HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN BIG CROATIAN COMPANIES

As human resource management is the prerequisite for gaining competitive advantages through people and because it is signifi cantly correlated with the organizational success, the purpose of this paper was to explore the importance and status of HRM in big Croatian companies. Two hypotheses were set: (1) that HRM in Croatian companies is not developed, and, (2) that there exist HRM activities which are signifi cantly correlated with the organizational success. Both hypotheses were accepted. Concretely, both quantitative (human capital indicators, turnover and absenteeism indicators, performance appraisal indicators, indicators of compensation and indicators of education) and qualitative HRM
indicators (HRM activities performed and the existence of HRM philosophy), imply that HRM practices in big Croatian companies are not developed. However, statistically significant correlations between HRM indicators and indicators of organizational success prove that HRM activities connected to financial success exist. Croatian companies that want to expand, should pursue fl exible HR policies, provide fair compensations, identify key employees, have educated labor force, measure the quality of HRM, and treat their employees as a most valuable resource.