Motorola to Hire 100 More Staff
The hi-tech firm's St. Petersburg software development center has already picked up 50 employees this year, taking the total number to 400 staff.
Jun 24, 2005
Motorola's St. Petersburg office will hire 100 more employees by the end of the year, the company said Thursday at the opening of its new offices.
The new location will permit the firm a further staff expansion of 150 employees, but some industry players warn that employee head-hunting will not prove as easy as a switch of office.
The hi-tech firm's St. Petersburg software development center has already picked up 50 employees this year, taking the total number to 400 staff. An increase in business operations led to a move of office from Artileriiskaya Ulitsa to a T4 business center on Sedova Ulitsa.
The firm will occupy 6,000 square meters at the center, which at the 6 meters per engineer ratio will allow Motorola to employ 600 staff.
"We have been looking for a new location since 1999," said Vladimir Polutin, head of Motorola in St. Petersburg. The company had considered several locations, but chose the center on Sedova street since it allowed room for future growth.
The chairman of RUSSOFT, an association of Russian software programmers, Andrei Terekhov said that the location will aid Motorola in expanding the number of projects it can undertake.
Motorola has been eager to lift the volume of production at the Russian facilities, but has been halted by a lack of available employees in a tight IT jobs market.
"The situation in the labor market for the IT industry is very tough. But there are still some resources," said Natalia Chisler, telco consultant at Ancor recruiting company. "It's the employees who are ruling the market now, choosing the company with regards to internal atmosphere, legal income payments, social programs, insurance and wages. If Motorola succeeds in providing these incentives it won't face any problems."
She added that wages were no longer the major factor for attracting staff since most companies provided decent compensation packages. Interest from new staff may come from the work itself, Chisler said.
The view was not shared by Mikhail Zavileisky, COO of DataArt. "Motorola hired lots of new people. Most of them left for better wages and comfortable places and this tendency is likely to continue," he said.
Wages in the IT industry grew 25 percent on average last year. Polutin said that Motorola "kept wages just above the average mark."
In addition, the company has spent about $1 million in the last seven years sponsoring the city's top universities that focus on computer programming, Motorola vice-president Willy Lev said at the opening.
Motorola was the first foreign software development company to come to St. Petersburg in 1997. Some in the industry say, however, that the influence of its brand and status in the labor market may be waning.
Although a beneficial starting point for the IT industry's freshmen, Motorola will not affect the labor market as much as rivals SunMicroSystems or Intel - should the latter decide on such a significant recruitment drive, Zavileisky said.
"Motorola is an extremely formal and mature company, unlike the majority of St. Petersburg software firms. People will come to Motorola for the experience and the knowledge, but only those willing to accept the rules will stay," Zavileisky said.
The new location will permit the firm a further staff expansion of 150 employees, but some industry players warn that employee head-hunting will not prove as easy as a switch of office.
The hi-tech firm's St. Petersburg software development center has already picked up 50 employees this year, taking the total number to 400 staff. An increase in business operations led to a move of office from Artileriiskaya Ulitsa to a T4 business center on Sedova Ulitsa.
The firm will occupy 6,000 square meters at the center, which at the 6 meters per engineer ratio will allow Motorola to employ 600 staff.
"We have been looking for a new location since 1999," said Vladimir Polutin, head of Motorola in St. Petersburg. The company had considered several locations, but chose the center on Sedova street since it allowed room for future growth.
The chairman of RUSSOFT, an association of Russian software programmers, Andrei Terekhov said that the location will aid Motorola in expanding the number of projects it can undertake.
Motorola has been eager to lift the volume of production at the Russian facilities, but has been halted by a lack of available employees in a tight IT jobs market.
"The situation in the labor market for the IT industry is very tough. But there are still some resources," said Natalia Chisler, telco consultant at Ancor recruiting company. "It's the employees who are ruling the market now, choosing the company with regards to internal atmosphere, legal income payments, social programs, insurance and wages. If Motorola succeeds in providing these incentives it won't face any problems."
She added that wages were no longer the major factor for attracting staff since most companies provided decent compensation packages. Interest from new staff may come from the work itself, Chisler said.
The view was not shared by Mikhail Zavileisky, COO of DataArt. "Motorola hired lots of new people. Most of them left for better wages and comfortable places and this tendency is likely to continue," he said.
Wages in the IT industry grew 25 percent on average last year. Polutin said that Motorola "kept wages just above the average mark."
In addition, the company has spent about $1 million in the last seven years sponsoring the city's top universities that focus on computer programming, Motorola vice-president Willy Lev said at the opening.
Motorola was the first foreign software development company to come to St. Petersburg in 1997. Some in the industry say, however, that the influence of its brand and status in the labor market may be waning.
Although a beneficial starting point for the IT industry's freshmen, Motorola will not affect the labor market as much as rivals SunMicroSystems or Intel - should the latter decide on such a significant recruitment drive, Zavileisky said.
"Motorola is an extremely formal and mature company, unlike the majority of St. Petersburg software firms. People will come to Motorola for the experience and the knowledge, but only those willing to accept the rules will stay," Zavileisky said.