The 9th edition of the ABSL AWARDS GALA is set for 13 June.

ABSL RO member companies will showcase their most innovative, impactful, and valuable projects and initiatives by participating in the competition.

The outstanding projects will be applauded and awarded during the ABSL Gala, that will take place on June 13, at The Tent by Clubul Diplomatic, Bucharest.

ABSL Awards Gala inspires the business services community to continuously strive for excellence and by this, to strengthen the sector’s position within the Romanian economy. 

More details here.

The creation of 22 centres should be financed from the Recovery Plan.Many smaller municipalities in Slovakia struggle to perform certain tasks and duties effectively. There are now plans to solve several of these problems by establishing shared service centres at the local level.

Their creation is also part of Slovakia’s Recovery and Resilience Plan, with €11.4 million being allocated for this purpose.
The Association of Towns and Villages of Slovakia (ZMOS) announced in early February that in cooperation with the Interior Ministry, they are working on a call to create such centres in 22 areas in central and eastern Slovakia. Four should be situated in Banská Bystrica Region, 10 in Prešov Region and eight in Košice Region.

“The aim is to support municipalities that search for ways to provide better services to their inhabitants, on the basis of joint provision of certain agendas,” the Interior Ministry’s press department told The Slovak Spectator.


ZMOS representatives added that they are starting pilot projects. The plan is to test and implement the basic elements of integrated public administration in the least developed districts, said Gabriel Mihály, mayor of the village of Jesenské, in central Slovakia, and head of the public administration section at ZMOS Council.

Source: Slovak Spectator

The salaries in the local business services industry have seen a 4% increase in March 2024 compared to September 2023, according to the HR Barometer conducted by the Business Service Leaders Association (ABSL) and PwC Romania.
Bucharest leads in salary increase levels at 4.7%, while the region of Banat - Transylvania witnessed an increase of only 2.1%. The staff categories that have seen increases are those of executive manager (9.8%), team leader (3.8%), specialist (3.9%), administrative staff (4.4%) and operator (1.9%). The employees working in sectors such as finance, accounting, HR, and support positions received the highest increases. 
The business services industry is estimated to see an increase of 8% in the payroll budget this year, in line with the market trend. One in three companies has already implemented this in the first quarter of the year, the survey found.
The increased taxation on benefits popular in the industry, such as meal or holiday vouchers or sport subscriptions, had a negative impact on HR policies. Four out of five employers now grant the benefits in gross value, with the taxation passed on to the employees. A smaller percentage of employers plans to compensate totally or partially the loss incurred by employees for various benefits (4% in the case of holiday vouchers and 34% in that of meal vouchers).

The companies in the industry plan to continue offering benefits such as sports or medical subscriptions and private pensions. While parental benefits start to look appealing to employees, only 4% of the companies in the industry offer additional days off for employees who are parents, and three out of four companies offer paid days off over the legal limit allowed in the case of fathers.
At the same time, only 18% of the companies in the business services industry are considering reducing their HR costs, with most reductions to be made in the payroll (capping). The rest of the companies in the industry continue to allot resources for training and development, but also for employer branding and employee retention.
More than half of the companies in the industry require a minimum number of days worked in the office (between one and three days), while flexibility remains important for a third of survey respondents.
“The salary dynamics records a slight decrease compared to previous years, even in industries where the competition for talent remains high. Against the background of macroeconomic uncertainty and the expansion of automatization to an increasingly higher number of processes, the workforce demand is decreasing, as is the individual mobility at the employee level. In the short term, we are seeing a normalization of labor market relations, which had turned extremely difficult for employers in recent years,” Oana Munteanu, director, People & Organization with PwC, explained.
“The quality of the labor force compared to its cost has long represented a competitive advantage in attracting investors to Romania. In this context, the increasingly frequent talks about the progressive tax without talks with the business sector, predictability, and a national strategy that would support economic growth and retaining a highly qualified workforce can impact us negatively,” Cătălin Iorgulescu, VP of ABSL, said.
The HR Barometer was conducted by PwC Romania in partnership with ABSL at the end of March among 50 companies.

Visma Tech, a leading IT firm and a key division of the Norwegian Visma Group and one of the largest IT companies in Lithuania, announced its move to a new office in Vilnius, accompanied by ongoing team expansion in Lithuania, aiming to attract top-tier talent within the country.

Visma Tech chose the Artery building at the heart of Vilnius’ central business district to foster innovation and collaboration. The new office features state-of-the-art technological resources and versatile workspaces that match the company’s values of innovation and collaboration. With the addition of this office, Visma Tech aims to bolster its workforce, focusing on attracting and retaining top-tier talent, particularly in specialized roles such as software development, DevOps, and quality assurance.

According to Agnius Paradnikas, the company’s Managing Director, the decision to continuously strengthen its presence in Lithuania – the company has offices both in Vilnius and Kaunas – was made for several reasons:

"Our trust in Lithuania as a strategic location is primarily motivated by the quality talent, work culture, and growth opportunities. Here, at Visma Tech Lithuania, we attract outstandingly motivated and loyal employees resulting in the average duration of employment at Visma of 5+ years. If this positive trend continues, I am pretty confident we will reach 300 employees shortly and even go beyond",  said Agnius Paradnikas, Visma Tech's Managing Director.