Key achievements: Driver 1

People

In 2025, the EPO continued to invest in its people, with a focus on fostering staff engagement, attracting the best talent from across Europe, emphasising learning and development, and supporting mobility and flexibility. 

Foster staff engagement

Staff engagement continued the positive trend of recent years, with the results of the 2025 Staff Engagement Survey stable or improving in most categories compared to 2024. Overall engagement has increased further and now reached the SP2028 target of 75%, up from 73% in the 2024 survey and 63% in 2022, reflecting sustained progress since 2019. Improvements are particularly evident in areas linked to respect⁴ (+2%), commitment to quality⁵ (+12%) and confidence in managers⁶ (+6%), indicating that a gradual cultural shift is taking hold.

Staff opinion remains strong in several enabling areas, including clarity of goals (86%), use of digital tools (80%), wellbeing support (81%) and line management (84%). The survey highlights the central role of line managers in maintaining engagement, with regular team meetings and one-to-one exchanges consistently associated with more positive staff views and stronger team performance.

The EPO’s flexible working arrangements (the New Ways of Working scheme) continue to be widely valued and are most frequently cited by staff as the most important organisational change of recent years. This flexibility shows a positive impact on productivity, engagement and wellbeing, with 60% of staff expressing a preference for remote or hybrid working. Newcomers increasingly report the flexibility offered by the EPO as a determining factor in joining the organisation (from 75% in 2024 to 85% in 2025). Staff feedback underlines the importance of actively supporting team cohesion and social connection, particularly in a more flexible working environment.

While overall results are positive, the survey highlights ongoing challenges in communication around management decisions, internal processes and access to learning and development opportunities. Staff feedback points to the need for clearer communication, simpler processes and continued attention to team cohesion and the sense of belonging.

Overall, the Office is moving in the right direction, with engagement strengthening and scores improving across most categories. Sustaining this progress will require building on the strengths of flexibility and effective line management by reinforcing the central role of line managers to connect with their staff, communicate clearly and transparently, and promote learning and development. In 2026, the EPO will define targeted follow-up actions Office-wide for these key priorities.   

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⁴ Survey question: “We treat each other with dignity and respect at work.”
⁵ Survey question: “Our daily work reflects our commitment to delivering quality products and services.”
⁶ Survey question: “I have confidence in the decisions made by senior management (PD and above).”

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Attract talent

In 2025, the EPO further strengthened its ability to attract and recruit the talent required to deliver on SP2028. In a competitive STEM labour market, the Office consolidated its position as an employer of choice while maintaining an efficient recruitment process and sustained progress towards its diversity objectives.

The 2025 examiner recruitment campaigns generated an all-time high number of applications, exceeding 11 700 overall and reflecting the impact of improved employer branding and targeted sourcing measures. Recruitment planning remained agile during the year to reinforce specialist capacity in key technology fields. The Office maintained an end-to-end recruitment cycle below four months and achieved 30.5% women among new examiner recruits, meeting the SP2028 KPI target despite continued structural gender imbalances across several technical domains.

• Roll out of “empowering women campaign”: The campaign comprised a series of communication measures showcasing women patent examiners, including targeted posts on LinkedIn to reach out to potential women candidates. These efforts had a strong market response, reaching more than 200 000 users, and supported progress towards our gender diversity goals.
• Enhanced learning journey for pipeline candidates: Following a successful pilot, the enhanced learning journey, now including PGP-related courses, was implemented to support early orientation to the PGP and the work of the EPO. This helps to give new recruits a smooth start to their careers in the organisation.
• Enhanced university liaison concept: The Young Professionals Programme (YPP) was expanded to include more than 20 new universities specialising in STEM subjects to attract more STEM candidates to the EPO. Students from these universities will be able to apply from 2026 onwards, contributing to the EPO’s core business, namely the PGP. 
• Young Professionals Programme (YPP): The YPP continued to attract early-career talent to the Office. In 2025, 97 Young Professionals joined the programme, bringing the total cohort to 224 participants across all three years, distributed across business areas and sites. The group represents 28 nationalities and 63% are women. In the PGP, 58% of the 77 young professionals are female. In addition, 11 Young Professionals were recruited to budget posts, securing their talent and fresh perspective for the EPO for years to come.
• Collaboration with member states through the Young Professional secondment scheme: Secondment opportunities for Young Professionals continued to generate strong engagement from both host organisations and participants. A total of 27 Young Professionals will complete their secondment to 12 NPOs and 2 PATLIBS in 14 member states between October 2025 and May 2026. 

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Develop talent

In 2025, maintaining the commitment to continuous learning and supported by the skills-based approach and the 70/20/10 learning model, the EPO enhanced the quality, coverage and impact of its learning offer across all roles.

• Technical training development plans: The EPO takes a comprehensive approach to developing and maintaining technical skills among its examiners to ensure they remain abreast of evolving technologies. To support examiners transitioning between technical fields, a targeted re-skilling programme was introduced in 2025, with a pilot project in the area of batteries and fuel cells. Specific learning activities were identified and mapped to each skill, offering tailored training and development activities to bridge possible gaps.
• Industry lectures and external expertise: Lectures were delivered by technical experts from universities and industry to provide examiners with insights into the latest advances and trends, fostering a deeper understanding of real-world applications and emerging technologies. Additionally, over 350 examiners visited 82 conferences and fairs in 2025 to stay up to date with the latest developments in their technical fields.
• AI awareness campaign: In September 2025, the EPO launched a comprehensive AI learning programme, starting with an “AI Explorer Pass” that offers short elearning modules, practical examples and guidance to build foundational AI understanding. A continuous learning stream ran in parallel, providing varied training sessions, expert exchanges and access to materials on the AI learning hub, while AI tools – such as expanded Microsoft Copilot licences and new internal solutions – were deployed. To help all staff confidently, responsibly and practically adopt AI, these initiatives will be complemented by a network of AI change agents that will translate AI potential into practical applications in each business area.
• Enhanced support measures for EQE and EPAC: The EPO continued to support examiners who wanted to sit the European Qualifying Exam (EQE) to complement their expertise and professional skills as well as paralegals, patent administrators and formalities officers to prepare for European Patent Administration Certificate (EPAC), with a view to validating the skills and knowledge needed to handle European and international patent procedures before the EPO with confidence. In 2025, 14 staff members obtained the EPAC, bringing the number of EPO staff certified since 2022 to 37.
• Peer-to-peer learning: Peer learning remained a key component of the EPO’s learning approach in 2025, with 190 Continuous Knowledge Transfer (CKT) events organised Office-wide and almost 16 000 hours invested. Topics covered ranged from ANSERA, Patent Workbench and AI applications to data protection and communication. Campus Days also provided great opportunities for connection and growth (see below for more details).
• Peer-to-peer management support programme: The initiative was piloted in 2025 and is designed to support the career growth and development of management skills for women team managers, especially in the PGP. The programme combines collaborative peer learning sessions with tailored one-to-one sessions led by senior managers, complemented by networking, shadowing and regular exchanges.
• Offboarding and knowledge retention: To improve the retention of critical knowledge when staff leave the organisation, a process was set up in 2025 to strengthen knowledge transfer activities during the offboarding of staff. A guide and a series of templates were developed to support line managers and teams to ensure more effective succession planning and knowledge sharing.

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Supporting mobility and flexibility

The EPO strengthened internal mobility through a wide range of initiatives. Internal job mobility supported the rebalancing of staff towards areas of higher demand and expanded career opportunities for colleagues. Also in 2025, staff benefited from established flexible working arrangements, while team development initiatives have been actively fostered to reinforce a sense of belonging. 

• Internal mobility: A total of 56 staff members took up new positions within the Office. In September 2025, the Office launched an initiative to support formalities officers in exploring new career opportunities as part of the ongoing simplification and digital transformation of processes. Following this initiative, around 30 formalities officers were appointed to new roles in corporate areas, including human resources, business information technology, communication, international relations, legal affairs and patent law and procedures. Overall, internal moves helped to allocate resources where they were needed most.
• Flexible work arrangements: In 2025, the large majority of staff (84.5%) teleworked on a regular basis, and almost all staff (98%) continued to use the flexibility offered by the scheme in some way.
• Campus Days: In 2025, Campus Days brought colleagues together across all sites to learn and connect through two editions. The May edition engaged over 4 000 colleagues in a programme dedicated to health and wellbeing, offering opportunities to reconnect with their teams and the wider EPO community. The October edition focused on team building and interactive learning, with more than 400 teams coming together to strengthen collaboration.
• Compliance with occupational health standards: The Office’s commitment to staff health and wellbeing was reaffirmed through the successful renewal of the ISO 45001 certification. This recognises the robustness of the EPO’s occupational health and safety management system. 
• Health prevention measures: Preventive health actions remained a central element of the EPO’s occupational health approach. Activities covered a wide range of areas including vision tests, skin screening, vaccination campaigns, preventive medical examinations, ergonomics support and health awareness webinars, and lunch lectures. Ergonomic support continued to expand, with 23% of staff benefiting from ergonomic advice, while all newcomers received onboarding guidance on healthy ergonomic practices. 
• Staff well-being: Managers continued to play a key role in supporting staff wellbeing. In 2025, 88% of managers completed the mandatory training on psychosocial wellbeing. Additional services were introduced to strengthen support for staff wellbeing, including new workplace mental health support services and enhanced preventive screening programmes.

Figure 1 – SP2028 People pipeline

 

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Strengthen social dialogue

In 2025 the EPO continued its engagement in social dialogue matters. Eight meetings of the General Consultative Committee (GCC) and four meetings of the Central Occupational Health and Safety Committee (COHSEC) took place. Additionally, 40 technical and working group meetings were convened with staff representatives to ensure thorough consultation before topics were presented to the GCC. 

The Office made progress on more than 27 topics. These included introducing a more inclusive parenthood scheme, and modernising the governance framework of Amicale. The Office also enhanced the confidential counselling services for staff by introducing external Workplace Solutions counsellors that offer targeted support for a range of professional challenges.

The EPO continued to pursue constructive dialogue in the resolution of conflicts, leading to 47 settlements covering all stages of dispute resolution. Most importantly, litigation decreased significantly: internal appeals fell by 27% and ILOAT complaints were down by 35% compared to 2024. 

Figure 2 – Conflict resolution

 

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Manage our homes

In 2025, the EPO further strengthened the effectiveness and maturity of its Integrated Management System (IMS), ensuring strong alignment of processes, performance monitoring and governance across the Office. The robustness of the integrated approach was confirmed by the successful recertification of the ISO standards in the areas of quality management, occupational health and safety, information security and environmental management.

In parallel, the EPO further advanced its sustainability reporting in line with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards. Building on an internal materiality assessment aligned with SP2028 and informed by stakeholder consultation, the Office upgraded its reporting to “in accordance with the GRI Standards” for the 2024 reporting period, implying a higher level of alignment with the transparency standards set by GRI. The enhanced GRI Content Index strengthens transparency, comparability and alignment with international best practices in environmental, social and governance reporting.

In 2025 the Data Protection Office (DPO) played a key role in the Office’s governance and digital transformation, contributing to the responsible adoption of trustworthy AI, in compliance with data protection principles and full respect of the fundamental rights of individuals. The DPO also focussed on strengthening the Office’s data protection culture, through high‑level legal and technical guidance and targeted awareness‑raising initiatives. 

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Create an engaging physical home

The EPO continued to implement the Building Investment Programme for 2024–2028 as endorsed by the Administrative Council. The Programme aims to safeguard health and safety, contribute to environmental sustainability, support sustainable staff engagement and maintain the value of the EPO’s patrimony while contributing to financial sustainability.

After the re-opening of the refurbished Vienna building in 2024, all staff in Berlin were moved to the new offices at Alexanderplatz by the end of February 2025. 

In 2025, most projects of the Building Investment Programme were in the planning and design phases. The tendering phase for the renovation of PschorrHöfe PH5‑6 was launched as scheduled, and construction activities commenced in Q3 2025. Other milestones in 2025 included:

• Decoupling of the Shell building in The Hague: The Shell building was fully decoupled from the Hinge building, preparing the site for its future deconstruction while ensuring that ongoing operations in the surrounding area remain unaffected. The deconstruction of the Shell building is expected to reduce annual energy consumption by about 7 400 MWh of electricity and 4 100 MWh of biomethane. Using 2025 energy prices as a reference, this corresponds to estimated annual cost savings of EUR 1.75 million.
• Installation of solar panels at PschorrHöfe PH7‑8 in Munich: Following the full installation of the rooftop solar panels on PH7‑8 in 2025, the PH7 and PH8 photovoltaic systems now comprise 586 installed modules. This will reduce external electricity consumption by around 281 MWh per year while lowering CO₂ emissions by approximately 115 tonnes annually and reducing costs by EUR 65 000, based on 2025 prices.
• Haar: An agreement with the Haar building owner, Versicherungskammer Bayern⁷ (VKB), was reached, and preparations for the relocation of the Boards of Appeal (BoA) to P7 have started.
• Vienna: The EPO successfully participated in the tender procedure of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), which was seeking rental space for its new offices in Vienna. The rental contract will commence in June 2026, with FRA occupying two floors of the Vienna building that were not needed for EPO use. This allows a more efficient and sustainable use of office space. 
• Optimisation of the bicycle parking in The Hague: The main bicycle parking area in The Hague has been optimised, with the new layout offering improved accessibility and space for a wide range of bicycle types – from ebikes to cargo bikes. As well as providing a safer and more convenient parking option, it also supports sustainable commuting habits.

Figure 3 – SP2028 Building Investment Programme pipeline

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⁷ VKB is a Bavarian public insurance group and the owner of the Haar building.

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Driver 1 key performance indicators

 

In 2025, the KPIs under the People driver continued to make progress, and three KPIs have already achieved their SP2028 targets.

This included the indicator for staff engagement, which met its SP2028 target of 75%, while sense of purpose remained strong with 80% of staff answering the related question positively in the 2025 Staff Engagement Survey. This positive trend is the result of concrete actions which were defined Office-wide to follow up on the feedback provided by staff via the 2024 survey, focusing on how staff connect with the Office and with each other. See “Foster staff engagement” above for more details. 

The KPIs related to gender diversity across the organisation increased slightly throughout the year. Alongside the increase in women recruited as examiners, which exceeded its SP2028 target with 31%, the proportion of female managers increased slightly to 28.5% while the representation of women in top management reached 38.1% at year end, close to its long-term target of 40%. Geographic diversity remained stable.

Turning to the impact of training and development activities, which is monitored via a structured yearly survey, in 56% of cases staff reported that the training received had increased their ability to perform their work. Following up on the feedback received, improvement activities were put in place to facilitate access to training resources and strengthen links between skills and relevant learning activities.

Total emissions reached 3 010 t CO2e, reflecting a 7% reduction in CO2 emissions from energy consumption in owned buildings, keeping the environmental sustainability KPI on track towards its SP2028 target. More details on the environmental performance activities are available in the dedicated Environmental Report 2025.

Our commitment to sustainability is also reflected in the reduced running costs for our buildings in Munich and The Hague, as measured by the KPI "Build value". At the end of 2025, the KPI shows a cumulated saving of 24% compared to the baseline costs calculated in 2022.

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