Staff recruitment

Recruiting qualified staff will be both the most important and the most difficult task. Recruiting is challenging enough in your home country, but is even more so in a foreign market, especially a market in which there is currently intense competition for the best staff. Also, due to its unique transition economy, Russia offers its own challenges. Many argue that only the upcoming generation will be "clean" of the effects of the Soviet system.

That said, we suggest discussing this question with as many managers as possible in Russia; they might also suggest candidates for whom they do not have a position available themselves but who they feel would be well suited to working in a Western company. Speak with headhunters - especially those working with Western companies. For top-level positions you will need to work with a headhunter anyway (real qualified employees are not so easy to find otherwise) and it is good to meet with them and learn what you can about the current labour market.

Once you have a country manager or other top-level staff in place, junior positions can often be filled using online job boards, word of mouth, contact with universities, and other standard techniques used around the world.