HR budget 2027: which tools to prioritise for employee engagement

Your 2027 HR budget is built from four separate lines: health and prevention, internal events, CSR and training. Each answers a different engagement need. Prioritising starts with knowing what each line must fund, then choosing where a single investment can serve several needs at once.

How to build your HR budget for 2027

In many companies, budget season runs from September to December. This is when HR teams put numbers on next year's priorities and defend them in front of the leadership team.

The first step is to map the lines that already exist rather than start from a blank sheet. In most companies of 200 employees or more, four separate budgets already fund employee engagement actions, often with no link between them: the health and prevention or well-being budget, the internal communications or events budget, the CSR or charitable giving budget, and the training or change management budget. Each has its own decision-maker, its own calendar and its own tracking indicators.

The second step is to identify, for each line, the trigger that justifies the spend. A well-being programme coming up for renewal, a recent merger, sustainability reporting requirements that are getting stricter (such as the CSRD, where it applies) or the rollout of a new internal tool are stronger triggers than an automatic rollover of last year's budget.

The third step is the trade-off. Before asking for more money, check whether part of the budget can be pooled. One investment can sometimes cover several needs at once, which carries more weight in a budget negotiation than a line-by-line request. This is the thread this article follows.

Timing matters as much as the amount. Well-being and cohesion lines are often decided before the end of the calendar year, so they are ready for the campaigns that start in January. The CSR line follows the calendar of the impact or sustainability report. The training line depends on the skills development plan.

What changes for 2027: less room, harder choices

In France, where United Heroes is based, the 2027 budget is being prepared with caution. With the presidential election approaching, low visibility is pushing companies towards more cautious choices: moderate pay rises, targeted hiring and more internal skills development. Les Echos reviewed these trade-offs on 20 October 2026 (article in French). Four changes directly affect the budget lines that fund employee engagement. The studies quoted below cover the French market.

More selective pay rises

According to Deloitte's 2026 pay study for France, published in September 2026, the median pay rise budget is 1.8% for manual workers, clerical staff, technicians and supervisors. It is 2.1% for managers. These levels are close to those seen before the recent bout of inflation, and Deloitte expects relative stability in the years ahead. Source: Deloitte France, pay study (in French).

When pay budgets tighten and are allocated more selectively, salary alone is no longer enough to retain people. Quality of working life, relationships with colleagues and career prospects then count for more in retention. They should be managed and budgeted for with the same rigour as pay policy.

Growing skills internally

This caution on hiring reflects a longer-term trend, which Apec, the French association for executive employment, explored in a study looking ahead to 2035. In its study on executive recruitment practices in 2035 (March 2026, 629 HR professionals), 54% of recruiters expect companies to rely more on internal mobility. 63% want to give more weight to soft skills, and 57% to learning ability. Source: Apec, executive recruitment practices in 2035 (in French).

For the training and change management line, the priority shifts. One-off training counts for less than the team's ability to learn and adapt throughout the year.

AI is changing junior roles and how colleagues pass on know-how

ANDRH, the French national association of HR directors, surveyed 220 HR professionals in summer 2026 about AI and younger generations. A third of them (34%) already see changes in the tasks given to interns, apprentices and new recruits. However, 41% have not reviewed the career paths of these young employees. And 26% see fewer moments of informal learning. Source: ANDRH, press release on AI and young people (in French).

Informal learning is the colleague who shows you how to do something, or the question asked in passing. It depends on the quality of relationships as much as on the training plan. That is one more argument for a cohesion budget that connects generations and teams day to day.

Pay transparency reaches teams

In the European Union, the pay transparency directive gives employees new rights and creates new obligations for employers. Managers will be the first to explain pay gaps to their teams. This takes preparation, and it belongs in the change management line. Source: Directive (EU) 2023/970 on EUR-Lex.

Well-being and health prevention: what share of the HR budget?

This line covers well-being programmes, prevention of musculoskeletal disorders and psychosocial risks, physical and mental health subscriptions, and actions tied to your company's well-being policy.

To prioritise this line, start with internal signals: rising absence, a falling well-being score in your latest internal survey, a programme coming up for renewal, or a plan to apply for a label such as Great Place to Work. Sectors with physically demanding work, such as industry, logistics and retail, have historically had the most to gain from targeted investment here.

The indicator to follow is the effect of the spend: change in absence, well-being score before and after the programme, the share of employees who say they have adopted a lasting new habit, and the well-being item in your HR survey or eNPS. At our client Harmonie Mutuelle, 2,500 of 4,600 employees signed up to a daily physical activity programme, with 60% on average meeting WHO recommendations and 8% year-on-year growth in adoption. Source: Harmonie Mutuelle case study.

An employee engagement solution can structure this line by turning one-off actions into a continuous programme, measurable over the year rather than around a single event. See also our page on quality of work life.

Internal events and cohesion: what share of the HR budget?

This line funds seminars, team building, internal highlights and challenges that create links between teams spread across several sites or countries.

It becomes a priority after a merger, a reorganisation, a move to hybrid or fully remote work, or when turnover weakens the company's collective memory. A classic seminar budget, designed as an isolated event, loses its effect when nothing connects it over time.

Our 2026 HR Barometer, run by OpinionWay among 1,038 employees in France in January 2026, shows that 69% of employees would protect their team rather than their company if they had to choose between the two. Source: United Heroes x OpinionWay 2026 HR Barometer, a survey of employees in France. This result argues for cohesion budgets that reach teams every day, not only an annual event at head office.

The indicator to follow is the sense of belonging before and after the action, the share of employees who say they built a connection with a colleague outside their direct team, and the pride-in-belonging item in your eNPS. A solution that keeps cohesion going all year, not only at a seminar, speaks directly to this need. See our page on cohesion.

CSR and charitable giving: what share of the HR budget?

This line covers charitable giving, volunteering days, environmental actions and the engagement programmes tied to your CSR strategy or sustainability reporting.

The tax treatment of corporate giving differs from one country to another and changes with budget laws. Have your finance team validate the set-up before it goes into the budget.

To prioritise, look at your context. A company that is B Corp certified, rated by Ecovadis or subject to sustainability reporting rules such as the CSRD often has a CSR budget that is already structured, and expects measurable results rather than isolated actions.

The indicator to follow is the impact generated relative to the investment, which feeds a CSR or sustainability report. A solution that mobilises employees on charitable actions all year, instead of a single awareness moment, gives that report richer numbers. See our page on CSR.

Training and change management: what share of the HR budget?

This line funds the skills development plan and, increasingly, programmes for adopting a new tool, cybersecurity awareness, or support for an organisational transformation.

It becomes a priority during a digital transformation, the rollout of a major tool, or in a sector with a regulatory requirement for safety training. It helps to keep classic individual training separate from collective change support, because the second has its own adoption indicators. Pay transparency and the arrival of AI at work add two projects to this line: preparing managers to explain pay, and reviewing career paths for young employees.

The indicator to follow is the actual adoption rate of a new tool or behaviour, measured before and after the programme, rather than the number of training hours delivered. An engagement solution can complement a classic training offer by turning the adoption of a tool or behaviour into a continuous, tracked journey. See our page on transformation.

One solution for several lines

The four lines described above have different decision-makers and calendars, but they can rely on one shared investment. An employee engagement solution touches health and prevention, cohesion, charitable actions and change support at once, because it reaches the same employees at the same moments of connection.

Each line keeps its own decision-maker and its own logic, but one solution can be co-funded by several lines, in proportion to what it brings to each. This lowers the risk that one of the four budgets is sacrificed for lack of funds.

The United Heroes 2024 SROI report, built on more than 8,500 respondents, puts the social value created at €2.67 for every €1 invested in this type of programme. Source: United Heroes 2024 SROI report. It is a useful reference for costing a co-funding proposal across several budget lines.

How to make the case for your HR budget to your leadership team

A leadership team weighing several HR requests wants to know first what each euro returns. Three elements strengthen a budget case.

First, a baseline indicator and a target indicator, measured the same way before and after the action, rather than a qualitative promise. Second, an explicit link between the spend and an identifiable trigger, such as a well-being programme renewal, a merger, a reporting obligation or a tool rollout, rather than an automatic rollover. Third, a figure for the risk of doing nothing: the cost of absence, the cost of turnover, reputational or regulatory risk. This often weighs more in the decision than a figure for the expected gain alone.

The same method works for all four lines.

Checklist before you close your 2027 HR budget

• Have you mapped the four lines that already fund employee engagement in your company?
• Have you planned retention actions that do not rely on pay, while pay rises stay moderate?
• Does each line have an identified trigger for 2027, and not only a rollover of the previous budget?
• Do you have a baseline indicator and a target indicator for each line, measured the same way?
• Have you identified an investment that could be co-funded by several lines rather than requested line by line?
• Does your case put a figure on the risk of doing nothing, not only on the hoped-for gain?
• Is the decision calendar of each line compatible with the 2027 launch you are aiming for?

Frequently asked questions

Take it further

To build your case line by line, see our pages on quality of work life, cohesion, CSR and transformation.