The FINANCIAL — It is said that 2012 will be a tight year for jobseekers. A survey conducted amongst the leading Georgian companies shows that the majority of large businesses in the country are not going to increase the number of their staff in 2011.
It’s unclear whether Georgian companies will decrease the number of their employees. More than twenty leading companies questioned by The FINANCIAL said that they don’t want to disclose their employment strategy for 2012. Caucasus Online, Wissol, Magticom, PSP and Bank of Georgia could be targets for jobseekers since these companies are expanding this year.
UNI Group Lukoil Georgia and Geocell stated that increases in the numbers of their employees are not planned for this year. Caucasus Online, Wissol Group, Magticom and PSP are all adding new services however. But the number of potential employees is still unclear, it all depends on the successful development of these projects.
At present Magticom employs around 900 workers. In the first month of 2012 the company already hired approximately 30 new workers.
Magticom recently launched the new project MagtiSat – Satellite Television operator. “According to the further development of this product we will continue the enlargement of our staff,” Nana Mukeria, Head of the HR Department of Magticom, told The FINANCIAL.
“In 2011 we did not have any significant changes regarding staff cuts or increases. It was a stable year overall,” Mukeria said.
Bank of Georgia, one of the largest employers in Georgia, is permanently enlarging its staff. It is expected that the company will continue hiring new personnel in 2012.
“Graduates who wish to start working at our bank can apply any time and take our entrance test, as we are regularly hiring new workers,” Khatuna Kakabadze of Bank of Georgia told The FINANCIAL. “The group of Bank of Georgia employs more than 8,000 workers as of December 2011. During 2011 Bank of Georgia hired around 500 new workers. We frequently publish new vacancies for the service sector. The main criteria for new workers are the necessary requirements of each position. We also pay huge attention to a candidate’s intellectual and communicative skills, general knowledge and education, service and initiative,” kakabadze said.
In 2011 Caucasus Online, which employs around 800 workers, hired 150 new staff members.
Magda Khachapuridze, Head of the HR Department of Caucasus Online, the largest Georgian internet provider, will continue enlargement of their personnel in 2012.
“Caucasus Online is continuing to develop and we will enhance our staff numbers accordingly. We hire new staff according to the development plan of our company. And we add new staff according to the demands of each department,” Khachapuridze stated.
According to Khachapuridze the criteria of the HR department vary according to the concrete demands of each position. “The universal requirements are: education, experience, sense of responsibility, teamwork, hard working,” she added.
The next three years development plan of Wissol Group includes taking into service 3,000 new employees for the supermarket chain Smart. The company will open twelve new service centres of Wissol AutoExpress, the exclusive representative of French oil Total.
“We are dynamically developing our company and its daughter company, the supermarket chain Smart, which plans to open chains in every city of Georgia. The opening of new service centres of Wissol AutoExpress will require the growth of our staff force.
In January 2012 PSP Insurance employed 25 new workers which comprised a 43% enlargement. PSP Group presently employs 3,200 staff members. From 2011 PSP Group added 623 new employees.
Maia Robakidze, Head of the HR Department of PSP Group, says that the company will focus on insurance business and according to the development of this direction “we will continue increasing the number of our staff”.
UNI Group Lukoil Georgia does not plan to increase the number of their staff in 2012.
“We will have 0% increase,” said Nana Darsania, Head of the HR Department of UNI Group Lukoil.
Lukoil employs 510 staff members. “In 2011 we fired 71 employees and hired 80,” said Darsania. “We often increase our staff numbers at our filling stations.”
Darsania names the top five criteria for their HR department while hiring new staff as: 1. Professional experience: education, experience, language skills; 2. Physical criteria: healthcare, physical strength, manner of speech, gesticulation and so on; 3. Social and psychological criteria: human and social relations at home and at the workplace; 4. Age; 5. Organizational skills: communication and cooperation abilities, especially for administrative personnel.
UNI Group Lukoil will increase the salaries of its staff in 2012. “Our employees will get a 6% increase of their salaries. We are continuing to give bonuses. We are not going to cancel that. The budget of our bonus fund for 2012 amounts to approximately 510,000 GEL,” Darsania told The FINANCIAL.
Geocell said that the hiring of new personnel is not an important topic at the moment.
“We had staff optimization in 2011 and fired 10% of existing staff. Our company presently employs 400 workers,” Misha Bregvadze, Head of the HR Department of Geocell, told The FINANCIAL.
IT specialists, sales managers, managers and service staff dominate in the vacancy lists on popular career websites such as Mycareer.ge, hr.com.ge and jobs.ge.
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