Amidst global economic and geopolitical tensions, the priorities of senior women leaders around the world are shifting significantly, according to KPMG's latest Global Female Leaders Outlook. The research reveals that with the unprecedented focus on artificial intelligence and digitalisation, individual efforts are becoming more pronounced, while gender inequalities in the workplace remain stubbornly present.

Change management, integrating foreign workers, reducing staff turnover, making operations more efficient - all were among the challenges for 2024. And the focus for next year will be on intensive development, said Zsuzsanna Kiss, Marriott Multi-property Director of Human Resources, in our year-end HR Leadership Series.

The recruitment team had to cope with a rapid and large-scale expansion: 100 dual students, its own health centre, summer camps for employees' children, in-house training to fill missing skills and qualifications. In our end-of-year HR Leadership series, we asked Mária Szüle, HR Director of the BMW Group's Debrecen plant, about what happened at BMW this year and what is planned for next year.

What is the ideal leader like in today's world? Is there one at all? Why are leaders not superheroes? How are expectations evolving, why is self-awareness becoming more important and why is it a turning point when the percentage of women leaders reaches 30%? We spoke to Barbara Stöttinger, Dean of the Leadership Academy at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU).

There are many different categorisations of leadership style. These are rarely found in isolation, but more often in some combination. Here are the ten most common types. Which one does your boss fall into or which ones suit him?

"My aim is to bring the learning approach into the bloodstream, to form a learning organisation" - Zoltán Bán, HR Director of MOL Hungary, who took office in March this year, told HR Portal. He said that he fully identifies with their employer branding message and he is also thinking in solutions. We also asked him what he thinks about the situation of succession, the cooperation between generations in the company, where the average age is 40, and where digitalisation is at.

Continuous change is a basic requirement nowadays, you can't work from routine or even from last year's experience, said Ágnes Sándorné Bosnyák, HR Manager of DENSO Hungary. In Japanese company culture, there is a very strong tradition of internal promotion. 99% of managers become managers in the company. And the appointment also involves a period of preparation. The selection of physical workers is done in a day, but the employability of the Hungarian workforce is often affected by health conditions. On average, nearly 10% of DENSO applicants are not medically fit for multi-shift or permanent work. We asked the company's HR manager about company practices and the challenges of the market.

It came to the National Tax and Customs Administration five years ago. It is his first job in the administration and he says it's a job he can fall in love with. Mariann Szalavics, deputy chair of the (NAV) resource management department, told HR Portal that in recruitment they focus on targeting young people through job fairs and social media, and want to lower the average age to 47. They recruit 600-800 employees a year. The deputy chairman told HR Portal what jobs the NAV is looking for new colleagues for and what it offers them as employers.

In terms of HR indicators, Continental Group Hungary had a successful year in 2023: their unwanted turnover decreased significantly compared to the previous year. However, keeping track of labour market movements, including the employment of third-country nationals, remains a challenge for the company. We spoke to Ákos Kalmár, HR Director of Continental Group Hungary, about the details of this, job change trends and the use of artificial intelligence.

Maintaining real wages will be a challenge again this year, but moderate economic growth is expected in the second half of the year, which will also bring a pick-up in recruitment. At the same time, finding engineers for the new positions that open up will continue to be a challenge, as there are no more engineers and workers are finding it harder to switch. So it is not all the same who can project an image and make a value proposition," says Gyöngyvér Budai, CEO of DVM Group Kft. HR Director of DVM Group, Ltd.

The proportion of CEOs who believe global economic growth will improve in the next 12 months has more than doubled compared to last year (from 18% to 38%). At the same time, 45% of CEOs are concerned about the long-term survival of their business in the face of increasing technological and climate pressures, according to PwC's 27th Global CEO Survey.

AI, digitalisation, retention, upskilling, reskilling, all in an uncertain environment. In our complex world, everything is interconnected, so HR has to navigate an increasingly complex set of problems and play a strategic role, while facing unforeseen challenges at any time. What can HR expect in 2024? We will try to give you a broad overview.

Succession planning and development is a cornerstone of business continuity and sustainability. This goes far beyond identifying a potential successor for every manager. How does the process work? What tools can we use as HR? Written by Emese Pálfi-Poczik, a consultant in Arthur Hunt's consulting and development business.