Evaluation of personnel risk in the SMEs in the V4 countries

Abstract

Personnel risk is one of the significant factors in improving financial performance. Comparing the subjective perception of sources of personnel risk between companies by the company's country of operation can be useful information for companies and national policymakers. The article aims to identify and quantify disparities and common characteristics in evaluating personnel risk sources between small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Czech Republic and other V4 countries. The perceptions of owners or top managers of SMEs were obtained through an e-mail request to complete a questionnaire. The research sample consisted of 1585 respondents. The Goodness of Fit was used to determine differences in the evaluation of personnel risk among owners or top managers according to the company's locality in the V4 countries. Empirical findings show that Czech SMEs reported the lowest error rate of employees in comparison with other V4 countries. Czech SMEs perceive the staff turnover as low intensity and similar to other V4 countries. The majority of Hungarian SMEs said that their employees are trying to improve their business performance, and healthy competition prevails in their firms. This ratio is more significant compared to Czech, Slovak or Polish SMEs’ attitudes.