A weekly briefing on HR and HR technology developments and trends, for SME HR teams across Europe.

Big picture: pay transparency arrives, ready or not

The transposition deadline for the EU Pay Transparency Directive passed on 7 June 2026, and the European Commission has confirmed there will be no extension and no carve-out. Implementation is fragmented across the bloc: Italy, Slovakia, Lithuania and Malta transposed the directive on time, while the Netherlands, Sweden, Czech Republic and Denmark have confirmed a delayed date of 1 January 2027. Even where national law is still catching up, courts are expected to interpret existing employment law in line with the directive, so the underlying obligations, including salary ranges in job adverts, employees’ right to request pay data, and gender pay gap reporting for employers with 100 or more staff, already carry legal weight. For SMEs operating across more than one European country, this means compliance timelines can differ market by market within the same organisation.

Защо е важно: waiting for your own country’s law to be finalised is not a safe strategy for SME HR teams. The direction of travel is set, and getting ahead on salary ranges and pay data now avoids a scramble later.

На радара

Skills over CVs. Skills-based hiring keeps gaining ground across Europe, with recruiters increasingly using task-based assessments alongside, or instead of, a CV. The shift is being driven by acute shortages: nearly half of European SMEs (46%) report that finding staff with the right skills has been difficult or very difficult over the past two years, rising to seven in ten among SMEs that hired in the past year.

Engagement keeps sliding. Global employee engagement fell to 20% in 2025, its lowest level since 2020, according to Gallup, with the estimated cost to the world economy put at 10 trillion dollars in lost productivity. The drivers behind engagement have also shifted: confidence in senior leadership and how well change is managed now matter more to employees than the traditional favourites of belonging and feeling valued.

From AI copilots to “superagents”. HR commentators are describing a shift from single-task AI copilots to “superagents” that run entire workflows end to end, from sourcing candidates to onboarding, a trend some are calling systemic HR. SHRM research puts current AI use in HR at 46% of organisations, concentrated in recruiting, core HR technology, and learning and development.

Structural change is widespread. 89% of HR functions have already restructured or plan to in the next two years, according to Deloitte, as organisations redesign teams around AI-supported ways of working rather than simply adding AI tools on top of existing processes.

Shorter weeks, more experiments. Several employers are piloting four-day weeks, shorter days and protected focus time, with some analysts linking the trend to productivity gains from AI adoption. Wide-scale adoption is still limited, but the pilots are becoming more visible in 2026.

HR тек наблюдение

Fresh funding for recruiting and HR platforms. Recruiting platform Ashby closed a 50 million dollar Series D in July, more than doubling its customer base over the past year and growing annual recurring revenue by 135%. It follows a run of large 2026 rounds for HR platforms, including Factorial’s 150 million dollar Series D and Sona’s 45 million dollar Series B for frontline workforce management. Analysts describe 2026 as a year of “fewer moonshots, more incumbents”, with investors favouring platforms that can show sustained, profitable growth rather than AI features bolted onto existing software.

New hiring tools launched. Recent product announcements tracked by HR Tech Feed include a candidate verification tool from Persona, an AI-powered labour marketplace from WorkWhile connecting businesses with hourly workers, and an AI-powered talent engagement tool from Hirevue aimed at candidate communication during hiring.

За екипи по човешки ресурси в МСП

Whatever your home market’s transposition timeline, it’s worth reviewing job adverts and pay bands against the EU Pay Transparency Directive’s requirements now, rather than waiting for local law to catch up. If skills shortages are biting, look at whether task-based assessments could widen your candidate pool beyond CV-first screening. And if engagement scores have dipped, the data suggests the fix has less to do with perks and more to do with how consistently managers communicate through change.

Източници

• Европейска комисия: нови правила на ЕС за прозрачност на заплащането, обяснени
• Ogletree: European Commission confirms the EU Pay Transparency Directive implementation deadline remains 7 June 2026
• Lewis Silkin: EU Pay Transparency Directive 2026, employer compliance update
• European Commission: Eurobarometer survey on obstacles and opportunities for SMEs recruiting outside the EU
• Gallup: State of the Global Workplace 2026
• HR Executive: keeping one step ahead of AI in 2026
• SHRM: the state of AI in HR 2026 report
• Deloitte: 2026 Global Human Capital Trends
• Crunchbase News: Ashby raises 50 million dollar Series D for AI-powered talent platform
• UNLEASH: fewer moonshots, more incumbents, what the biggest 2026 HR tech funding rounds tell buyers
• HR Tech Feed: HR technology news

HR Radar е седмично информационно резюме на публично докладвани развития и тенденции в областта на човешките ресурси и HR технологиите. То не представлява правен или професионален съвет.