Experts evaluated the optimization of salaries in Russian Post

Russian Post has to optimizing the wage system due to the deterioration of the company’s financial performance in the period 2022-2023, says Marcel Salikhov, director of the Center for Economic Expertise at the Institute of State and Municipal Administration of the Higher School of Economics. On July 3, Kommersant reported that the Russian Post had changed the rules for remuneration: the company introduced restrictions on the distribution of salaries for vacant positions among employees and reduced the number of free rates, which led to the dismissal of postmen and branch employees.

According to the reporting under RAS, in 2022 the loss of Russian Post made up 27.2 billion rubles with revenue of 208 billion rubles. Thus, the negative profitability amounted to -13%, the expert notes. Loss for the first quarter of 2023 made up 5 billion rubles with a revenue of 50 billion rubles. At the same time, revenue from postal services decreased by 5%. In 2021, the company’s net profit amounted to 265.99 million rubles.

Most of the company’s problems are of an objective nature and are primarily related to the reduction of cross-border e-commerce, Salikhov emphasized. That segment dropped sharply in 2022 after Russian bank cards stopped working abroad, he said. The main foreign online stores left Russia, there were problems with logistics.

“This led to a reduction in the number of processed international mail by tens of percent compared to 2021. Ensuring processing in cross-border online commerce was one of the growing and profitable segments of mail,” the expert told Vedomosti. The reduction in volumes objectively had a negative impact on the company’s performance, he concluded.

“Now Russian Post is restructuring its business processes, adjusting them to the new reality. Almost all logistics and trading companies in Russia have gone this way, and a little earlier, since the beginning of the pandemic and covid restrictions. And this process is not always painless – in a number of areas, companies had to revise the staffing tables, and in a number of others, on the contrary, to carry out active recruitment, ”Artem Sokolov, president of the Association of Internet Trade Companies (AKIT), told Vedomosti.

According to him, this is an absolutely natural way for commercial enterprises when some projects are completed or closed for various reasons, while others receive new development.

Professor of the Financial University Alexander Safonov notes that the formats of interaction between Russian Post and e-commerce companies will be determined by the geography and structure of consumer demand. The only way to solve the company’s financial problems is to expand the scope of services, he believes.

Russian Post should have thought about changing the format of work for a long time, the expert believes. “It has a more extensive branch network than many banks. Why not use it? Why not concentrate on the basis of post offices in remote areas a ready-made complex of services “My business”, “My documents”, teletype? Attract the population there by providing state and municipal services. These can be, among other things, free services that are paid for by regional budgets,” says Safonov.

In remote areas, in his opinion, it is also possible to “tie” part of the services of employment services and the social insurance fund to the post office, so that people from the village do not have to go to the city for them. The post office should become a “communication center”, a new “ecosystem” with a range of services for the population, Safonov emphasized.

The postal services of all countries, to one degree or another, are experiencing a crisis in their development model, continues Salikhov. Traditional postal services – sending letters and parcels – are less in demand as modern communication technologies develop.

Serving e-commerce logistics is one of the obvious options for postal services, but large internet giants see logistics as one of the most important advantages for their business, so they usually prefer to develop on their own. Postal services, unlike commercial operators, bear the social burden in terms of maintaining their branches in all localities, even if they are unprofitable, the expert emphasizes.

“Therefore, everywhere there is a search for a sustainable business model for postal services, which may include the provision of financial services, the sale of other goods and services, and other options for maintaining financial stability. In this sense, Russian Post is no exception, all the same options have been considered or are being considered for it,” Salikhov explained.

Kommersant reported on July 3 that Russian Post employees can receive up to 50% of the salary for a vacant position or the position of a temporarily absent employee per replacement worker. At the same time, a position can be 100% filled for no more than three months, and no more than 50% of the work can be assigned to one employee.

In addition, according to the text of the order, one vacancy can be filled by no more than five employees at the same time, except for the heads and deputy heads of communications departments. With an increase in the volume of work, employees can receive up to 25% of the salary of an absent employee, but not more than one month.

Now in a number of regions the Russian Post has free rates, they are divided in order to receive a large salary. For example, five rates can be divided into three employees in a department, a source told the publication.

In the company itself declaredthat the mentioned order introduces restrictions “on the maximum possible” total remuneration of the management team, and there is no question of reducing the main personnel. The Russian Post also promised to open an additional 1,000 rates in the near future for the development of a project for issuing Ozon orders in branches.

It is now allowed to work in two positions for up to three months, so in the regions there may be a decrease in salaries and an outflow of employees, admits Nikita Chaplin, a member of the State Duma Committee on Budget and Taxes (United Russia). But he draws attention to the reaction of the Russian Post to the message of mass layoffs and the expressed intention to open new vacancies. Chaplin told Vedomosti that the issue of observing the rights of employees “requires close monitoring,” and asked the regional authorities to ensure it.

At the same time, the reduction in the number of postal employees has continued over the past many years, Salikhov added. And this is justified from the point of view of cost optimization, automation and increasing the manufacturability in logistics, he believes.

In 2023, the head of the Russian Post changed. On January 11, Mikhail Volkov took over as CEO, replacing Maxim Akimov, who has headed the company since 2020.

Minister of Digital Development of Russia Maksut Shadayev, at a meeting with Volkov in early February, instructed the top manager to develop a new development strategy for Russian Post and submit proposals for cost optimization. One of the topics of their conversation was the financial position of the company, including the search for additional sources of income, as well as control over expense items, noted in the message of the Ministry of Digital Development.