The shortage of personnel remains one of the main problems of agricultural producers over the past decades. Since the destruction of the Soviet school for training specialists for the agro-industrial complex, the education system has not been able to offer a worthy replacement. And today, HR managers are forced to compete in creativity in order to attract an invaluable human resource.
In market conditions
Nowadays, it is employers who compete in their claims to employees, and not vice versa. Recruitment periods, as well as recruitment costs for companies, are increasing, attracting candidates is becoming more difficult and longer. As the head of the press service of HeadHunter (hh.ru) South Ekaterina Nikiforova, A balance is considered a comfortable norm for the labor market, in which there are 5-7,9 resumes per vacancy. The value of this index below 4 already indicates a shortage of personnel.
In 2023, the maximum values of the index in the agricultural sector were recorded in January and March - 3,4 resumes per vacancy. However, in April it began to decline and by the end of May it dropped to 2,8. Such changes are due to high competition with other professional fields and low activity of applicants. Other reasons include the growing shortage of qualified personnel and the unpopularity of the agro-industrial complex as a whole.
Agriculture is a highly competitive field where employers post a lot of new jobs and really compete for applicants. According to Ekaterina Nikiforova, Today, agricultural enterprises most often offer work to agronomists, grain processing technologists and livestock specialists. There is also a great demand for representatives of working professions in the agro-industrial complex, and with the growth of process automation in the industry, the number of vacancies for IT specialists is also increasing.
«Golden" frames
Expert on personnel policy of the Union of Potato and Vegetable Market Participants of Russia (Potato Union) Svetlana Sonina one of the most demanded and scarce names the profession of a hydraulic engineer. Resumes on information platforms are quite common, but 90% of them belong to specialists from other industries. But in the reclamation of agriculture, such personnel are worth their weight in gold, every farm where they irrigate needs them.
It is quite difficult to find an agronomist, so enterprises, even with a staffed staff, usually do not refuse a promising university graduate. Executive Director of VALMIKS LLC Valentin Kozlov considers it necessary to create a personnel reserve, which his company will do in the near future. If a farm needs two agronomists, three agronomists should be hired, and let one of them be very young, who will have to pay more than he is worth. It can take up to six years for a beginner to become a professional, and it is better to raise a specialist on your own, taking into account his future qualifications.
The industry is also in dire need of machine operators, who, according to Svetlana Sonina, today thousands of households from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok need it. The industry specificity of the profession is seasonality, but everyone is interested in keeping such an employee, even if he is employed three to five months a year. Valentin Kozlov explains the shortage of machine operators by closing most of the schools and technical schools where they were trained. Among those who can be found today in production, there are only a few people under 40 years old. And when a specialist appears who is ready to work, they gladly take him, providing all the conditions and helping to grow professionally.
Working to solve this problem, the Potato Union cooperates with several institutions of secondary vocational education. For example, GBPOU MO "Lukhovitsky Agro-Industrial College", which is headed by Vyacheslav Smirnovtrains mechanical technicians, tractor drivers and agricultural foremen for the industry. Its graduates already at the age of 18-19 receive the rights of the necessary categories and have a high level of training. The leaders of enterprises that are members of the Union willingly give them work on their farms and trust the most advanced technology.
From the school bench
The agro-industrial complex is in need of personnel for work that does not require special knowledge and skills. By hiring such employees, you can look after yourself future specialized specialists and organize their further training. We are talking, of course, about young people: schoolchildren and students.
Svetlana Sonina speaks about the experience of the enterprises of the Union in attracting schoolchildren, applicants and junior students to harvest botanical onion seeds and sort vegetables. In such events - by the decision of the director of the educational institution Alexei Zinoviev - GBPOU MO "N. T. Kozlov Kolomna Agrarian College" traditionally participates. The guys learn the basics of the profession of an agronomist and, of course, receive remuneration for their work. For them, this is a great opportunity to test the character and communication skills in an adult team.
It is not the first year that the members of the Potato Union have been cooperating with the public organization "Russian student teams". Regularly work with its regional branch in the Moscow region, headed by Pavel Kovalev. General Director of LLC "SPK named after Lenin" Andrey Grachkovsky last year he set a real record by employing a detachment of 52 people at his enterprise. Managing partner of Lesnye Dali LLC Vitaly Shtopel also actively uses the labor of students in the economy for seasonal work.
The Dmitrovskie Vegetables group of companies, in particular, JSC Agrofirma Bunyatino, also has experience in attracting students to work. General Director of the enterprise Sergey Schukin laid the foundation for the formation of detachments from among future machine operators. The company even went beyond the region and invite guys from remote regions, for example, from Siberia. According to Svetlana Sonina, followed the same path in the Malino group of companies.
Unfortunately, representatives of the new generation do not always want to associate life with agriculture. According to observations Valentina Kozlova, young people often do not show interest in the agricultural professions that they themselves have chosen. Students of technical schools near Moscow, where they train mechanics, come to VALMIKS LLC for undergraduate practice. When asked what brought them here, some guys honestly talk about their desire to get a mark in a document for an educational institution. Real practice in the conditions of a modern agricultural enterprise, the opportunity to learn something and earn money is not included in their plans.
On the way to freedom
In our country, the practice of attracting people serving sentences in correctional institutions to agricultural work is spreading. As explained Svetlana Sonina, from the contingent located at the enterprises, people are selected to work on cleaning, sorting or packaging products. At the same time, highly qualified specialists are often found among convicts. Then the farms have a chance to get an intelligent engineer, technologist, driver, mechanic, and so on.
JSC "Ozyory", which is part of the Malino Group of Companies, is participating in the project of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia. Through the efforts of the CEO Sergei Pryamov for the residence of this category of workers, the UFITS was built - a special site that functions as a correctional center. According to the level of comfort and equipment, it is called the best in the Moscow region. Employing convicts, they are trying to create conditions that allow them to reveal their capabilities.
Lesnye Dali LLC also signed an agreement with the Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for the Moscow Region, and now workers come here from different parts of the country. To provide them with housing, a local hostel building was purchased and renovated. Vitaly Shtopel believes that the involvement of convicts allows to effectively solve personnel issues. And when there is a constant influx of employees, you can safely plan the growth and development of the company for years to come. In addition, helping stumbled people to embark on the path of correction is a good deed.
In the best traditions
It is not enough to give an employee a stable job and expect labor exploits from him. Svetlana Sonina I am sure that on the part of the business, the manifestation of interest in its personnel should take on quite specific forms.
For example, if students come to practice, it is necessary to provide them with a decent life: comfortable housing, good food. Show future specialists the aesthetics of the workplace and production in general, involve them in the corporate culture of the enterprise. But, most importantly, young people should immediately be taken under the wing of experienced mentors who have already made a career at the enterprise, it is highly desirable to revive the institution of mentoring in its true form, as it was in Soviet times.
Modern employers are trying to attract staff with decent salaries. Ekaterina Nikiforovа confirmed this with data from the site hh.ru. In general, in Russia, the average offered salary in May of this year was about 70 thousand rubles for an agronomist (19% more than in 2021), 68 thousand rubles for a technologist, 61 thousand rubles for a mechanic, 65 thousand .rubles - for a livestock specialist, 58 thousand rubles - for a veterinarian.
On my experience as a manager Valentin Kozlov convinced that raising salaries to attract new staff and retain employees is no longer enough. Therefore, VALMIX LLC is implementing a motivation system that allows people who want and know how to make good money. Here, too, we will have to turn to the old Soviet practice, when the leaders were given the so-called 13th salary at the end of the year. In modern conditions, a business owner is able to reward the most promising employees with bonuses. Their size should exceed the average salary, if possible several times, so that the recipient realizes his importance and strives to justify the trust.
Vitaly Shtopel I am sure that a carefully thought-out social policy is required to attract human resources. The management of Lesnye Dali decided to buy and reconstruct another hostel, which will create about a dozen one-two-room apartments for future employees. A project for the construction of a cottage settlement of 15 well-appointed houses with household plots is also being prepared for implementation. The finished housing stock should attract young professionals who have managed to start families from different regions of the country.
From audience to field
Ekaterina Nikiforova said that since the beginning of the year, Russian companies associated with agriculture have posted more than 48 vacancies on hh.ru. This is almost a third (+28%) more than in 2022 and 51% more than in 2021. The greatest demand for new employees was recorded in Moscow (9% of vacancies), the Krasnodar Territory (8%) and the Voronezh Region (6%). At the same time, the number of applicants, on the contrary, shows a negative trend. So, from January to May in 2021, employers posted about 1,1 thousand agronomist vacancies, and for the same period in 2023 there were over 2 thousand.
Serious flaw Valentin Kozlov calls the reference point of the domestic higher education to the issuance of diplomas to theorists, and not to the training of practitioners. In his opinion, the roots of problems in production are in our education, which lost ground about 30-40 years ago. As a result, a drop in its level from world to mediocre.
The solution of the problem Svetlana Sonina sees in the implementation of the educational concept proposed by the chairman of the Potato Union, the general director of JSC "Malino" Sergei Lupekhin. The concept assumes the predominance of practice over theory, redrawing study schedules in such a way that third and fourth year students spend up to 60% of their study time at enterprises, and not in classrooms. Students in the areas of training "agronomy", "agrochemistry", "agroengineering" and so on should have the opportunity to master agricultural machinery at the university and obtain the right to manage it.
The initiative was supported by the partners of the Union - the Institute of Agrobiotechnologies of the Timiryazev Academy and the Tula State Pedagogical University named after L. N. Tolstoy. So, for example, by the decision of the rector of the Tula Pedagogical University Konstantin Podrezov, from September 1, 2023, third and fourth year students of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, areas of study "Agronomy", "Biology", "Biotechnology", and the Faculty of Technology and Business, areas of study "Service of Vehicles ”, “Technical Systems in Agribusiness”, will begin an internship at Bogoroditsky Alliance LLC according to a 50/50 schedule (50% of study time in practice, 50% in study).
An effective training tool Svetlana Sonina considers the Federal project "Professionality", within the framework of which JSC "Ozyory" and the Kolomna Agricultural College, together with other participants, are building an educational and production "Agrocluster" in the Moscow region. The students involved in it grow up on the best educational material - participation in the production processes of agribusiness.
Irina Berg