Russians are offered to work in the regions
Many problems of employment in Russia may be solved by increase of mobility. This is a conclusion deduced by the Ministry of Labor, and now the entity is in progress of preparing measures to establish a new trend in Russia: living where a job is.
'We're talking about funding of moving to another region, accommodation at a work place, possibility of leasing an apartment, ' the Minister for labor and social security Maxim Topilin says. The plan for increase of mobility in 2014-18 was signed by Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev. According to the plan, the Ministry of Labor shall approve a list of regions of priority invocation of manpower in the first quarter of 2015. It will not include the most interesting cities as seen by people. 'If we consider the geography of manpower mobility in Russia, we'll see that roughly 70% of our citizens move to three locations being Moscow, Moscow oblast and Saint Petersburg. Manpower needs, however, are dissipated completely different' the Minister believes.
The regions where the labor migrants will be most wanted, will most likely enlist Far East and Siberia. This correlates with the state concept for development of those areas, which will require a vast amount of manpower. Experts also note other regions requiring some help. 'There a regions in Russia where labour demand exceeds supply, that is Nizhni Novgorod, Lipetsk, Voronezh, Kaluga, Yaroslavl,' says Lyudmila Shusterova, Executive officer for Development of BDO Unicon Outsourcing.
In the first quarter of 2015 they shall develop a typical draft for a regional program for increase of labor mobility. Also, annual monitoring will be launched in 2015. They plan to collect data on population of people being trained under contracts of dedicated employment and training, as well as under contracts providing employment of graduates beyond their principal place of dwelling, including locations of priority manpower invocation. Secondly, statistic surveys will be carried out in order to determine factors influencing employment beyond the place of principal dwelling. On the basis of those data they plan to prepare offers to increase mobility of the citizens. Improvement of system for informing people on availability of positions via portal "Job in Russia" and hot lines is also planned. By these means, one may be consulted on support measures for those moving.
Now, there are three most actual issues on comfortable moving: availability of start-up funds, leased accommodation, and registration which will allow one to obtain a standard package of social guarantees such as an opportunity to send a child to a school or a kindergarten, and medical services. 'People older than 25 generally have families, it is important to them to accommodate the family, find a kindergarten or a school for their child. These issues are not easy to be solved. The main difficulties in moving to another region are related to absence of infrastructure. Back in the Soviet times people were provided with state apartments, kindergartens and resorts. Nowadays the business cannot afford major investment in the social infrastructure,' Lyudmila Shusterova says.
Some solutions have been proposed for each issue actual for a migrant. The program provides improvement of registration procedures in case of change in their place of temporary or permanent residence. In order to solve accommodation issues, they propose to develop leased apartment market.
The program for stimulation of labor migration also provides introduction of alterations in Russian legal codes so that a term of an apartment leasing contract may be increased from 5 to 10 years, as well as clarification of rights and liabilities of parties to that contract. But the most important thing is construction of those leased apartments themselves to make leasing of an apartment or a house acceptable in terms of price. Some pilot projects are being implemented in different Russian regions.
There are interesting offers to provide start-up funds for those moving. In particular, maternity capital is proposed to be used for primary accommodation. Moreover, some measures to stimulate mobility may include mechanisms of state and private partnerships, as it is the major manufacturers that often need invocation of new workers, so they can co-fund the moving. 'Competition of the manpower will do the rest of the job. If no locals are available on the local market, the companies will invite workers from other cities and provide them will all the necessary stuff,' says Gleb Lebedev, Research Executive Officer of HeadHunter.
Generally the program agrees with the general trend of companies developing in the regions. 'About 10 years ago, all the major foreign capital was concentrated in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Now the situation is different. Major Russian companies have expanded geographically. Often they place a part of their manufactures or service centers to the regions, where maintenance of their own enterprises, and the manpower as well, are cheaper,' Shusterova believes. Moreover, the regions have an advantage: they may observe the life/work balance, when it takes one just 15 minutes to get to their work. That's why one shall highlight those advantages to invoke manpower to the currently unpopular regions.
"Russian Business Paper" — Career and Management, No.950 (21)
