The lack of qualified human resources appears to be the most difficult issue faced by the fast growing e-commerce industry in Russia, says a report by East-West Digital News. All key positions are affected, from general managers and project managers, to e-marketing specialists to IT and fulfillment teams.
The shortage of skilled employees on the market drives rapidly growing salaries – $10,000 per month or more for certain positions – and increases competition between employers for available employees. As a result, important positions may be filled with insufficiently skilled employees, or left vacant for months. Some Moscow companies try to recruit in the regions, or abroad, the study shows, based on interviews with dozens of market players and recruitment agencies.
“Whereas positive developments are witnessed year after year in the fields of electronic payments and fulfillment – two other long standing issues in Russian e-commerce – the acute HR imbalance may even worsen in the foreseeable future,” says Chief Editor Adrien Henni. “The demand for qualified employees by e-commerce sites, as well as from other categories of Internet sites, fueled by massive investment, is likely to continue growing at the same high speed as the growth of the Internet and e-commerce markets themselves.”
On the supply side, the research indicates it will take a long time for the Russian educational system to solve its problems, most of which are chronic, in order to provide the e-commerce industry with a new generation of adequately trained professionals.
- This HR analysis is a part of an in-depth research study on Russian e-commerce, which will be released later this month. To download the pre-release version of this HR part, please click here. To order the full version of the research (10 chapters, 150 pages), please contact us at [email protected].
