People management challenges for SMEs in five European regions: Spotlighting the (in)visible and the (in)formal and embedding SME HR issues firmly in the business and knowledge environment

The topic of human resources management is currently very relevant for small and medium-sized enterprises. In SMEs there are often more informal and less complex procedures in human resource management without a strategic dimension. In smaller organisations with fewer than 250 employees, human resource management is typically provided not by internal HR experts but by the owners together with managers of other functional areas.
A collaborative cross-regional research aimed to get data from five European regions in order to to map HR processes, analyse data and compare findings across the five regions. The whole process before this publication could be written involved literature and secondary data review, preparation of methodology and phases of data collection. Based on this the collection of primary data was ensured where the partner universities used strengths and competences to generate new insights, knowledge and comparative analysis in order to contribute to closing gaps in the HRM for SMEs fields. The aim of the publication is to analyse the processes in the area of human resources management based on the obtained primary data, to bring the main findings in HR for SMEs and to define the challenges, which are then addressed by other SHARPEN project outputs. Results confirmed that the approach to HRM in SMEs is rather informal, provided not only by an HR specialist, but also by the owner or other managers. The results also confirmed considerable variability in the approach to human resource management across countries and SMEs. Often the tools used in individual HR activities differ (e.g. intensity of social networking in recruitment). On the other hand, SMEs across these regions have shown very similar challenges they face today. Trying to retain high-quality employees or attract new generation is a pressing issue for all SMEs. The revelation of these topics and the setting up of international and regional cooperation gives space for further exploration and production of outputs for academia and business practice.