Lack of managers. Does he really exist?

Russian employers complain about the lack of qualified employees for top positions in companies. Is there really a shortage of top managers in Russia and why it has become difficult to find an employee for a managerial job, Moskovskaya Pravda was told by Anastasia Uskova, CEO of the Rocket Work platform.

Nearly two-thirds of employers today are having trouble finding top job applicants, according to a recent survey conducted by several job search and suggestion services. Reasons include candidates’ high salary expectations, irrelevant work experience, and applicants’ lack of desire to lead.

– The shortage of personnel is a natural reality of the modern Russian labor market. The demographic hole, the outflow of specialists abroad – all this reduces the available personnel base not only in the category of “white collars” and top managers, but, first of all, in the field of vacancies with a low entry threshold, line personnel. There is a real shortage there,” says Anastasia Uskova. – According to the hh.ru platform, for some linear vacancies, the number of offers exceeds the number of resumes by several times.

But there is actually no shortage of qualified leaders in the country, the expert believes.

– On the contrary, in the field of vacancies for “white collars” the situation of the employer’s market is developing – competition for vacancies is growing, that is, there are more applicants than offers. And this is probably due to the simultaneous release of a large number of managers from companies with foreign capital, Uskova notes. “At the same time, against the backdrop of a general slowdown in the market in terms of hiring, companies are in no hurry to invest in new areas, trying to cut costs, including for personnel, and especially for expensive ones.

Moreover, by expenses we mean not only salaries, which, of course, are quite high for the management. Finding a good specialist is also not cheap.

— The search for a top manager is a slow and expensive process. Usually at this level, recruitment agencies come to the aid of internal HR departments, for whose services you need to pay. Plus, you need to understand that money will be spent during the period of adaptation of a specialist in a new place (usually from 3 to 6 months): as long as the manager “enters” the company’s affairs, there will be no visible positive business effect from his work, the expert believes.

To save money, many companies are now engaged in “repackaging” top competencies: some areas are divided between deputies and managers, some are outsourced to agencies and private specialists.

– So today we can talk not so much about the shortage of managers, but about the fall in demand for them. Also, in a crisis, when no one is ready to take risks, companies become more demanding of candidates – this is a normal natural process that complicates hiring, – explains Anastasia Uskova.

Meanwhile, applicants for leadership positions, making excessive demands on employers, make a mistake, because they do not take into account the changed conditions in the job market.

“To bring the two sides of these relations together: to agree on a salary, on bonuses and an incentive program, as well as to find suitable competencies is now really becoming more difficult,” the expert says.

But, in her opinion, after some time the market will return to balance – the parties just need time to agree.

Alena Bodrienko.

Photo from site Freepik