By Michael Dembinski, chief advisor, and Dorota Kierbiedź, membership director, BPCC
According to Eurostat, Poland has the lowest unemployment rate in the EU, currently standing at 2.6% (based on a measure of the economically inactive). This time last year, it was 3.1%. The Polish economy is growing while the number of young people starting work continues to fall for demographic reasons. The result is an ever-deepening drought on the labour market. Investment in automation, AI and migrant workers offer some relief to employers.
What will 2025 look like on the Polish labour market? What are the key trends? How is labour law shaping supply and demand? These are the questions that this issue of Contact Magazine Online intends to answer. With four interviews and 21 articles, we bring you a representative cross-sector overview from across the market, from which you will be able to draw insights of practical value to your business’s HR strategy.
Below, we set out the topics covered in the interviews and articles; please take a moment to review these and click through to read the full texts of those which seem most relevant to your business needs.
The interviews:
Nuno Rodrigues Campos and Joanna Mazur, site co-leads of the London Stock Exchange Group’s Gdynia office, discuss some of the cutting-edge solutions that make LSEG such a stand-out business when it comes to human-resource management.
Dorota Grudzień Molenda, managing partner, Arthur Hunt Consulting Polska, talks about the search for top management talent in a rapidly changing market, challenged by demographics, globalisation and technological advance.
Izabela Nowikowska, HR director CEE at Wyborowa Pernod Ricard, discusses the positive results of a well-managed diversity and inclusion policy. Gender balance and a friendly, respectful atmosphere are crucial to this.
And a bonus interview for this issue of Contact Magazine Online, focused on the potential of Polish-British economic cooperation – Piotr Kubalka, CEO of J. Dauman Group talks to the BPCC’s managing director Marcin Cichy about Program Expander, the new initiative supporting Polish businesses to expand successfully into the UK market through mergers and acquisitions.
The articles
Łukasz Grzeszczyk from Hays says that Poland has shifted from being a low-cost investment destination to a value-for-money one, and lists what the country’s gained – and lost – from the shift.
Agnieszka Gołębiewska from Michael Page Human Resources notes the growing importance of pay transparency, especially in gender difference, and points out that new regulations are on their way.
Katarzyna Chudzińska-Hooymeyer from HSBC Continental Europe asks how well Poland is adapting to the challenges of hybrid work, and the problems and opportunities that lie ahead.
Magdalena Panońko and Barbara Lesiak from GS Services discuss IT staff augmentation, and the way it has evolved from being a temporary solution to the core hiring strategy it is today.
Łukasz Chodkowski from Déhora Poland considers the global Future of Jobs 2025 challenges as set out by the World Economic Forum, and compares them with the Polish survey results.
Przemek Olszewski, ACCA Poland, compares Polish and global trends in the way accountancy professionals view hybrid work, satisfaction with pay, and tech overload and stress.
Izabela Walczewska-Schneyder from Oryx Group looks at how Poland will cope with the workforce transformation resulting from the demographic changes that are under way.
Karolina Assi from Berlitz, focuses on the changing needs for foreign language learning in Poland, driven by a new influx of skilled workers from abroad, and the impact of AI.
Katarzyna Komorowska and Izabela Niewirowska from PwC point out that the HR aspect of M&As can lead to retention becoming an issue post-merger/acquisition – unless it’s properly monitored.
Agnieszka Telakowska-Harasiewicz from MDDP takes a look at the benefits and key considerations of share-based incentives in Poland, in particular from the tax treatment of such schemes.
Michał Wysłocki from EY Poland says Polish labour inspection plans to conduct 55,000 inspections in 2025, focused on the legality of employment of foreigners. Are you compliant, he asks?
Knowledge of employment law is crucially important to HR. In this issue, contributors from nine law firms set out key areas of Polish labour law.
Tomasz Sancewicz from CMS stresses the need for clarity in HR documentation. Legal design is the answer, he says, and gives examples of how plain language makes documents more effective.
Karolina Romanowska and Łukasz Rutkowski, attorney-at-law from Wardyński & Partners offer advice on whether or not employers can conduct background checks on candidates or employees.
Adam Kraszewski from Gessel drills down into Poland’s demographic problems in the search for solutions that might help ease the country’s labour shortage.
Nicola Young and Alex Clements from Bexley Beaumont enumerate the ways in which Poles can work legally in the UK in what is an increasingly restrictive post-Brexit environment.
Monika Krzyszkowska-Dąbrowska and Urszula Furgał from Linklaters Warsaw ask whether new Polish anti-mobbing legislation will open the floodgates to lawsuits from employees.
Bartosz Wszeborowski and Zuzanna Janelli from PCS | Littler explain howemployers should tackle neurodiversity – working with people on the autism spectrum or with ADHD, for example.
Agata Kałwińska-Bęben, senior associate, Osborne Clarke Poland says new whistleblower legislation, rushed onto the statute books last July, may be problematic for Polish subsidiaries of foreign firms.
Jagoda Komarzyniec from Staniek & Partners casts an eye over the obligations of employees towards their relationship with their employer, as well as their social and ethical awareness.
Piotr Kryczek from TGC Corporate Lawyers considers the restrictions on additional employment and asks whether an employee can be hired exclusively?
…and finally, in other HR news…
AstraZeneca and University of Warsaw are launching a postgraduate programme intended to equip professionals with the expertise needed to bring scientific discoveries to market.
