Hiring, Retaining, Appraising & Firing in Russia - how to make the most of your people in today's Russia

Your people are what make up your organisation anywhere in the world. Your product or service, brand and image all come a distant second. Without your key staff, your company is nothing.

For the uninitiated, Russia may appear a difficult place to do business, but if you invest the time to understand what is necessary to get it right, the rewards are limitless. Here are some crucial tips on hiring, retaining, appraising and firing for those new in town.

1) Hiring:

Russia is different, but not that different!

The Russian Federation has been riding the wave of an economic boom, and the likely effects of the credit crunch are currently hard to determine here. The Russian economy is highly dependent on oil, gas and other raw materials, yet is not hugely reliant on a sole trading partner. With prices for Russia's exports at an all-time high and showing no signs of declining, this is fantastic news for investors as both companies and people who have money to spend in all areas of the economy. Although some lost money (and confidence) following the Rouble default during the summer of 1998, eight years of continuous growth and stability under Vladimir Putin have put the country back on its feet again, as well as on the world stage. From a hiring perspective, the key difficulty lies in the fact that the market is growing at a faster pace than people themselves are developing, which has created an acute skills shortage.

Don't forget that you are in a country that recently emerged from three generations of communism. Skills that are second nature to us did not exist for 70 years, and consequently nor did many professions. Job titles today such as Sales Executive, Marketing Director, PR Manager, and HR Specialist are relatively new, and although the younger generation will have adapted quickly, those brought up when the Soviet Union was a command economy have struggled to adjust.

Many of the requests that we receive are to find customer-facing salespeople. Russia does not really have a 'sales' culture, so to speak. Selling was seen an evil of capitalism, and something that 20 years ago could land you in jail for 'speculation'! Sales is still viewed by many as a dirty word, and proactive selling is still uncommon here. Partly due to the strength of the economy, good candidates know that they are in demand, and consequently when attending an interview will often expect you to sell your company, and the vacancy to them, rather than the other way around. An interviewer asking the question "why do you want to work for us?" is likely to be greeted with the reply "I don't"!

Begin an interview with a brief introduction on yourself, the company, the vacancy and your plans, talking it up. Many interviewers start off cold, and then warm up if they like a particular candidate, by which stage it can be too late. Better to start positively and be open - until you make a written offer you haven't committed yourself at all. Remember that you are looking to hire the same people as your competitors and this includes Russian organisations that can often out pay international firms.

Expect candidates to be very 'matter of fact' about their previous experiences. Even salespeople are unlikely to boast about how they broke their sales target for the past three years, or discuss their biggest deals, and sometimes it feels like you have to drag relevant and necessary information out of people!

Don't be surprised if candidates tell you in detail about their second higher education and other abilities, even if these are not particularly related to the job in question. Education has always been highly valued here and people believe that this is what you want to hear!

Despite Moscow being Europe's largest city, the level of English (particularly spoken English) is surprisingly poor. Once you venture outside of Moscow & St Petersburg, the situation is even worse, resulting from a general lack of practise coupled with teaching methods that focus on reading and writing. Avoid falling into the trap that many foreigners do when hiring, which is to give preference to a good candidate with excellent English over an excellent candidate with a conversational level of English. Remember that in most cases, the majority of the person's daily duties will be conducted in Russian, and English is often only needed internally within the organisation. It is far better to judge a person on what you actually need them for.

Luc Jones