MANAGING EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE IN THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR: IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT

Contemporary business conditions, the global food crisis, and the post-epidemic recession have led agricultural firms to reconsider human capital's role in the overall business. Previous research points to the problem of low efficiency in the use of resources in the agricultural sector when it comes to investment and development of human capital. The aim of the study is to analyze the contribution of human capital to employee performance in agricultural firms in Serbia. Human capital is observed through human capital efficiency (HCE). Employee performance is observed through value-added per employee, net profit per employee, operating revenue per employee, and labor productivity. VAIC methodology for calculating HCE was applied in the paper. The sample includes 177 active agricultural firms that operated in Serbia in 2021. Based on the results, it can be concluded that HCE positively contributes to the observed employee performance, except in the case of value-added per employee.