Approaches towards human capital management in SMEs

Human capital management (HCM) impacts enterprises and is a challenge for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The article aims to explain the essence of HCM and find out how SMEs perceive the concept of HCM and which activities they perform and consider necessary for the future. We used scientific methods such as content analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, comparison, and modelling. In addition, Cronbach's alpha, descriptive statistics and chi-square test were calculated. The data we process are the result of a questionnaire survey from 2020 (682 subjects) and from 2021 (477 subjects). We found that SMEs in 2021 considered the HCM concept more relevant to their future. In 2020, up to 40.76% of SMEs in Slovakia still perceived employees only as costs. The positive impact of the HCM concept on the company's financial situation and competitiveness was also confirmed.