The Development of Human Resource Management in Serbia in the Light of Cranet Research 2021

Human resource management (HRM) is becoming more and more important in contemporary business. As the process of managing organizations’ most valuable assets, human capital, HRM needs to answer to all challenges that are arising in the internal and external business environment to achieve its goal, to attract, motivate, and retain employees. New challenges related to changes in the labor market, globalization, digital transformation, health risks due to the Covid-19 pandemic, economic and political issues, and many others, require that organizations possess a specific and well-developed process of HRM to manage their employees adequately. It is important to investigate the level of HRM in an organization to get familiar with the actual state of HRM practice and to explore areas for improvement. The main aim of this paper is to analyze the main indicators of HRM function in organizations in Serbia, to determine the actual state and the level of development. The methodology of the research obtains analysis of available literature and empirical data gathered during the new round of global Cranet research, in which Serbia participate. The data were collected in 2021, and the sample consists of 106 companies in Serbia. The authors investigated some of the main indicators of HRM, related to the number of employed people in an HR department, the existence of HR and related strategies, strategic HRM, usage of IT tools in HRM, etc. In the end, the results from Cranet data for Serbia were compared to present values of certain indicators at the regional and global levels.