At the first glance, due to several initiatives of the Ministry of labour in Russia in 2020, life of HR departments should be improved now, and the only problem us lack of human resources due to the deepening demographic crisis. But this is only at first glance.
E-Vesti decided to ask one of the thriving participants in the Russian labor market whether this is true, and what are the current challenges for the human resources of Russian enterprises. Michael Germershausen – Managing Director of one of the largest international recruitment agencies Antal Russia, kindly agreed to tell our readers about the real situation with personnel in Russia. His answers may seem unexpected to many of our readers.
EV: How your market felt in 2019 and what do you expect from 2020?
Michael Germershausen: Our company grew two digit in our region and we are hoping to outbeat this in 2020.
EV: In 2020 we can see some novelties in labor law. Some of them seem to be good like digital employment records and decrease of papers. What things do you welcome and what things you still suggest/await to revise?
Michael Germershausen: This year all HR department are expecting additional work because we are expecting that people will start swapping to electronic trudavaja knishka.
Its difficult to predict how much extra work there will be. I think a lot of people were hoping that this additional piece beaurocracy would be abolished all together.
EV: What are the key trends now?
Michael Germershausen: The key trends are that there is a big shortage of experts in the new and modern disciplines like cyber security or programming. At the same time there many people who cannot find a new job because their skills are either not demanded anymore or their companies are downscaling. As for many companies sales is not growing that actively anymore they have to become more efficient.
EV: Usually we can hear that Russia due to demographic collapse needs more and more labor personnel. How this problem can be solved now?
Michael Germershausen: The country has to open rather than close its boarders to the rest of the world. Localisation and import substitutions means that less foreign investment is coming and bringing its experts with them. Apart from Chinese companies which are bringing big amounts of Chinese nationals with them, the majority of other international companies are switching to local nationals only. Moreover young experts are leaving the country due to economic stagnation.
EV: What opportunities do we have to attract high-experience people on global market (expats, regional employees, etc) keeping in mind our law?
Michael Germershausen: The easy highly qualified visa was a good start but unless growth rates of the economy become interesting again, it will be more interesting for expats to move to Dubai, China, India or the US.
EV: We can see development of the economic community of the EAEU. What about employees? Do you see any progress in this topic?
Michael Germershausen: We were pretty surprised when we found out that it is illegal to use the Russian Sberbank in Kazakhstan for banking transaction. The fines and fees that can be struck on business with regards currency control are still mind blowing.
What has become much easier and more frequent is Russians working Kazakhstan or Belarus nationals in Minsk. A big nightmare for international business is still the situation with Ukraine. When I want to visit our office their I have to take the overnight train and get woken up at least two times.
