HR timeline

The year 2000. I am starting my first company in the labor market. I am a young graduate of the Wrocław University of Economics, from the very first HR management program established there. I don't even know yet what an amazing adventure awaits me in the coming years.

We have knowledge, energy, and a desire to change the world. Technology isn't a challenge yet – emails are a technical novelty, and computers are used more for typing and printing than for managing complex management systems. Unemployment reaches 15%. It is an employer’s market. Everyone just wants to get a foothold in a job somewhere.

Despite this, we manage to grow precisely because companies are looking for someone who can find the right people amidst the excess of available candidates, take on the employment risk, and lift the burden of tedious, archaic HR processes off their shoulders.

The year 2010. Unemployment falls to 12%, but 2009 is a drama for the HR industry. The global financial crisis causes companies to rapidly lose clients and fire people; the only reason many agencies survive is that large enterprises are afraid to hire on their own—fearing a second wave of the crisis.

The year 2025. An employee’s market. Poland’s gigantic economic success. An invitation to the G20 and actual presence in this group thanks to the size of our GDP. Unemployment is among the lowest in Europe—alongside the Czech Republic—and lower than in Ireland, which for years was a symbol of high incomes.

Everyone is fighting for employees who simply aren't there. And once again, the HR industry must find its way in difficult times—just like every company that needs people.

Just some evening thoughts looking at the calendar of our labor market history. It is amazing that from a country of migrant workers, we have become a desirable market for workers from all over the world. From people looking for any occupation, we have become a society that can choose between companies and opportunities.

And yet, our character doesn't change—we like to complain and always think things could be better.

Let’s remember, however, that it can always be worse. Look at Ukraine. At Venezuela—a once-rich country. At Argentina with inflation reaching 200%. Finally, at Japan, which got stuck in stagnation and let others catch up.

Nothing is given once and for all. Let’s not waste this golden time for Poland on arguments, delays, and negligence. Now we have a chance for another leap into the future—a future that might again need the same energy that carried us from the year 2000 to 2025 in such excellent style.