The role of external service providers in HR processes: comparative analysis Hungary – Slovakia

Abstract

In today’s rapidly changing economic environment the fluctuation in workforce demand poses challenges for the human resource management of companies. The role of HR management is becoming ever more important in the efficient operation of organisations to maintain their competitiveness. The main responsibilities of HRM are recruiting, selecting and retaining an adequate number of well-trained workforce, for which organisations rely on assistance from external service providers. The present study is based on the 2015-2016 International Cranet HRM Research, which provides the backgrounds for our empirical study. The study presents the role and tasks of external providers in the lives of organisations, and also examines in which areas Hungarian and Slovakian organisations use the services of external providers for performing HRM tasks. In addition, it analyses to what extent company size influences the service areas and types provided by external professionals. The two-country analysis investigated the common and distinctive features of HR advice. Companies mostly regard external service providers as means of cost reduction. It has been found that regardless of the company size external service providers are widely used in both countries in HRM practice, and the services extend to selection processes and workforce development alike. However also suggest that, this trend is most popular at large organizations and foreign-owned companies and in certain respects there also has disparity of external service providers for the purposes in two countries.

Keywords

• HR management
• external service providers
• training
• labour shortage
• outsourcing