030. Forty-two percent expected headcount in HR shared service centers to fall. [2] The function that usually manages change for everyone else is now redesigning its own work.

Gartner’s research describes the same direction in broader terms. In late 2025, it predicted that half of current HR tasks would be automated or managed by AI agents by 2030, while cautioning that chief executives “overestimate AI’s ability to fully replace human contributions,” in the words of Aaron McEwan, a vice president in Gartner’s HR advisory practice. [3] Its global survey of 426 chief human resources officers for 2026 put the use of AI to change how HR works at the top of their priorities, and found that changing the HR operating model had the highest predicted effect on AI productivity gains, at 29%. [4] Gartner also observed that only 1% of layoffs in the first half of 2025 resulted from productivity gains that AI had actually delivered, which suggests that many organizations are cutting in anticipation of savings they have not yet achieved. [5]

Large employers in both countries are already acting on that anticipation, mainly in the administrative and support roles where HR operations sit. ABN AMRO announced plans in November to reduce its workforce by a net 5,200 full-time positions by 2028, with about 35% of the reduction in operations and support. [6] ING said in March that it would cut 1,250 jobs, up to 950 of them in the Netherlands, partly through the use of AI. [7] Heineken announced in February that it would remove 5,000 to 6,000 roles over two years by expanding shared services and digitalization. [8] In Germany, Lufthansa plans to cut about 4,000 administrative jobs by 2030, mostly at home, through digitalization and AI, and its HR board member, Michael Niggemann, expects the reductions to peak in 2027 and 2028. [9] EnBW has said it will reduce headcount through AI and natural attrition rather than redundancies. [10] None of these programs targets HR alone, but each one reduces the transactional work that has traditionally employed large numbers of HR administrators, payroll specialists and recruitment coordinators.

The wider labor market makes these decisions easier for employers to take. Germany’s Federal Employment Agency reported on August 28 that unemployment had risen to 3.06 million, a rate of 6.5%, with 656,000 registered vacancies, and its chair, Andrea Nahles, said that the labor market showed little dynamism beyond seasonal patterns. [11] The ifo employment barometer rose slightly in July, to 93, but Klaus Wohlrabe, head of surveys at ifo, described a labor market that was stabilizing while remaining in difficult waters. [12] In the Netherlands, Statistics Netherlands reported unemployment of 4.0% in July, or 404,000 people, and 375,000 open vacancies at the end of the second quarter, slightly fewer than in the first. [13] Neither market is short of applicants for generalist roles, which removes much of the pressure employers once felt to keep large HR teams in place.

Recruitment is the part of HR where AI’s effects are most visible, and not always in the way employers hoped. Robert Half’s survey of 250 Dutch employers, published in August, found that 70% said checking applications written with AI was slowing their hiring, 45% lost at least a week as a result, and nearly 70% worried that AI would reduce the number of junior positions. Nitin Parbhudayal, a senior director at Robert Half, advised employers to “look beyond the CV.” [14] The tools that automate parts of recruiting are generating new work elsewhere in the process, and much of that work requires judgment rather than administration. Indeed reported that Germany created 288 new AI-related job titles in the first quarter, 59% of them outside technology, and that AI skills were becoming a standard requirement for skilled workers. [15]

What makes the Netherlands and Germany different from most markets is that HR cannot redesign itself as quickly as its leaders might like, because the law and the works councils have a say. In Germany, works councils have co-determination rights over technical systems capable of monitoring employees and over selection guidelines used in hiring, and they are entitled to information about the introduction of AI and to bring in their own experts. [16] In the Netherlands, systems that monitor employees or process their personal data require the consent of the works council, and major organizational changes trigger its right to advise. [17] Any HR leader who wants to introduce AI into recruitment, performance management or workforce planning in either country has to negotiate it rather than simply buy it.

European regulation has added to that workload while also extending the timetable. The EU’s Digital Omnibus on AI, published in the Official Journal on July 24 and in force from July 27, moved the AI Act’s high-risk obligations for systems used in recruitment, promotion, termination and performance monitoring from August 2, 2026 to December 2, 2027. [18] The Pay Transparency Directive, which member states were due to transpose by June 7, has also run late in both countries. The Dutch government submitted its implementing bill to parliament on May 21 with a planned start date of January 1, 2027, explaining that more time was needed to give the obligations an effective form. [19] Germany missed the deadline, and in July the government said only that the ministry had completed the preparations needed for a draft law. An expert commission had recommended reporting obligations for employers with 100 or more staff and corrective action where an unexplained pay gap exceeds 5%. [20] These delays give employers more time, but they also guarantee that pay equity analysis, job architecture and AI governance will occupy HR teams through 2027.

A European survey published on the CIPD’s blog in May suggests many organizations are not ready for that work. Of 327 HR professionals in 30 countries, 43% were using AI informally, 66% worked without any guidelines for its use and 64% had received no training. Its authors, Aco Momcilovic and Raffaele Credidio, summarized the result as “the profession is ready. The organizations aren’t.” [21]

The demand for HR professionals in the Netherlands and Germany is therefore moving in two directions at once. Fewer people are needed to process transactions, coordinate interviews and answer routine employee questions. More people are needed who can redesign HR processes around AI, win the agreement of a works council, run a pay gap analysis that will withstand scrutiny, and lead an organization through restructuring without damaging its culture. Those profiles combine employment law, data, technology and change management in ways that few HR careers were designed to produce.

Looking to the fourth quarter, I expect the volume of HR vacancies in Germany to remain low while the economy stays weak, with hiring concentrated in senior HR business partners, reward and pay equity specialists, HR technology and analytics roles, and employee relations experts able to negotiate with works councils. In the Netherlands, preparation for the pay transparency law expected in January should support demand for reward and job architecture specialists through the end of the year, while banks and other large employers continue to reduce administrative headcount. The delay to the AI Act’s high-risk obligations is unlikely to slow adoption by much, because most employers will use the extra time to prepare rather than to postpone.

For employers, the people who can do this work are already employed and in demand, and many of them are leading their organizations’ own HR transformation. Attracting them will depend on offering a clear mandate and the authority to change how the function works, rather than a larger team to manage.

The 4,598 HR positions advertised in Germany in the second quarter are a sign of how much of the function’s traditional work is being absorbed by technology and shared services. They are not a measure of how much HR now matters. In the Netherlands and Germany, where every significant change to how people are hired, monitored and paid must be explained to a works council and, before long, to a regulator, the HR professionals who remain will carry more responsibility than the larger teams that came before them.

Sources

1. Personalwirtschaft, HR-Stellenmarkt 2026: Wo Personaler noch Jobs finden, citing the Hays Fachkräfte-Index Q2 2026, August 3, 2026.
2. Kienbaum and Bundesverband der Personalmanager, KI in HR: Zwischen Aufbruch und Reifeprüfung, June 2026.
3. Gartner, Gartner Announces Top Trends Shaping HR Priorities in Australia in 2026, November 17, 2025.
4. HCAMag, AI transformation tops HR priorities for 2026, reporting Gartner’s survey of CHROs, January 9, 2026.
5. ITBrief UK, Gartner maps nine AI-driven work trends CHROs face by 2026, January 13, 2026.
6. Accountant.nl, ABN AMRO zet in op AI en schrapt duizenden banen, November 26, 2025.
7. Banken.nl, ING schrapt 1.250 banen mede door inzet van AI, March 20, 2026.
8. Euronews, Heineken to cut up to 6,000 jobs as beer demand weakens, February 11, 2026.
9. Airliners.de, Lufthansa-Personalchef: Höhepunkt des Stellenabbaus 2027 und 2028, October 2, 2025.
10. Dr. Web, EnBW: KI-Personalabbau ohne Kündigung, August 11, 2026.
11. Bundesagentur für Arbeit, Arbeitsmarkt im August 2026, August 28, 2026.
12. Nordkurier, reporting the ifo employment barometer, July 29, 2026.
13. CBS, Werkloosheid stijgt in juli naar 4,0 procent, August 20, 2026; Accountant.nl, Lichte daling aantal vacatures in het tweede kwartaal, July 30, 2026.
14. Accountant.nl, AI vertraagt wervingsproces bij Nederlandse werkgevers, August 18, 2026.
15. Börse Express, Personalwesen: 288 neue KI-Jobtitel entstehen in Deutschland, July 11, 2026.
16. ADVANT Beiten, briefing on works council rights over AI in Germany, July 12, 2024.
17. FNV, Medezeggenschap en AI, December 13, 2025.
18. White & Case, EU AI Omnibus enters into force, amending the AI Act, August 4, 2026.
19. Loyens & Loeff, Update implementatie richtlijn loontransparantie: wetsvoorstel ingediend bij Tweede Kamer, June 19, 2026.
20. Deutscher Bundestag, hib 587/2026, July 16, 2026; KPMG Law, briefing on German pay transparency reform, updated June 9, 2026.
21. CIPD, EAPM survey of European HR professionals on AI, May 20, 2026.