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What to expect in 2018

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2017 is coming to an end and everyone is already looking into the future. So do we. Peeking a few months ahead, we share with you what could be main recruitment trends in 2018. So, feeling like a fortune tellers, we think that 2018 will bring us:   Care and personalize.   Companies will be more focused on providing “candidate care” experience. Candidates will not be only a source of manpower and the final link in closing a job, but recruiters will work more closely with each of them, trying to establish long-term relationships. Candidates will be provided with fast, transparent, sincere and positive approach while all-even the most conservative- agencies will understand the importance to talk to candidates where they are, using Social Media, messengers, creating chatbots etc. Rethink and digitalize recruitment strategy. Integrates demography and demographics’ dynamics. All metrics are important in recruitment strategy.   Employer brand matters more than ever, so the companies that realized it before will continue on building their brand strategy, while all others start to think about creating one.   Feedback.   Not only employers get to “judge” candidates and give them recommendations, now candidates are in this game too. There are many sources for leaving a review on your employer or a recruitment agency and companies should be aware of that, because in this case it is not “bad PR is still a good PR”, but can cost a company a potential employee, clients and even brand image. Multichannel sourcing. As we mentioned earlier, social networks communication is fundamental. Community Manager can become a real recruitment interface and hep to create HR communities that may attract talents, including passive candidates. Video will become a powerful tool for attracting candidates, promoting employer brand and even for candidates to make better first impression (tools like video interview or video CV).   Focus on passive candidates. The recruiters need to be more proactive in their actions and candidate-targeting. They need to pay more attentions to profiles of passive candidates, approaching them directly and only with real proposals. No more “would you like to…?” tell candidates you have a great opportunity matching their profile, make them an offer that would be interesting and make previously passive candidate wanting to have an interview with you. Bring sales in recruiting strategy and ahead build relationships + get use to track candidate’s data, to better understand them.   Select differently. Rethink / focus more on soft skills especially focus on Attitude, Personality and Ability. We’ve already talked about how important soft skills are now. Recruiters might need to focus on those (especially attitude, personality and ability) and not only see the CV of a candidate with a list of companies he/she has been working for. Be flexible and think outside the box. More and more we see candidates sending their CV via WhatsApp message or just recording a video telling about their experience. We cannot go with an old way of communicating with candidates, we need to meet them halfway: unordinary CV, Skype interviews, phone interviews, etc.    

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HR Wishes 2018

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2017 has been a great year, but there’s always wish for more, so 2018, please make that… 🎄That economical growth is accelerating! 🎄That wages in Russia increase! 🎄That more and more French companies invest the Russian market. 🎄That Russian authorities unblock LinkedIn 🎄That recruitment agencies actively integrate the «Candidate Care »! 🎄That HR agencies  treat their consultants better to give back to Russian recruiters the taste of working in agencies. 🎄That agencies  integrate technology and in particular during the selection of candidates to better perceive the attitude and behavioral skills of the candidate. 🎄That recruiters understand that robots will be tomorrow their best friends but do not have the vocation to replace them. 🎄That one understands that recruiting is at the same time a matter of method and process but also a question of emotion, leaving a preponderant role to the human! 🎄That candidates understand that recruiters are “also” « human beings » and that their objective is really to find the right candidates for their clients. Happy new year 2018 to all! 🍾🥂

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Russia: what to expect from the economy in 2018?

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Editorial written for the newsletter of the French House of Entrepreneurship. While 2017 ends, the economic recovery seems to be confirmed. Russia is coming out of two years of recession due to the sharp drop in the price of hydrocarbons in autumn 2014, resulting in the country's GDP shrinking 3.6% in 2015 and 0.6 % and 2016. 2017 saw a GDP growth (compared year on year) of 0.5% in the first quarter, 2.5% in the second quarter and 1.8% in the third quarter. Over the first three quarters, industrial production increased by 1.8% and retail sales, which decreased by 10% in 2015 and 4.8% in 2016, also saw a slight increase of 0.5%. The automotive, pharmaceutical, chemical and food industries, as well as the production of electrical equipment, show slightly higher growth. Another positive indicator: the unemployment rate continues to fall to only 5% and less than 1.5% in major centers such as Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Foreign exchange reserves in dollars, which had decreased to 350 billion dollars in mid-2015, increased again to reach 430 billion dollars on 01/12/2017, reaching their level of autumn 2014 before the crisis. At the same time, inflation continues to fall and should end the year at around 4%, far from the rates of recent years: 12.5% in 2014, 11% in 2015 and 9% in 2016. This is an extremely important dynamic while all social polls show that the main concern of Russian citizens is clearly the economic situation and primarily rising consumer prices. The IMF has even slightly raised its growth forecast for Russia to 1.8% this year, against 1.4% previously, an estimate now similar to that of the Russian Ministry of Economy, which plans for 2017 and 2018 a growth of about 2%. In parallel of the recovery of the economic situation, the situation seems also to slightly ameliorate on the political dimension, while presidential elections to take place in March 2018. French minister of Economy, Bruno Le Maire, visits Moscow to take part to French-Russian CEFIC (commercial, economic, financial, industrial council), in order to give a new impulse to the relations between France and Russia. A strategic moment indeed since the Franco-Russian partnership just proved its reliability despite sanctions with the launch of the Yamal project (for the construction of a gas liquefaction plant in the Yamal peninsula in Russia) in which Total holds a 20% direct interest in the project. In addition, next year, President Emmanuel Macron will travel to Russia and visit the St. Petersburg Economic Forum in May 2018. One can only hope that these many positive indicators give more confidence to the French business to invest in Russia! Russia is a big market that remains a formidable potential of growth for our companies, on the condition to be well accompanied.

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Demographic crisis in Russia: what consequences does it bring to human resources ?

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Demographic crisis in Russia: what consequences does it bring to human resources ? People often talk about demographic crisis in Russia underestimating its consequences and dynamics that was a result of the collapse of births following the collapse of the Soviet Union. 1980 – 1990 In the decade before the fall of the Soviet Union from 1980 to 1990, Russia had 600,000 new inhabitants as an annual average growth in 2.2 million births and 1.6 million deaths (more births than deaths). In 1990, the population of the Soviet Union was 292 million inhabitants, whereas 147,969,000 inhabitants of the whole amount lived inside the Russia’s nowadays borders. 1990 – 2000 At the fall of the Soviet Union, the economic and political collapse led to a demographic catastrophe. Starting from 1991 the number of births began to decrease, going from 1,794,626 annually to 1,214,689 in 1999, while the fertility rate crashed from 1.89 to 1.17 children per woman. At the same time, the collapse of the health system that resulted from the economic crisis caused the return of diseases that could be found only in the poorest countries of the planet. As a direct consequence, the number of deaths increased dramatically from 1,690,657 in 1991 to 2,144,316 in 1999. This situation marked the beginning of the new demographic terminology specific up to the country: the term “Russian cross” defining a low birth rate and high mortality. During the first post-Soviet decade, Russia naturally lost between 750 and 900,000 inhabitants per year, a demographic collapse that has never been seen in a country not being at war. Logically, numbers of pessimistic demographic predictions appeared at that time. The CIA said that the population of Russia would reach only 130 million inhabitants in 2015 (when it established itself in 2016 up to 146.8 million inhabitants). In 2002, the Robert Schuman Institute imagined that by 2050, the population of the country would reach “between 77.2 million and 101.9 million inhabitants” under more or less optimistic scenarios. For most observers, Russia was doomed to die. 2000-2017 However the economic stabilization from 2000 and the launch of a huge demographic plan starting in 2005 to support the birth rate crashed all the predictions and turned the demographic situation drastically. The number of births continued to increase from 1,266,800 in 2000 to 1,893,256 in 2016, while the number of deaths decreased from 2,365,826 in 2003 to 1,887,913 in 2016. The fertility rate rose from 1.17 to 1.8 children per woman between 1999 and 2016, more than in the European Union. As a result of this new dynamics, Russian population is increasing naturally again since 2012 of 25,000 inhabitants in 2013, 30,000 in 2014, 32,000 in 2015 and 5,000 in 2016. Russian population, which had been decreasing in numbers during terrible 15 years (1990-2005) managed to reach 142,742,368 inhabitants in 2008 and now reaches (01/01/2017) 144,498,215 inhabitants without the Crimea and 146.8 million including the Crimea. 2017 – 2030 ? The Russian State Institute Rosstat is now setting up updated demographic prognoses taking into account the annual demographic trends. Three scenarios exist: – «The pessimistic» scenario states that the Russian population will reach 143,2 million in 2030. – «The average » scenario being most plausible claims that the Russian population will reach 147,1 million in 2030. – «The optimistic » scenario says that the Russian population will reach 152 million in 2030. Yes, but what about Russian demography? In spite of this incredible demographic thaw, the population of Russia will face an extremely complicated situation over the next fifteen years, due to appalling lack of births during the period 1990-2000, that is obvious according to the age-gender pyramid. As an example, the nowadays population of 30-year-old Russians (people born in 1987) represents 2.58 million people in 2016, with 1.3 million men and 1.28 million women. At heart of the Russian demographic crisis in 2030, same 30-year population (people born in 2000) will be only 1.4 million with 685,000 women and 720,000 men, 50% less than today (!). From the point of view of the labor market, this means that the number of the newcomers to the labor market will start a serious decrease from 2017, even though the unemployment rate is already very low. This trend will be indicated until 2030, at which time the increase in births started from the 2000s will be noticeable. Therefore we are only on the edge of the demographic crysis on Russian labor market. How and where will we be able to find qualified, Russian-speaking and Russian labor market oriented human capital to work in Russia if it is not just “in” Russia? The lack of internal demographic resources would lead to an increased flows of immigration. The lack of available internal demographic resources could lead to an increased import of human power from abroad. What is a part of immigration in all that? During the 1990s, millions of ex-citizens (from the former USSR) suddenly found themselves separated into foreign countries at the fall of the Soviet Union. These “red feet” returned to Russian Federation, creating a mainly Slavic migratory flow that largely compensated the demographic collapse that the country experienced at the same time due to decrease of births, rising mortality and mass-emigration to Western countries. During the 15 years period 1999-2014, immigration trend changed and turned mainly to the CIS and particularly to Central Asia. During the period 2000 – 2014 several “millions” of foreign workers appeared, mainly from Central Asia, working mainly for the unpleasant tasks of construction and urban maintenance. Nevertheless, due to the war in Ukraine and the fall of ruble’s currency large part of this work force left Russia by the end of 2014. There has been a new wave of Slavic migration hitting Russia during the last two years: hundreds of thousands Ukrainians have emigrated to Russia to flee the war and the crisis that their country has been going through. Large parts of those migrants are probably not going to leave Russia anymore. Unfortunately for the Russian labour market, these

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