The event was opened by Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó, who spokes about the current state of the economy and the protective measures that have been taken thus far by the government.
“Currently there are 131 business service centers in Hungary, they provide jobs for 63,892 people, and this number has increased by 40% during the last three years,” Szijjártó said.
“These companies demand a highly qualified workforce and, through the investments of these companies, Hungary became a leading destination for shared service centers in the Central European region.
“This sector plays a key role in keeping talented young Hungarian people home, with considerable salaries, rapid promotion opportunities and the daily use of foreign languages,” the minister added.
AmCham Hungary CEO Írisz Lippai-Nagy, who welcomed the audience with HIPA CEO Róbert Ésik as they introduced the results of this year’s survey, said: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. Cooperation: It could be the motto of this year’s conference and for me this is the key word for 2020 itself.”
Trends and Tendencies
In the second part of the online conference, the future of BSCs were discussed by assessing the opportunities, trends and tendencies of the sector in Hungary. Attila Bognár, McKinsey & Company partner introduced this year’s global trends and regional responses to the pandemic.
Following that, Randstad managing director Sándor Baja and operations manager Petra Polgár elaborated on the “new normal” in HR trends and winning strategies.
The BSC sector has remained stable and is performing well in these challenging times. New opportunities also arise from the pandemic situation as companies move towards a hybrid operational model combining on-site and remote working, allowing more talent recruitment from Hungary’s regional university cities, the experts said.
Finally, CBRE’s research director Gábor Borbély reflected on the opportunities in the office market during these turbulent times. It can be seen that the business service sector has re-thought office space, there is a new balance between remote working and office-based work.
These factors will also have an impact on the future of cities and property: these tendencies imply changes in the residential market as homes must accommodate work-spaces and connected infrastructure, but do not necessarily need to be in central locations or well connected.
The online conference concluded with HIPA’s annual BSC awards ceremony: Center of Excellence of the Year was won by ExxonMobil; BSC Manager of the Year was Eve Bader (Roche); Best in Educational Cooperation was awarded to NI Hungary.
Text courtesy of AmCham Hungary, photo courtesy of HIPA.
This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of December 11, 2020.
