Germany’s Workforce Reinvention: HR Demands a Board Role as AI and Demographics Collide
Published on 07/20/2026 at 04:02 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
A quiet but decisive shift is underway in German boardrooms. Jörg Spreitzer, from the consultancy Great Place To Work Österreich, argues that human resources chiefs must now hold a permanent seat in corporate leadership—not merely to manage payroll and compliance, but to actively shape working conditions, company culture, and leadership processes. The driver? Digitalisation and artificial intelligence are fundamentally restructuring how work is done.
That message resonated at the “Resilienz im Epochenbruch” event series, where experts like Dr. Hagen Lesch of the Institut der Deutschen Wirtschaft and Dr. Gerhard Erdmann from the Arbeitgeberverband Stahl discussed solutions to pressures from demographic change and technological upheaval. The next discussion is scheduled for 21 July 2026.
Yet the generational divide inside companies may be less pronounced than often assumed. Peter Haugaard, HR director at EY in Denmark, highlights the benefits of age-mixed workforces. In organisations with over 2,000 employees, younger and older workers tend to complement each other naturally. International policy already reflects this: in Hanoi, authorities passed a resolution offering preferential conditions to companies that employ at least 30 percent older workers. The rationale is stark—by 2030 the region’s senior population is projected to reach 1.71 million people.
On the technology front, artificial intelligence remains squarely a CEO priority. According to the Horváth-CxO study, AI transformation ranks as the second-highest strategic goal, just behind cost optimisation. Companies forecast average revenue growth of 4.7 percent for 2026, yet no broad hiring wave is planned. Max Votek of Customertimes observes that AI is sometimes used as a rationale for layoffs. The public expects efficiency gains to translate into lower prices, but the savings often flow instead into tech infrastructure, token costs and cybersecurity measures.
Technical rollout alone is not enough. In logistics, for example, the adoption of SAP S/4HANA—as seen in the finance division at Hapag-Lloyd—requires employees to understand and accept the system.
While large firms navigate these changes, Germany’s skilled trades sector is bucking the trend. Handwerkspräsident Jörg Dittrich reports nearly 67,800 newly signed apprenticeship contracts in the first half of 2026—an increase of 4.9 percent. Yet across all industries, roughly 20,460 positions remain unfilled.
Local authorities are getting creative. In Heidelberg, a “speed dating” event for early childhood education professionals took place in mid-July, directly matching applicants with providers. The background: regional closures of facilities at the end of the year are forcing staff like 26-year-old educator Julia to seek new career paths.
At the same time, a crisis in social competencies is deepening. Empathy and interpersonal skills are becoming scarcer, and certification of these “soft skills” is on the rise. AI is increasingly used as a crutch to bypass direct human interaction.
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