Key conclusions
Building up Far East impossible without extensive HR recruitment
“We can already say with confidence that over 800 investments projects are being implemented in the Far East, accounting for over 110,000 new jobs and it makes sense to talk about the challenges that we anticipate as being related to the recruitment of staff,” said Valentin Timakov, Director General of the Agency for the Development of Human Capital in the Far Eastern Federal District.
Far East’s development needs to rely mainly on local manpower
“We should nevertheless rely basically on local staff <…> We will not manage to settle the HR problem through use of staff working on a rotational basis,” stressed Sergey Tsivilev, Chief Executive Officer of MC Kolmar.
Challenges
Shortage of skilled blue-collar workers
“HR potential and staff recruitment has become the main bottleneck, rather than administrative barriers or connection to resources, noted Denis Vasiliev, Deputy Head, Federal Service for Labour and Employment (Rostrud).
“The shortage in manpower is such that we even have had to postpone the deadline for our launch recently because not only were operators not available, but neither were builders. We even have to import construction personnel from the Central Russia and Kyrgyzstan. We simply cannot find them,” added Maxim Basov, Chief Executive Officer, Rusagro Group of Companies.
Regional youth brain drain
“Our gymnasium shows excellent performance <…> 96 percent of graduates enroll in the budget-funded faculties of higher educational institutions. Is that good? Yes, it is. <…> Nevertheless, another point is that they depart to other regions and do not return later. The percentage of graduates returning after completing their studies in higher educational institutions is up to 10 percent,” Sergey Tsivilev said.
“We sent students to Irkutsk and to Novosibirsk but the number of people returning from there was probably about one-third or one-fourth. The others attempted to remain either in Novosibirsk or in Irkutsk using various excuses,” said Yury Makarov, General Director, Petropavlovsk – Iron Ore LLC.
Solutions
Alternative service or deferred draft for newly-qualified specialists
“Efficient interaction with the Defense Ministry may probably be needed, in order to provide an active duty exemption for several years after graduating from any higher educational institution, so that an individual can settle in, master a major and make a start in life. Then later on, we would let him go on duty for a year. I think the return rate for such individuals would be much higher than in case they go into military service immediately after graduating from a higher educational establishment. <…> Another good idea is alternative service at an industrial plant, which would be just as good for the country as genuine military service,” Yury Makarov said.
Building quality infrastructure and providing information to the public
“We are happy to receive any help from the government. I would break the aid down into two portions in the first instance. The former one is communicating new vacancies available in the Far East to potential employees. We are currently present in 12 Russian regions but Russia has far more regions and the government can certainly use its communication channels, informing about such opportunities. The latter covers various government support formats, particularly focused on the social development of the Primorsky Region. This is because people will go here with great pleasure if huge amount of comfortable housing is available, if schools have high ratings and kindergartens are good,” Maxim Basov noted.
Active use of programs to relocate Russian expatriates from CIS
“The relocation program has two main bonuses. The first one is nationality. It is critical for an individual to have a passport because it is impossible to get any credit or actually anything without it. Secondly, the resettlement benefits are rather high <…> According to this program, if a person is resettling from the CIS, he or she receives 240,000 rubles per head of family and 120,000 per each family member. These are rather significant monetary incentives for repatriates, for example, from Ukraine or Kazakhstan,” said Yury Makarov.
New proficient ways of training staff
“In particular, among population retention measures are rapid staff retraining (within two-three months) <…> Actually, this is what Singapore does. Singapore’s population, like that of the Far East, totals six million. From 100 to 1,000 dollars are allocated there to the population’s education. Every year everyone is studying something and acquires new skills,” Valentin Timakov noted.