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The St. Petersburg Times, 24 Îêòÿáðÿ 2006
Fighting for workers
As the shortage in qualified personnel continues, salaries for even the most basic staff keep rising.
If the local labor market remains favorable for employees, employers will find themselves competing for a limited number of qualified professionals. The city's leading companies are increasing salaries above inflation and generously offering additional benefits to retain specialists, ANCOR recruiting company concluded in its last labor market survey.
«The situation in the labor market still remains favorable for employees and difficult for employers because demand for many specialists exceeds the workforce available,» said Natalya Martikainen, Project Manager in Salary Survey Group at ANCOR.
Neither the volume nor the structure of job opportunities differs much from 2005. According to ANCOR, the labor deficit is highest in the production industry and retail because new companies are arriving in the city and local firms are expanding their businesses.
What makes the situation even more difficult is that the lack of qualified personnel is seen «not only among middle and top level specialists but also among basic staff.»
«Companies are in need of ordinary administrative staff (secretaries, receptionists) and qualified workers, including mechanics and electricians — salaries for these specialists keep rising,» Martikainen said.
Apart from regularly revising salaries, most employers pay compensations for night shift and holiday work as well as providing bonuses depending on specific individual or group achievements.
Basically the employers pay for food (on average $2.51 a day per person) and offer additional health insurance. The average cost of the latter increased from $471 last year to $541 this year.
Some employers offer loans to personnel for up to three years (the maximum size of the loan is $22,355), options to buy the company's shares and nongovernmental pension schemes.
Out of the 68 companies surveyed, 74 percent provide financial support to employees, 53 percent fund sports activities, and 63 percent give presents to employees' children.
53 percent of companies pay birthday bonuses, 43 percent allow employees to get full pay during sick leave, 35 percent sell corporate property at a discount.
A few companies provide additional health insurance for employees' relatives. 59 percent of companies offer vaccinations to employees.
Depending on the employee's position they could receive a company car and compensation for fuel and maintenance. Ones employer might also cover the costs of a mobile phone, education and training courses.
93 percent of companies organize parties at New Year and Christmas, 59 percent organize summer corporate events — picnics and team building exercises being the most popular.
When asked about the labor market, local businesspeople were quite confident in their ability to hire and retain employees.
Valentin Katkalov, director of personnel at St. Petersburg Bank, said the bank does not suffer from any serious lack of specialists.
«At the moment the situation is rather favorable for employers — some banks are reorganizing and many qualified specialists are losing their jobs,» Katkalov said.
Nevertheless, the bank competes for qualified professionals, he said, mainly by monitoring salaries.
«We try to keep key specialists' salaries slightly higher than the market average. Salaries are increased once a year,» Katkalov said. At the same time, many departments use a bonus scheme to reward specialists' positive impacting on bank performance.
The employer should never be complacent, because methods of attracting and keeping specialists are constantly changing, Katkalov warned.
«We renew the compensation package every year and try to provide a comfortable environment for work and professional growth,» he said.
Tatiana Kolesnikova, quality and environment director at Scania Peter, also denied any shortage in labor saying that the company staff «is complete with competent and very qualified specialists.»
The only weak point, she indicated, is the number of production specialists.
«Following a series of reforms in the 1990s, demand for engineers fell. Technical institutions started to supply graduates in economics, management and engineering and management. Now engineers and specialists in production are much more in demand,» Kolesnikova said.
Another problem with new employees is often their poor command of English. Kolesnikova said that in closely monitoring labor market trends the company has succeeded in maintaining low staff turnover.
«Of most importance is our corporate culture. We focus on long-term results, with respect to individuals and social protection. We delegate tasks, increase employees' responsibility and involve them in achieving global targets,» she said.