Notable features of human resource management in Russian companies were the high degree of use of various flexible forms of employment (primarily fixed-term contracts and casual employment) and the low formalization of the personnel assessment system. The degree of coverage of companies with formalized personnel assessment systems in Russia turned out to be lower than in any country included in the CRANET study. This provided line managers with additional opportunities to influence subordinates.
Freezing ruble wages and reducing the number of personnel has become the main ways to reduce operating costs in a significant proportion of organizations. Most often, employee incomes were cut due to the variable (bonus) part and bonuses, although salaries in their “grey” part were also reduced. Line managers used “squeezing out” of employees by transferring them to a lower level of pay (without bonuses and additional payments). Large companies resorted to massive staff reductions or announced such plans in order to obtain government support funds.
The results of the Russian part of the survey in 2014–2015 reflected the state of human resource management mainly in large companies, which dominated the sample (68 % of companies; the total number of surveyed companies was 131). Notable features of the Russian human resource management system at that time were the high degree of structuring and formalization of HRM processes (having a documented HRM strategy was already becoming the norm); the involvement (in one way or another) of HR directors in developing the company’s strategy, but they were rarely members of senior management bodies.
An analysis of the distribution of responsibility for decisions in the field of human resource management between the personnel service and line managers did not show in this wave of research the predominance of the role of line managers, as was the case in the 2008–2009 wave. For most issues, HR managers took primary responsibility, albeit subject to consultation with line managers, including in matters of personnel regulation. Only issues of personnel incentives remained the prerogative of line managers.
The main functions of HRM in general in the countries studied were implemented by companies independently. The tendency to attract external service providers (outsourcing) for training and development of personnel has been observed in European countries, including Russia.
In Russian companies, the leading method of recruiting managers was internal hiring. Internal recruitment, employee referrals, and posting vacancies on job search sites were used almost equally to recruit specialists. To find employees and workers, the first place was the method of posting vacancies in the media. All countries in the study noted the use of social networks to find and evaluate candidates.
In personnel training, a common trend across all countries, with a wide range of training and development methods used, has been the predominance of on-the-job training. In Russian companies, the second most popular area was personnel reserve programs, talent development and mentoring, and the least used practice was international assignments, coaching and development centers (which were widespread abroad).
Across all study countries, the vast majority of organizations used assessment of training results to determine their training needs and make important training and development decisions. And in this sense, Russian companies were not alien to modern trends, although they used qualitative indicators much more often than quantitative ones.
The results of the study showed that remuneration practices in companies were quite diverse, but financial participation schemes were used to a limited extent, i.e. a small proportion of companies in most countries. Russian companies widely used the practice of performance-based pay and bonuses for individual achievements; executive bonuses were linked to the achievement of organizational goals.
It is worth eliminating the variability in the use of additional social benefits by companies in different countries, which reflected the characteristics of national social security systems and the capabilities of companies. The most popular corporate benefits in Russia were additional medical insurance, maternity leave at the birth of a child, and educational leave.
Despite the low level of unionization of company employees in most countries of the study, it was noted that trade unions still have some influence on organizations, including in Russia.
Another common trend across most countries in the study was that communication through the line manager was the most widely used form of internal communication, both top-down and bottom-up. Internal corporate communications in Russia, in addition, are characterized by the predominance of information flows in the “top-down” direction.
Diagnosis of the state of HRM practices used by Russian companies in 2021–2022 took place, as in previous waves of research, under the conditions of a difficult socio-economic situation, this time caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The sample covered 367 companies, which were mostly medium-sized companies (77.1 %). At the initiative of the Russian research group, the questionnaire included questions about the presence of formalized corporate values in the organization and the use of digital technologies in the implementation of a number of HRM functions.
Despite the fact that the share of companies with formal written documents (strategies or regulations on HRM practices) was at an average level, in the range of 44–64 %, many companies noted the presence of formulated corporate values, among which the most popular were values related to professional employee characteristics.
Outsourcing is becoming a common way to reduce HR costs and streamline processes. At the same time, medium-sized companies and some large companies resort to it more often (for individual practices), while small organizations are less likely to choose this type of optimization due to the small amount of suitable work.
An important direction in the development of HRM practices has been the digitalization of processes. The greatest spread of digital technologies is noted in such functions as the organization of remuneration, personnel training and internal communications.
When hiring personnel, companies differentiate methods for managers and specialists and for workers and employees. For managers and specialists, recruiting through recommendations, internal hiring and rotation is more common, and interviews (one-on-one and panel), collection of recommendations and professional tests are more often used for selection. In relation to workers and employees, recruiting is more often used through advertisements on aggregator sites, the website of the organization itself and in the media, and the most popular selection methods are professional tests, individual interviews and collection of reviews.
The survey results indicate that companies often centrally determine base salaries at the organization/division level, but use an individual approach to determine the level of base salaries for managers, and also refer to concluded tariff agreements as the main benchmarks for all categories of personnel.
The vast majority of companies provide employees with additional social benefits, most often maternity leave for the birth of a child and educational leave.
The low level of employee membership in trade union organizations determines the weak influence of trade unions on the activities of organizations. This is confirmed by the fact that employees resolve labor issues not through trade unions, but in other ways, primarily through their immediate supervisor.
In most companies, managers and specialists are more knowledgeable about such aspects of the company’s activities as business strategy, financial performance and work organization than employees and workers.
In intra-company communication, informing