Vocabulary notes

mutual funds – взаимные фонды, инвестиционные фонды

preferred stock – привилегированные акции с фиксированным

дивидендом

the right of first claim – право преимущественного требования

common stock – обычные акции

greater say – большее влияние, большее участие

takeover – приобретение контрольного пакета акций какой-либо

компании другой компанией

Text 5 starting up business in russia

I. Professional Overview of the Russian Recruiting Market

There are three main ways of hiring local staff in Russia.

The first is to run an advertising campaign in mass media to attract prospective candidates. Those, who are interested in the position are to send their resumes by fax or mail. Then the Personal Department has to choose among those who responded to these ads.

Sometimes the number of applicants can be overwhelming, as it happened once to a well-known American company. They ran an ad in a very popular Russian newspaper “ Moskovsky Komsomolets “ attracting “ ambitious and talented young Russians “ to apply for a job. Next day there was a whole crowd of over a thousand “ talented and ambitious youngsters “ of all ages between 12 and 85. The company had to stop its activity for a few days to let the crowd dissolve.

Another problem, recruitment manager faces when looking for right people all by himself, is that a prospective candidate would not necessarily read an advertisement or respond to it. Therefore, the choice is not among the best people, but only among those few who have responded.

The second way is to hire personnel by word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and partners. This practice was once very common in Russia, but now it proved to be very ineffective. To successfully recruit staff in Russia by word-of-mouth one has to have a very good network of contacts and connections.

The third way is to make professionals do the job. Since 1991, when private recruitment agencies were allowed to operate in Russia, the number of professionally working recruiters constantly increased as well as the quality of services they offer. Nowadays, the services of different employment agencies range from hiring local staff on lower and middle management positions to executive search, and from consulting on Human Resources to personnel training.

There are both western and Russian recruitment agencies working in Russia. As a rule, Russian employment agencies often lack western experience and professionalism. On the other hand, western companies lack knowledge of the Russian job market and understanding of the Russian culture. Therefore, companies, which manage to combine western experience and business style with knowledge of the Russian people and the Russian job market, proved to be the most successful.

II. Professionals Most Demanded by Western Companies in Russia

In the early nineties western companies coming on Russian market preferred to bring all managers with them. Now, as qualification and professionalism of Russian managers reached the level of western managers and there are more western-educated people than ever, western businesses realized the potential of Russian people and began to transfer the power of decision-making to Russian managers. In 1997 the general trend was to hire Russians on the middle and even on top levels of management.

In 1997 the highest demand for Russian specialists was in the spheres of Sales (such as Sales Representatives, Sales Managers, Key Account Managers, etc.), Banking (Clerks, Investment Analysts, Back-office Specialists, etc.), and Administration (Receptionists, Personal Assistants, Office Managers, Logistics Specialists, etc.). For 2005 the current trend along with the improvement of the situation on the Russian market allow to predict an increase in demand for Accounting and Finance specialists, Marketing Analysts, and Production personnel.