Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency

The Hungarian Business Services Sector has reached its highest level of maturity ever. There is a clear tendency for companies to broaden the scope of high-value added activities and place greater emphasis on conscious talent management, education cooperation and innovation. In order to keep up with new trends both in the business services and labour markets, gradual transformation of corporate strategies and operational practices are needed.

The sector has seen an upswing in the migration of high value added activities and keeps on transitioning from the traditional captive and BPO models to a hybrid service delivery model. We are also witnessing a broadening of the geographical scope of BSC operations, as the increasing development of Tier-2 cities with strong university backgrounds, an available qualified work force, and modern infrastructure open up new opportunities for expansion.

Fulfilling the ever-growing demands of new talent and retaining employees are fundamental for centres, which inspires a new focus on employer branding, smart recruitment processes, and employee value proposition (EVP). As the use of data analytics and automation become extensive in this field, employee skillsets are also undergoing changes.

Specialist roles, such as data analyst, finance analyst, and software engineer, make up an increasingly larger proportion of the workforce sought by companies, while there is a similar growing demand for experienced employees with advanced skills.

In order to successfully target future talent, business service centres have realized the importance of employer branding. Therefore, more and more collaboration between industry stakeholders and educational institutions have been established, while industry specific education programmes and promising new initiatives have been launched to raise the awareness and attractiveness of the sector for young people.

With the implementation of technological innovations, increasing digitalization and service delivery automation, a growing number of centres keep on improving the efficiency of business processes. The emergence of new solutions within the market will lead to further technological advancement, which will allow employees to focus on executing more high value added tasks.

In summary, the Hungarian Business Services Sector has been able to maintain its competitive edge due to the fact that Hungary continuously provides a highly skilled workforce, high-standard office infrastructure, a stable political and economic environment coupled with an excellent quality of life. Flexible adaptation and the common efforts of every stakeholder are key for the sector to achieve operational excellence at every level, and to make use of it for its future growth.

You can study the Business Services Hungary 2019 survey by clicking here.

CENTER OF EXCELLENCE OF THE YEAR: MSCI
Based on the Business Services Survey 2019, last year's results, and the complexity of its operations, MSCI prominently embodies the dynamic development of the domestic BSC sector. With their exemplary operations, as well as the extension of high value-added services within their service portfolio, they contributed to elevating the attractiveness of Hungary to a great extent.

BEST IN EDUCATIONAL COOPERATION: IT Services Hungary
IT Services Hungary places special emphasis on education in Hungary and has made significant efforts to promote the cooperation between the BSC sector and the educational institutions in Hungary. The winner has a long-established and constantly expanding collaboration with higher education institutions and secondary schools throughout the country. Based on these initiatives, they provide unique opportunities for students with IT background by offering scholarship programs, establishing training programs for business competences and business language skills.

BSC MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Emese Szakács, AGCO
The BSC Manager of the Year title is awarded to executives, who demonstrate professional excellence in their skills, exhibit ethical behaviour towards employees, and who, in their activities promote cooperation between sector players and proactively contribute to the Sector's future development. This year's awardee has demonstrated passionate and innovative leadership and has promoted cooperation with partner organisations and companies working in the BSC sector which made a significant impact on the sector's future.