Published in 2024 • EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Robin Marshall • CONTRIBUTORS: Annamária Bálint, Mihály Kovács, Csilla Lengyel, Robin Marshall, Bernadette Oláh, Erika Törsök • LISTS: BBJ Research ( research@bbj.hu) • NEWS AND PRESS RELEASES: Should be submitted in English to news@bbj.hu • LAYOUT: Zsolt Pataki • COVER IMAGE : ShutterDesigner / Shutterstock.com • PUBLISHER: Tamás Botka, Business Publishing Services Kft. • Address: Madách Trade Center, 1075 Budapest, Madách Imre út 13-14. • Telephone +36 (1) 398-0344, • ADVERTISING: AMS Services Kft. • CEO: Balázs
Welcome to the third annual edition of Top 50 Executives publication dealing with HR Directors in Hungary. Last year, our focus was on recruitment and temping agencies. This year, it is very much on the human resources/ people and culture/people and organization (please delete as necessary) roles in the companies themselves.
Through interviews and in-depth reporting, we look at the issues on the front line of HR, whether that is the growing role of artificial intelligence, the need to balance business profitability with employee wage demands in a high inflation and cost of living crisis, or the challenges of working with multiple generations in the same workplace and accommodating their varied and various needs and expectations.
Perhaps the most complex of all is how to prepare for the future of work when all we know is that many, perhaps most, of the roles the workforce will be asked to perform do not yet exist. While that is a conundrum indeed, it talks to the remarkable journey that HR (or whatever you choose to call it in your organization) has been on.
When I joined the workforce proper in 1986 as a trainee reporter, my first newspaper did not even have a separate HR department; its functions were handled by the finance team and amounted to little more than working out the
monthly salary, making the necessary tax and social security deductions, and keeping track of the amount of leave due. And lest you think this must have been a shoe-string operation, we were the 10th largest circulation weekly provincial (in other words, non-national) newspaper title in the United Kingdom at the time, and our group was the third largest publisher of provincial titles nationwide. Fast forward three decades, and not only is the lack of an HR department unthinkable, but the top positions in these relatively new divisions carry titles like chief people officer or chief human resources officer. In other words, those at the top are firmly ensconced in the C-suite and are involved in strategic decisionmaking at all levels of the business. And what could be more strategic than working out what the jobs of the future will look like, what skills will be required to do them, and how existing staff are upskilled or reskilled to take them on. The role of HR is, therefore, arguably more critical than it has ever been. We are proud to present this publication as a tribute to our selection of the top 50 most influential HR directors in Hungary.
Robin Marshall Editor-in-chief Budapest Business Journal
AI in HR: How to go Data-driven While Keeping That Human Touch
AI-driven tools may streamline recruitment processes, but, for now, their use in HR is somewhat limited, not least because of existing hard-to-change corporate data structures. While the human factor remains vital when it comes to selection, relying on data-driven insights is also becoming increasingly important for those businesses that don’t wish to lag behind.
Promoting a ‘Feedback’ Culture in Futureproof Pharma
Pharmaceutical company MSD is moving its HR function away from the perhaps more traditional approach of addressing solely the here and now to try and anticipate short-term future needs, as HR lead Anita Schelcz tells the Budapest Business Journal.
By BBJ Staff
“The world is changing so fast that if we just try to adapt, we are only being reactive. We need to be proactive,” Schelcz says. Predicting the future may not be possible, but trends for HR strategy and talent practices can be identified.
“We need to prepare in advance for what kind of skills we will need for future jobs; we need to think ahead,” she insists. “It’s not enough anymore to be reactive, as we had to be when the pandemic came. If we miss these opportunities, we won’t be able to succeed as an organization.”
A good example of this, and how MSD brings together a diversity of voices to workshop ideas from all angles, is the Eastern Europe Enabler Roadmap. The countries in the region are not a formal MSD cluster, but they have strong connections and market similarities.
“Our Eastern European HR lead interlinked all the specifics and needs within the countries, and that’s how we created the concept together. This roadmap encompasses global programs, as well as localized capability building through workshops and role modeling activities. And now it’s a good example for other clusters and functions within our company that want to learn more about it and might join or do similar,” Schelcz says.
“I work very closely with my HR colleagues, and we wanted to have a bespoke and consistent approach, pulling together all people and culture-related activities across 15 markets within Eastern Europe, create smart
objectives with tangible and measurable outcomes, decide what we want to achieve, and how to work with the business in an even better partnership. That’s why we created this 18-month roadmap,” she explains.
“As part of that, we want to launch identified leadership skills, ensuring all leaders are aligned and are role-modeling the desired behaviors and ways of working. We want to bring an ‘Organization of the Future’ workshop to every market, and then see what we can or should do above the country level and how we could use our synergies best,” Schelcz notes.
She says there is a good level of “sponsorship” from senior leadership and all managing directors to make this journey happen.
ENTERPRISE LEADERSHIP
“We also have a standardized leadership model within MSD now, called Enterprise Leadership Skills,” she explains. Interestingly, Schelcz emphasizes that it applies to all employees, just like the Talent Growth Framework.
“It’s not just about management roles. We consider all our colleagues as talents, and our philosophy is that development is for all.”
The Hungarian business has just held its “Organization of the Future” workshop as part of the roadmap.
“Based on the pipeline and the priorities for the upcoming years, we defined those skills and capabilities that we will need, and we will shape the organization accordingly. We will definitely need more flexibility,” she explains.
If trying to identify skills requirements for jobs that don’t yet exist seems daunting, it is worth remembering that
Prohuman Seeks to Better Serve the HR Needs of Southwest Hungary
For all that Hungary is an unusually capital-centric country, there is more to growing the national economy than Budapest itself. To support the economic recovery of Baranya County and the region, Prohuman, the country’s market leader and one of the fastest-growing HR service providers in Central and Eastern Europe, is transforming its Pécs-based subsidiary office into a regional center to serve southwest Hungary.
By BBJ Staff
The company has recently signed a strategic agreement with the University of Pécs and is developing its office in the beautiful university city of Pécs (200 km southwest of Budapest by road) in response to the economic boom in the region and the resulting surge in HR demand.
The chairman of the company’s board of directors, the CEO of the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency, the Chancellor of the University of Pécs and the secretary general of the Pécs-Baranya Chamber of Commerce and Industry all attended the opening ceremony.
Prohuman says that alongside international expansion (it now employs around 25,000 people in seven countries), the keys to its success lie in maintaining its leading
role in the Hungarian market and serving its expanding clientele as fully as possible. As a milestone in this process, the company opened a new regional office in northeastern Hungary in February 2024. In June, it expanded the office of its Pécs subsidiary, HR-Rent, into a regional center for southwestern Hungary.
HR-Rent has been providing labor market services to companies in Baranya County for almost 20 years, since 2016, as a subsidiary of Prohuman, under the leadership of Attila Feleki. The opening ceremony in Pécs was attended by Sándor Zakor, founder-owner of Prohuman Zrt. and chairman of the company’s board of directors, and was also addressed by István Joó, CEO of Hipa, István Decsi, chancellor of the University of Pécs, and Szabolcs Rabb, secretary general of the Pécs-Baranya Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Sándor Zakor, chairman of the board of directors of Prohuman.
Ágnes Tóth, CEO of Prohuman.
The Budapest Business Journal talks with Thoralf Wagner, CEO of Lufthansa Technik Budapest, about the aircraft maintenance industry globally and the development of the business here in Hungary.
Lufthansa Technik Budapest Aims to Strengthen and Grow its Market Position
By BBJ Staff
BBJ: How do you see the current situation and prospects of the aircraft maintenance market? What are the challenges in the industry?
Thoralf Wagner: Market demand has, luckily, fully returned to its pre-pandemic levels, and we also anticipate a robust future market. Current challenges for airlines arise from the reduced aircraft availability due to issues with newgeneration engines and delays in the delivery of new aircraft, forcing operators to keep their older aircraft in operation longer than planned. Sustaining older aircraft generates additional demand for the aircraft overhaul sector, which is precisely the business our company performs here at Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport. The most significant challenges for the aircraft maintenance industry remain the provision of a skilled workforce and the still challenging situation in the supply chain.
BBJ: How did the Lufthansa Technik Group perform in 2023?
TW: Our mother company, Lufthansa Technik Group, returned to the pre-coronavirus record levels and achieved EUR 6.5 billion in revenue (up 18% compared with 2022)
and a EUR 628 million profit (up 13% vs. 2022). Lufthansa Technik Group, therefore, significantly contributed to the overall Lufthansa Group 2023 result of EUR 2.7 billion, the third best in our history. Lufthansa Technik Group now services 4,600 aircraft and could increase its workforce to around 23,000.
BBJ: What ambitions do you have for the coming years?
TW: Due to significant changes in the aircraft maintenance market, the strategic value of the aircraft maintenance business has grown considerably for the Lufthansa Group. In November of last year, the group decided not to sell part of Lufthansa Technik to external investors but rather emphasize organic development and launched our “Ambition 2030” growth program. This aims to boost Lufthansa Technik’s revenue to EUR 10 bln-plus in 2030. Growth and size will be decisive factors in remaining a key player in the aircraft maintenance market in the future.
BBJ: How is Lufthansa Technik Budapest developing at the moment?
TW: Lufthansa Technik Budapest has keenly felt the impact of strong market demand, with our hangars consistently at full capacity. In the past year, we completed maintenance on 67 aircraft. According to the feedback from our clients, we excelled in delivering high-quality maintenance and great flexibility for our clients. For example, we are already highly efficient, achieving the highest revenue within the group in proportion to our hangar area size.
However, the high inflation of the last two years posed a substantial challenge for Lufthansa Technik Budapest, significantly impacting the cost structure. Suppliers increased their prices, and we increased salaries five times. Overall, the budget for wages has grown by around 50%.
Nevertheless, we believe these adjustments have been a good investment in our workforce because employees in the lower wage categories, in particular, have been strongly affected by inflation. These measures have helped us retain our well-qualified employees.
To restore reasonable profit levels, we had to negotiate price increases with our clients on the one hand and increase our productivity further on the other hand.
An aircraft engineer checks the exterior of an aircraft cockpit window housing at Lufthansa Technik’s Budapest Airport facility.
CATL and Miskolc University Join Forces to Boost Education, Career Prospects
The University of Miskolc and CATL Debrecen have signed a cooperation agreement to offer practical training and career opportunities to young technicians in eastern Hungary.
By BBJ Staff
The University of Miskolc and battery maker CATL Debrecen have signed an educational cooperation agreement, through which the company will participate in the practical training of students and the development of the university curriculum, as well as support the scientific and research activities of the university. The cooperation will also open
new and inspiring career opportunities for technical and engineering graduates in the battery and automotive industry.
The official signing ceremony of the cooperation agreement took in Miskolc on June 20. With CATL contributing to the education of students at the university, the deal covers a wide range of academic disciplines in fields such as earth and environmental engineering, mechanical engineering and computer science.
Prof. Dr. Zita Horváth, rector of the University of Miskolc, and Jason Chen, general manager of CATL European Operations, put pen to paper on the deal.
HR DIRECTOR BIOGRAPHIES
HR DIRECTOR BUSINESS CARDS
HUMAN RESOURCES LISTINGS
Largest employers
RANKED BY ALPHABETICALLY
COMPANY NAME WEBSITE
4iG Group www.4ig.hu 594,510
Auchan Magyarország Kereskedelmi és Szolgáltató Kft. www.auchan.hu
Audi Hungaria Zrt. www.audi.hu
B + N Referencia Ipari Zrt. www.bplusn.hu
BorsodChem Zrt www.borsodchem-hu.com
BP Business Service Center Kft. www.bp.com/hungary
BT Roc Kft. www.globalservices.bt.com
Budapest Airport Zrt. www.bud.hu
Citibank Europe plc. Magyarországi Fióktelepe www.citibank.hu
Continental Automotive Hungary Kft. www.conti.de
Danubius Szálloda és Gyógyüdülő Zrt. www.danubiushotels.com
Denso Gyártó Magyarország Kft. www.denso-europe.com
Deutsche Telekom TSI Hungary Kft. www.deutschetelekomitsolutions.hu
dm-drogerie markt Kereskedelmi és Szolgáltató Kft. www.dm-drogeriemarkt.hu
E.On Hungária Zrt. www.eon.hu
Eaton Enterprises (Hungary) Kft. www.eaton.com
368,639
OWBERSHIP: HUNGARIAN NON-HUNGARIAN
AU, CHAN Retail International S.A., Valhungary International SCA (100)
