Offering a cost-effective solution to companies not wishing to pay headhunters’ full-service fees, international and Russian companies are increasingly using the Internet to manage their recruitment needs. But, as on-line recruitment in Russia becomes ever more specialized (with dedicated sites for clerical staff, banking specialists and, should you ever need them, miners), knowing the right sites for your own skill set or market sector is essential.

Following the establishment of www.monster.com and the UK’s www.jobserve.com in 1994, Russia’s Association of Recruitment Specialists estimates that on-line sites now account for 10–14% of all recruitment services worldwide, increasing by approximately 1–2% per year. While the 1998 crisis delayed development in Russia (following the launch of www.hh.ru and others in 1996) by 2003 Russia’s recruitment market was offering www.e-executive.ru, www.job.ru, www.bankir.ru, www.rabota.ru and, of course, www.staffwell.com.

Among the Russian recruitment sites, www.rabota.ru, www.job.ru, www.superjob.ru and www.zarplata.ru handle vacancies for general staff, service employees and administrative personnel at all levels. Generalist sites www.staffwell.com, hh.ru and www.e-executive.ru handle middle and senior management roles, with www.staffwell.com also specializing in senior-level executive search and specialist placement services. Others specialize by industry, notably www.bankir.ru, www.minerjob.ru, www.oilcapital.ru and www.klerk.ru.

While most sites cover the Russian regions, only two—www.staffwell.com and www.hh.ru—cover Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Europe and the USA. Staffwell is also unusual in being one of the few on-line services to support both inbound recruiters (i.e. those seeking senior Russian staff) as well as Moscow-based clients recruiting for their operations in the regions and abroad.

Open-access sites: fast and cost-effective
Open-access sites such as www.job.ru and www.hh.ru offer in-house recruitment managers a cost-effective route to literally thousands of candidates. Funded by fees from the recruitment agencies posting vacancies on their sites, these services generally provide large and comprehensive resume banks, and can be a viable solution for large companies with the staff and resources necessary to evaluate large numbers of candidate profiles—although this is perhaps a time-consuming option for smaller firms. While the user-friendly interfaces on these sites can be a dream for job seekers (taking only a few minutes to upload a CV), erratically input or saved data can present a nightmare for recruiters searching for a particular skill-set among thousands of mini-resumes, many of them often lacking vital information. Open-access sites are rarely used by companies seeking senior or specialist personnel, however, with candidates at this level preferring to look for their next role on a more confidential basis.

Banner advertising: corporate branding opportunities and high response levels
Large companies, often with strict global recruitment policies, tend to restrict their web presence to banner advertising on specific sites related to their industry, thus raising awareness of their company and brands within that market sector. Specialist recruitment agencies, also, often advertise on specialist industry sites—with www.bankir.ru advertising on RosBusinessConsulting’s www.rbc.ru, for example. Given the cost of paid-for banner advertisements, however, this method is only really viable for companies (for example in retail) requiring a high or constant level of applications: Eldorado and Evroset both using this method to good effect.

Specialist resources Recruitment sites are perhaps best used as part of an integrated executive search strategy, usually conducted in a series of stages. An employer’s vacancy and candidate requirements will be posted on a site and distributed automatically to those candidates having specified certain relevant criteria in their initial registration. Those choosing to apply will have their responses automatically forwarded to the employer, who will then communicate with selected candidates on-line. The complete confidentiality of this process is a key benefit to jobseekers, and is widely used by agencies recruiting for senior positions: one of the reasons why on-line registration and search facilities attract high web traffic to www.staffwell.com.

Offering very real savings in both time and money, these sites can be an essential tool when sourcing senior or specialist staff from among a limited pool of candidates, which might otherwise entail hours of research. With full executive search services typically costing 20–35% of a candidate’s annual salary, placing a senior banking specialist can cost as much as $36,000: and with banner advertising costing up to $3,000 per week, a single recruitment campaign may cost as much as $12,000. Against which, the $240 cost of posting a vacancy on www.staffwell.com or a similar specialist recruitment site speaks for itself.

On-line recruitment is not without its disadvantages, however, particularly in terms of the accessibility (or otherwise) of user interfaces. It is not unknown for good candidates to simply click away from a site taking too long to upload a resume or switch to the next input screen. Recognizing this, the better sites have invested considerable resources in making their user interfaces as accessible as possible, and job seekers can be reasonably confident that their information will be input, processed and stored in a fast and secure system.

The future of on-line recruitment in Russia
Recent research by a leading UK employment institute revealed some interesting insights into what companies perceive to be the advantages (and disadvantages) of recruiting on-line.

Advantages included the opportunity to raise awareness of an organization or brand, as well as significant reductions in recruitment budgets, and improved management of recruitment processes. Of those not currently using on-line recruitment facilities, many blamed low company awareness of e-recruitment techniques and conservative corporate cultures.

Similar attitudes may be hindering the growth of on-line recruitment in Russia. Despite the very considerable cost savings (particularly for recruitment in the regions, where on-line applications remove the need for fax or telephone contact, often across multiple time zones) many organizations still adhere to very traditional recruitment methods. In many leading Russian companies (and at the oil and gas majors in particular) where all incoming correspondence must be registered, faxes remain the preferred modus operandi.

Nonetheless, Russia’s on-line recruitment market continues to grow, increasing by 2–3% annually as more and more companies realize its benefits in terms of cost effectiveness, greater efficiency and, above all, faster and more direct access to a greater number of qualified candidates.

On-line recruitment sites by sector:

	www.Staffwell.com	www.hh.ru	www.Bankir.ru	www.Oilcapital.ru	www.Job.ru	www.Superjob.ru
Overview	– On-line recruitment – Multiple search options (by sector, salary, location) – Paid for job listings – All services free to candidates – On-line career management services offered through sister website and daily newsletter, The Well.	– Searchable database of candidate resumes – Paid for job listings for agencies	– Specialist banking sector resource – Paid for job listings	– Specialist resource for the oil and gas sector – Job listings free of charge	– General recruitment – Jobs listed free of charge	– General recruitment – Job listings free of charge
Candidate seniority	Directors, senior and middle management, managerial specialists, specialist skilled staff	Senior and specialist managers	Managerial and specialist staff	Managerial and specialist staff	Middle and junior specialist staff	Middle management and specialist staff
Sector Specialization	All sectors	All sectors	Banking and finance	Oil and gas	All sectors	All sectors
Advertising opportunities		Banner advertising accepted	Banner advertising accepted	Banner advertising accepted	Text and banner advertising accepted	Banner advertising
Year established	2000	2000	2000	2002	2000	2000
Additional information	Confidentiality guaranteed to all candidates, focused candidate database	Large candidate database	Popular resource for banking specialists	Highly specialized market sector	High level of web traffic	Large regional network

Elena Loseva is a Director in Staffwell’s financial services recruitment team. Prior to this role Elena was Staffwell’s marketing director and prior to that worked for Linford Associates and Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC, in London, in investor relations and publishing. Elena has a MA in finance and marketing from Middlesex University Business School in London.

(Originally published: HR Manual, September, 2006)

The Well is a member of Staffwell, Specialists at Recruiting in Russia. For your corporate hiring needs, please contact sales@staffwell.com or +7(495) 790-7490. For assistance with finding new employment, please email your CV to resume@staffwell.com and search our current job vacancies at www.staffwell.com.