Artyom Vasiliev, Manager at Accountancy & Finance Department, Antal Russia
Read in Russian. The beginning of 2009 has been a slow and difficult time in terms of recruitment activity. Most companies across the world, including Russia, were affected by the fear of the downturn in the world economy and subsequently stopped hiring people and started, in most cases, practicing cost and personnel reduction exercises. This in turn led to a significant rise in unemployment in various industries and disciplines.
The recruitment industry by nature is very close to the money markets in terms of economy activeness sensitivity. When the economy goes up, recruiters are very active because their clients start to reorganize their business structures and strategies, hiring new people for different interesting challenges. Here is the good news – we recruiters have lots of work to do these days!
Being responsible for accountancy and finance recruitment at Antal Russia and dealing with different clients in various industries, I can assure you that the market is recovering now and our clients are “cleaning up“ their accounting and finance functions by releasing ineffective employees and hiring the “best of the best” from the market, who are able to bring added value to the business by implementing international best practices in accounting, financial and management reporting, budget controlling, cash management and financial modeling & analysis. The financial product / information produced by those people help business leaders to make effective strategic decisions on how to recover and develop their companies further. I can also highlight our clients’ demand for hiring high profile professionals (CFOs, Financial Directors and Corporate Finance Directors) who can effectively deal with fund raising, loan restructuring and change management itself.
Let’s not forget about the professional attitude of the candidates / employees towards the current business situation. Our clients are tired of employees who complain about the difficult times and who cannot deal with problems. We have to admit that employees with this attitude are negatively influencing not just the team spirit, but the performance of the whole company. The team should move together towards the business goal otherwise nothing good will happen.
The market has shown an overall salary freeze in 2009 with most companies not paying out bonuses to employees for the previous year. The Ruble devaluation has also brought a negative impact. But valuable professionals will always be motivated by their smart employers both financially and career wise.
There are lots of companies who think that they can recruit the best people from the market for low salaries by offering just a stable job in a branded company. It is important to note that the best people are already employed by other companies and these potential candidates need a very strong motivation to change their job. The majority of really bright people, who could have agreed to join risky but challenging projects prior to the crisis, will now think twice about such an opportunity because job security has become a valuable part of their motivation. A recruiter’s work has become much more difficult because they have to double or even triple the efforts to effectively recruit for their clients.
