The St. Petersburg Times – Benefits Packages Fall Victim to Crisis ...

by antalrussia

The economic crisis has brought waves of redundancies to many large companies in Russia this year, with thousands of people losing their jobs. Many of those who were lucky enough to keep their jobs have been faced with salary cuts or a reduced working day or week, and benefits packages in many organizations have become an unaffordable luxury.

“With the crisis, employers had to review their outgoings, and in most cases the reduction of social benefits packages was one of the most widespread optimization measures,” said Svetlana Lavrinenko, head of the recruitment department at Ancor.

“In many cases, cutting down on benefits allowed companies to keep jobs and avoid mass redundancies.”

Most of the employees who suffered from such measures work for Russian companies. Before the onset of the crisis, the economy was booming and potential for success seemed limitless. Many organizations introduced a transparent payroll scheme and began to introduce additional options into the benefits package.

“The crisis has put everything in its place,” said Tatyana Tangisheva, business development director at HPS Group.

“The first victims were the insurance companies, as Russian organizations stopped providing medical insurance, and also reduced mobile phone expenses.”

According to the results of a survey published by Antal Russia Recruitment, middle-ranking and senior managers identified three aspects of social packages that they considered to be most important: Medical insurance (cited as “very significant” for 48 percent of respondents), accident insurance (19 percent) and a corporate car or allowance (17 percent). These factors play a role in choosing an employer.

The same survey showed that employees are mostly indifferent to options such as free or discounted company products or corporate transport to an inconveniently located office. A third of those surveyed said they expected cell phone expenditures to be covered by their employer.

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