Motorola Headhunts Top Staff in Tight Job Market
Expecting a 50 percent increase in orders next year, Motorola announced plans to up its staff levels in St. Petersburg accordingly, putting pressure on smaller software development companies trying to retain staff.
Dec 24, 2004
Expecting a 50 percent increase in orders next year, Motorola announced plans to up its staff levels in St. Petersburg accordingly, putting pressure on smaller software development companies trying to retain staff.
"I cannot state the volume of orders for 2005, but in terms of staff numbers, we estimate that we will need about 150 new employees next year," director of Motorola's software development center in St. Petersburg Vladimir Polutin said Tuesday.
After a slight decline in 2001-2002, Motorola sees the Russian IT market developing at a gallop, with orders in 2004 jumping by 60 percent and orders for the first three quarters of 2005 already confirmed, Polutin said.
This year Motorola increased its staff number in the city by 120 employees to a total of 350 which worked on 66 projects. The addition of 150 staff in 2005 will mean that the company's operations will have doubled since 2003
RECRUITMENT TROUBLE
Despite Motorola's cooperation with the city's top technical colleges in picking out potential new employees, Yekaterina Serebrenikova, the company's HR manager in St. Petersburg, acknowledged that much less than half of the 150 new workers will be recent graduates.
"Training a fresh graduate to the strong contributor level for our company takes about one year," Serebrenikova said. Motorola denies its plans to "poach" staff from other companies but figures indicate that the majority of its new computer programmers will come from firms operating in the field.
"Motorola's area is very specific and it limits who they can pick. They can take some graduates, but mostly they need specialists who already have a spectrum of knowledge, and who are working in this field," said Natalia Chisler, an IT and telecoms consultant at Ancor recruitment agency in St. Petersburg.
Tatiana Oreshkina, project assistant at the International Finance Corporation in St. Petersburg which supports smaller and medium-sized IT companies in the city, said: "Motorola is involved in headhunting in a big way, and they will be going after programmers already working in St. Petersburg at other companies. Because 150 programmers - that's quite a lot."
"For the smaller firms in the city to lose just one or two employees is drastic. Most of them tell me, they are not even trying to compete on clients at the moment, they are competing mainly on retaining staff," Oreshkina added in a telephone interview Wednesday.
General director of local IT company Arcadia, Arkady Khotin, said he was not worried about losing staff to Motorola because like other large companies it also works with hardware, which smaller firms cannot afford to do.
He believes, however, that Motorola will have problems finding experienced quality staff, even with direct recruiting, adding: "they'll have to search all the nooks and crannies."
In contrast, Anya Brasky, director of Sun Microsystem's high-tech center, remained positive saying promising talent from the regions can ease the staff shortages on the market.
education system is generally very good; there are good potential employees not only from the two main cities, but also from Samara, Nizhny Novgorod, and Novosibirsk among others."
WHO IS INTERESTED
While Ancor, one of the recruiting agencies that works with Motorola, sees the task of finding 150 new staff as "very tough, a challenge," Chisler adds that the electronics giant is attractive because of its name, world-wide profile, and leading position in the industry.
"They are one of few who are working on the edge of new developments in the industry. There are research centers and institutes who also work in the same direction, but Motorola can offer better wages and conditions than those institutions," Chisler said.
Yury Mikhailov of Consort Petersburg recruitment agency, disagrees, and sees Motorola as proving attractive to primarily young candidates.
"The younger programmers will be interested, but as for programmers with 4-5 years experience - they are looking for something more, not just a big-name company," Mikhailov said.
"For example, a Swedish IT company was recently considering a wage rise for its staff. My recommendation was that the staff needs to get about 40 percent more or they will leave very soon, and I could name the companies where they'd go. But, whether they would they choose Motorola or, say, Digital Design... I think they are more likely to go to the latter."
"I cannot state the volume of orders for 2005, but in terms of staff numbers, we estimate that we will need about 150 new employees next year," director of Motorola's software development center in St. Petersburg Vladimir Polutin said Tuesday.
After a slight decline in 2001-2002, Motorola sees the Russian IT market developing at a gallop, with orders in 2004 jumping by 60 percent and orders for the first three quarters of 2005 already confirmed, Polutin said.
This year Motorola increased its staff number in the city by 120 employees to a total of 350 which worked on 66 projects. The addition of 150 staff in 2005 will mean that the company's operations will have doubled since 2003
RECRUITMENT TROUBLE
Despite Motorola's cooperation with the city's top technical colleges in picking out potential new employees, Yekaterina Serebrenikova, the company's HR manager in St. Petersburg, acknowledged that much less than half of the 150 new workers will be recent graduates.
"Training a fresh graduate to the strong contributor level for our company takes about one year," Serebrenikova said. Motorola denies its plans to "poach" staff from other companies but figures indicate that the majority of its new computer programmers will come from firms operating in the field.
"Motorola's area is very specific and it limits who they can pick. They can take some graduates, but mostly they need specialists who already have a spectrum of knowledge, and who are working in this field," said Natalia Chisler, an IT and telecoms consultant at Ancor recruitment agency in St. Petersburg.
Tatiana Oreshkina, project assistant at the International Finance Corporation in St. Petersburg which supports smaller and medium-sized IT companies in the city, said: "Motorola is involved in headhunting in a big way, and they will be going after programmers already working in St. Petersburg at other companies. Because 150 programmers - that's quite a lot."
"For the smaller firms in the city to lose just one or two employees is drastic. Most of them tell me, they are not even trying to compete on clients at the moment, they are competing mainly on retaining staff," Oreshkina added in a telephone interview Wednesday.
General director of local IT company Arcadia, Arkady Khotin, said he was not worried about losing staff to Motorola because like other large companies it also works with hardware, which smaller firms cannot afford to do.
He believes, however, that Motorola will have problems finding experienced quality staff, even with direct recruiting, adding: "they'll have to search all the nooks and crannies."
In contrast, Anya Brasky, director of Sun Microsystem's high-tech center, remained positive saying promising talent from the regions can ease the staff shortages on the market.
education system is generally very good; there are good potential employees not only from the two main cities, but also from Samara, Nizhny Novgorod, and Novosibirsk among others."
WHO IS INTERESTED
While Ancor, one of the recruiting agencies that works with Motorola, sees the task of finding 150 new staff as "very tough, a challenge," Chisler adds that the electronics giant is attractive because of its name, world-wide profile, and leading position in the industry.
"They are one of few who are working on the edge of new developments in the industry. There are research centers and institutes who also work in the same direction, but Motorola can offer better wages and conditions than those institutions," Chisler said.
Yury Mikhailov of Consort Petersburg recruitment agency, disagrees, and sees Motorola as proving attractive to primarily young candidates.
"The younger programmers will be interested, but as for programmers with 4-5 years experience - they are looking for something more, not just a big-name company," Mikhailov said.
"For example, a Swedish IT company was recently considering a wage rise for its staff. My recommendation was that the staff needs to get about 40 percent more or they will leave very soon, and I could name the companies where they'd go. But, whether they would they choose Motorola or, say, Digital Design... I think they are more likely to go to the latter."