Over 355 thousand people already work in the modern business services sector in Poland, of which as many as 82,100 (23% share in employment in the sector overall) are employed in Kraków. As a leader in terms of employment, the capital of Małopolska has overtaken Warsaw (70.2 thousand jobs) and Wroclaw (52.5 thousand).
Data concerning the modern business services sector are included in the annual ABSL report "Business Services Sector in Poland 2021". The data concerning the modern business services sector was included in the annual ABSL report "Modern business services sector in Poland 2021". Its presentation took place on Tuesday, June 15, in the framework of ABSL FDI Forum, which was also attended by Jerzy Muzyk - Deputy Mayor of Kraków for Sustainable Development.
Modern service centres in Krakow
At the end of the first quarter of 2021, in terms of the number of service centres, the first place is still taken by Warsaw (312 centres). Among the centres with at least 100 centres, Krakow came second (247), followed by Wroclaw (201), Tri-City (160), Poznan (120) and Katowice and Upper Silesia Metropolis (GZM) (115). In turn, the largest number of new centres from the beginning of 2020 to the end of Q1 2021, was created in Warsaw (17), Krakow (16) and Tricity (8).
Krakow, among the 11 largest business service centres in the country, is distinguished by the highest average employment (332). In our city, there are 22 centres, which employ 1 000 or more employees (35,5% of all centres in the country).
As a city belonging to the "Tier 1" category (together with Warsaw and Wroclaw), Krakow is considered a desirable destination by investors who prefer existing centres. New investments are also being made in the Tricity, Katowice and GZM, Lodz and Poznan, which are classified in the 'Tier 2' category. The momentary trend of opening centres in smaller "Tier 3" and "Tier 4" centres has not continued.
The modern business services sector in Krakow is also considered to be a local specialisation of the city due to the increased concentration of employment in comparison to Tricity, Wroclaw, Katowice or Bydgoszcz.
Position of Krakow in the ABSL ranking
According to the discussed ABSL report, in the ranking of centres in terms of business service centres operations in 2021, Krakow took the first place both in the category "Availability of talent pool/highly qualified staff" and in the category "Availability of modern office space".
The capital of Malopolska Region received second place for "Communication accessibility (airport)" and for "Cooperation with local universities". In the category "Transport accessibility (by rail)" Krakow received the 3. mark. In addition, ex aequo with Warsaw, Krakow came first in the category "Quality of local universities".
Changes in companies and competences of the future
The changes taking place in the modern business services sector are both quantitative and qualitative. Companies still want to increase their resources of educated and qualified staff, i.e. employees with advanced competences in new areas and with so-called future skills. The coronavirus situation has also had an impact on the growing importance of working remotely, where the key role is played by IT infrastructure, VPN solutions, video conferencing, which are becoming a permanent element of reality, occurring even after the end of the pandemic. As expected, the demand for business trips, conferences and trade fairs (some of which can be held exclusively or partially virtually) has decreased significantly, as has the demand for office space.
The hybrid working model seems to be the optimal answer to the problems of the current world, torn by the COVID-19 virus pandemic, and possibly other similar situations in the future. It seems inevitable that this model will stay with employers for a long time. We are currently seeing an increase in the number of renegotiated leases in the office property market and an upward trend in the number of subleases. Some companies are choosing to reduce space, despite the increase in employment.
New challenges among many opportunities
The transition to the role of an innovator and trendsetter on a global scale is a challenge that concerns the entire modern business services industry. It involves a significant change in the mentality of employees and managers towards greater creativity and innovation and broadening the scope of decision-making competence.
The modern business services industry is also characterized by an increasing level of complexity of the performed business processes - 53.8% of all processes (weighted by employment) performed in the centres are knowledge-based processes (increase of 8 p.p. in comparison with the data from the report "Modern business services sector in Poland 2019").
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