Hungary’s Shared Service Centre and Business Services sector has developed into an important part of the economy. As the industry moves beyond traditional support functions towards higher-value regional and global services, expectations towards employees are changing as well. Strong language skills remain highly valuable, but increasingly they are only one part of a much broader skill set.

Hungary has built a strong position in the SSC and BSC sector within Central and Eastern Europe, but maintaining that position increasingly depends on the availability of qualified professionals with the right combination of skills.

Business service centres are evolving.

Many organisations that originally focused on relatively standardised support activities are gradually taking responsibility for:

• regional and global processes;
• complex business operations;
• data and analytics;
• automation;
• IT services;
• higher-value decision support.

This transformation is reshaping the SSC skills and competencies employers are looking for.

Language skills remain essential

Despite rapid technological development, foreign-language capability continues to be one of the most important requirements in many SSC and BSC positions.

Vivien Jécsi, HR Leader at Genpact, emphasises that even as chatbots and automated systems become increasingly sophisticated, communication with customers and colleagues across different cultures still requires human understanding.

Multilingual employees can provide something technology alone cannot easily replace: contextual communication and cultural awareness.

This remains particularly important in roles involving:

• customer service;
• finance;
• procurement;
• HR;
• sales support;
• international business operations.

Language knowledge matters at every seniority level

Ágnes Lovas, Senior HR Consultant at Vision Recruitment, similarly confirms that there continues to be strong demand for professionals with foreign-language skills in both entry-level and senior SSC/BSC positions.

The value of language skills increases further when combined with specialist professional expertise.

For example, a candidate who speaks several languages and also understands finance, procurement, engineering or technology can become significantly more attractive to employers.

ERP knowledge is becoming increasingly important

Language skills alone are no longer enough for many roles.

Lovas highlights the increasing importance of experience with enterprise resource planning and other corporate business systems.

For some positions, familiarity with these systems is no longer simply an advantage.

Its absence may significantly reduce a candidate’s chances of progressing in the recruitment process.

Employees who understand how complex corporate processes are supported by technology can generally adapt more quickly to large international organisations.

Technical and engineering knowledge is gaining value

The changing structure of the SSC/BSC sector has also increased demand for technical professionals.

According to Lovas, employers have shown growing interest in candidates with electrical engineering backgrounds, as well as professionals supporting manufacturing-related functions.

At the same time, business service centres increasingly require IT professionals in areas including:

• IT operations;
• software development;
• data management;
• automation;
• cloud technologies;
• digital transformation.

This reflects the sector’s shift away from purely administrative support towards increasingly technology-intensive work.

Digitalisation and AI are transforming SSC careers

The pandemic accelerated digitalisation and automation throughout the business services sector.

As organisations became more dependent on digital processes, employees increasingly needed to work confidently with advanced technologies.

Jécsi notes that this creates a challenge because digital capability does not always develop as quickly as the technologies companies introduce.

Employees are increasingly expected to use AI and analytics tools to process large datasets and turn information into useful business insights.

Data analytics is becoming a core business capability

Tools such as Power BI and Tableau illustrate how business-service roles are changing.

Employees are no longer expected merely to process information.

They may increasingly need to:

• analyse data;
• identify trends;
• visualise results;
• draw business conclusions;
• support management decisions.

The combination of data analytics and artificial intelligence can further increase the value of these capabilities.

AI is also becoming part of internal business processes

In the original article, Jécsi described several AI-supported tools used within Genpact.

These included internal solutions designed to support employee feedback, customer service and HR information.

Examples included an employee-satisfaction chatbot, an AI-supported customer-service tool and an HR assistant providing information about policies, benefits and internal HR processes.

These examples demonstrate that AI in the SSC/BSC environment is not restricted to one specialist department.

It can increasingly become part of everyday business operations.

Automation is particularly relevant to high-volume processes

Shared Service Centres often manage large numbers of repetitive administrative transactions.

This makes automation especially valuable.

According to Lovas, automation can help:

• reduce manual errors;
• improve efficiency;
• standardise processes;
• free employees from repetitive work.

As routine tasks become more automated, the value of employees increasingly comes from work requiring interpretation, problem-solving and professional judgement.

Cloud-based working supports scalability

Cloud technologies are another increasingly important part of daily operations.

They allow international organisations to create systems that are more scalable, flexible and potentially more cost-efficient.

For employees, this means familiarity with cloud-based working environments can become increasingly relevant across a wide range of functions rather than remaining exclusively an IT skill.

Qualifications are no longer the only thing employers evaluate

Rapid technological development has also increased the importance of soft skills.

In some roles, employers may consider adaptability, problem-solving and learning ability at least as important as a candidate’s formal qualification.

This does not mean degrees and professional knowledge are irrelevant.

Rather, employers increasingly recognise that technical knowledge alone may become outdated if an employee cannot adapt when processes, technologies or organisational structures change.

Change has become part of everyday SSC work

Lovas highlights how frequently business service organisations restructure their operations.

Processes may move between countries.

New functions may arrive from other locations.

Working arrangements may change.

Artificial intelligence may transform how existing tasks are performed.

Employees therefore need to remain comfortable in environments where change is continuous rather than exceptional.

Adaptability is becoming a core SSC competency

The ability to adjust quickly is particularly valuable when organisations:

• introduce new technologies;
• move processes between locations;
• reorganise teams;
• redesign workflows;
• change working models;
• create new functions.

Employees who can learn new processes and remain effective during transition may have a significant advantage.

Continuous learning is essential

“Continuous learning and openness are the key to everything,” Jécsi explains.

The reason is simple: technical expertise that is highly valuable today may need to be updated significantly within only a few years.

Professionals who want to remain competitive need to keep developing their knowledge throughout their careers.

This includes both technical and interpersonal capabilities.

A growth mindset helps employees adapt

Jécsi also emphasises the importance of a growth-oriented mindset.

Employees need to be willing to:

• learn from mistakes;
• develop new skills;
• experiment with new technology;
• accept changing responsibilities;
• respond constructively to feedback.

This becomes particularly important as business service centres take responsibility for more strategic and higher-value activities.

Problem-solving is becoming more valuable

When routine processes are increasingly automated, employees spend more time handling situations that cannot be solved through a predefined workflow.

They need to identify problems, understand their causes and develop effective solutions.

This makes structured problem-solving an increasingly important SSC skill.

Critical thinking complements AI

The growing use of artificial intelligence makes critical thinking more important, not less.

AI tools can provide information, identify patterns and generate recommendations.

Employees still need to evaluate whether those outputs are relevant, reliable and appropriate for the actual business situation.

The valuable professional is therefore not simply someone who can use an AI tool.

It is someone who can interpret its output intelligently.

Employees increasingly need to understand the business behind the process

As SSCs evolve into BSCs and global service organisations, employees are expected to understand more than the individual task assigned to them.

They increasingly need to understand:

• the wider business objective;
• how their process affects other departments;
• customer expectations;
• the financial or operational consequences of decisions.

This broader business perspective is particularly important in higher-value and strategic functions.

Project-management skills are gaining importance

As organisations move towards faster and more dynamic ways of working, project-management capability becomes increasingly valuable.

Jécsi highlights knowledge of methodologies such as Agile and Lean.

These approaches can help employees manage:

• cross-functional projects;
• process improvement;
• automation initiatives;
• organisational transformation;
• new technology implementation.

Process optimisation is becoming a specialist skill

Automation is not simply about applying technology to an existing workflow.

Organisations first need to understand whether the process itself can be improved.

Employees working with automation may therefore need to:

• analyse existing workflows;
• identify unnecessary steps;
• redesign processes;
• select suitable automation opportunities;
• measure the results.

This makes process optimisation a valuable capability in the evolving business services sector.

Learning platforms can help organisations close the skills gap

Employers also have an important role in supporting continuous development.

In the original article, Jécsi describes Genpact’s internal Genome learning platform, which provides personalised learning opportunities across areas ranging from soft skills and storytelling to digital capabilities and generative AI.

This type of learning infrastructure helps organisations continuously develop existing employees rather than relying exclusively on external recruitment whenever new skills become necessary.

Soft skills become more important as technical work becomes automated

One of the paradoxes of automation is that the more technology takes over repetitive tasks, the more valuable distinctly human capabilities can become.

These include:

• communication;
• critical thinking;
• creativity;
• adaptability;
• collaboration;
• problem-solving;
• cultural understanding.

Technology can support these activities, but it does not automatically replace them.

The strongest candidates combine several skill groups

For many SSC/BSC positions, the ideal profile is no longer defined by one isolated competency.

Employers increasingly value combinations such as:

• foreign languages + finance;
• languages + ERP expertise;
• engineering + business knowledge;
• data analysis + communication;
• IT + process understanding;
• AI capability + critical thinking.

These combinations can significantly increase a candidate’s market value.

What are the most important SSC skills and competencies?

Based on the trends discussed in the original article, some of the most valuable capabilities include:

• foreign-language skills – particularly in international customer and business operations;
• ERP and business-system knowledge – increasingly important across corporate functions;
• digital literacy – confidence with technology and digital workflows;
• data analytics – the ability to turn information into business insight;
• AI literacy – understanding how to use AI tools effectively and critically;
• adaptability – responding successfully to continuous organisational change;
• problem-solving – handling situations that cannot be automated;
• critical thinking – evaluating information and making sound decisions;
• project management – particularly in transformation and process-improvement environments;
• continuous learning – maintaining relevant skills in a rapidly changing market.

Language skills open the door, but they may no longer be enough

Foreign-language capability remains one of the defining advantages of many professionals working in the business services sector.

However, as SSCs evolve into increasingly sophisticated BSC and global-service operations, employers require considerably more.

The strongest candidates increasingly combine language capability with technical, analytical and interpersonal skills.

The future belongs to professionals who keep their skills current

The transformation of the business services sector means there is no permanent list of skills guaranteed to remain sufficient throughout an entire career.

Technology will continue to change processes.

AI will reshape individual tasks.

Some activities will become automated, while new and more complex roles will appear.

For professionals, remaining competitive therefore depends increasingly on the willingness to continue learning.

For employers, the challenge is not only finding candidates with the right SSC skills and competencies today, but also creating an environment where employees can continue developing the capabilities they will need tomorrow.

Source: Behaviour HR Magazine