June, 2006

The education system in Russia is changing to meet the business needs of the country. Fields such as management, marketing and human resources are integral to this change. For Russian managers working in a foreign company, some in-house training is essential, and may often be seen as a reward. Turnover is still a concern and a good manager-employee relationship is key, as are several other factors such as perks and benefits.

Education and Human Resources in Russia
By Jérôme Dumetz, Guest columnist

For the past 10 years, there have been many changes in the Russian education system. What was once prestigious, such as engineering, science or armed forces, have been replaced by domains that used to be less attractive, such as accounting, or simply did not exist then, for instance management, marketing or advertising.

Companies, mainly foreign ones, have had difficulties in recruiting managers with a seasoned work experience and knowledge into a specific field. Nevertheless, more and more young Russian graduates are entering today’s work market with skills largely up to the level of their Western counterparts.

A few renowned institutions managed to restructure during this period and are now proposing modern programs (MBA, MA, MSc, and BA) that meet the corporate needs. The High School of Economics (http://www.hse.ru/), the Finances Academy (http://www.fa.ru/), MIRBIS (http://www.mirbis.ru/), the Moscow State University (MGU http://www.mgu.ru/) or the Plekhanov Russian Academy of Economy (REA Plekhanov http://www.rea.ru/) are all reliable business schools in Moscow.

Innovative programs are emerging, often in cooperation with foreign universities, mainly at master’s level. MIRBIS proposes a specialized human resources master’s degree in cooperation with a British university. The HSE launched a Franco-Russian master’s program in management with Paris’s ESCP, and renowned MGIMO and not-less-renowned French Science Pô feature a double-diploma master’s degree in political science. REA Plekhanov even runs a triple-master’s program with German FH Dresden and ESC Lille from France.

Some business schools are formatted on the American system and train young professionals in business education. The American Institute of Business and Economics (http://www.aibec.org/) or Touro (http://www.touro.ru/) are the most well-known.

Regardless of the quality of the institution, one has to keep in mind that besides tremendous changes in teaching styles, the Soviet model still greatly prevails in Russia. Non-interactive, rhetorical lectures are still common and many subjects taught would look strange in Western organizations. Case studies, work placements, multimedia presentations or junior companies are, at best, experimental features.

Therefore, a Russian young graduate will have to be trained in-house in order to be fully operational in a firm. Yet, Russian education presents the advantage to teach how to learn. Hence, after university, graduates have often a wonderful capacity of adaptation; and that is all for the benefit of corporations committed in professional trainings.

In a booming work market, such as Moscow, applicants are often setting the recruitments rules themselves. An attractive salary is no longer enough to retain high potential employees. Health care insurance, pension plans and challenging bonuses are key recruitment perks that should not be neglected by employers, in addition to internal training.

That being said, turnover is still high in companies, especially in Moscow. Young -and not-so-young- employees are money and promotion orientated. The prestige of the company does not count as much, a carrier plan even less.

With the recent economic crisis fixed in most minds, a young manager today plans to climb the corporate ladder as quickly as possible. It is worth noting that women represent a sizable number of these young managers. In Russia, everyone wants to get rich, fast.

While employee retention perks are seldom, they nonetheless exist. A pleasant work environment, significant bonuses, the possibility of a fast carrier growth, frequent trips to the foreign headquarters for outstanding employees and a good manager-employee relationship are without doubt pieces of the winning answer.

The Russian corporate culture being quite “diffuse” (see other subjects about cross-cultural management in Russia), it is essential for managers, particularly foreigners, to build relationships with other team members. To remain detached from their daily life may appear “professional,” but will hamper any fruitful cooperation, vital in time of high activity or crisis.

Professional trainings such as cross-cultural management, motivation, team spirit or sales techniques, and product management are common today and much appreciated by employees who often see them as rewards.

As for recruitment, it must be said that co-optation is widely spread. Getting to know an insider is a significant factor. Going to job fairs might be networking technique as young, fast-growing firms favor this HR practice. Nevertheless, many recruitment firms have been active for more than a decade and offer a wide portfolio of services. Among them, Staffwell features through its online magazine “The Well” (http://www.staffwell.ru/) many interesting articles.

Finally, several free newspapers for foreign residents in Russia and for Russians are offering job sections. The Moscow Times (http://www.moscowtimes.ru/) and the Moscow News (http://www.mn.ru/) are in English, le Courrier de Russie (http://www.lecourrierderussie.ru/) is in French.

Jérôme Dumetz is teaching cross-cultural communication at the REA Plekhanov in Moscow, and is an independent consultant to western corporations operating in Russia. He may be reached at Jerome@clamart.net