The FINANCIAL — Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko was one of the first high-ranking international officials to congratulate Michael Saakashvili on being re-elected President of Georgia in the January 5, 2007 presidential elections. The long time friendly relations of the two presidents, both came to power as a result of revolutions, has been positively reflected in terms of business-economic relations development between the two countries.
Since the Rose Revolution in Georgia followed by the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, the new governments took power in to their hands in both countries. Up till now a number of large business deals have been signed between the countries. As for today, there’s an impressive list of companies that claim to be a big success both in Georgia and in Ukraine.
Galt&Taggart, United Bank for Development and Partnership (UBDP), PrivatBank, Brain Source International Ukraine (BSI), Pedersen and Partners – this is the brief list of the top companies expanding their businesses in Georgia.
Top Recruiters in Ukraine
BSI Ukraine Expands to the CIS Market
On December 10, 2007 company Brain Source International announced the completion of its establishment as the first in Ukraine as HR asset Management Company.
The main feature of the managing company is management of the assets which belong to the HR services sphere only. Such strategy is based on the decision to invest the accumulated practical experience of the HR businesses management in the broadening of its assets holding. Declared ambitions – the purchase or establishment of new companies in Ukraine as well as abroad.
Brain Source International managing company emerged after full restructuring of its own three assets (recruiting company Brain Source International, staff leasing company Acumen Outsourcing and consulting company Total HR Consulting). The assets restructuring process and the managing company establishment took three months – from September till December 2007. At the moment the managing company’s assets portfolio embraces practically the whole spectrum of the HR services sphere.
BSI key clients are Philip Morris, KievStar, ING bank, UniCredit Bank, Saint Gobain, Dyckerhoff.
“It is really not an easy task to find a good recruiter nowadays, and it becomes more difficult if the company has serious requirements for the candidates”, Tatiana Kolombet, Commercial Director of the Brain Source International Company in Ukraine says.
“Some time ago we tried to use direct search and head-hunting for attracting people to Brain Source International, but we were disappointed with the results and decided to change the methods of searching. Currently we prefer to hire personnel without any experience in recruiting, but with outstanding personalities and teach them our standards and technologies. However there are always exceptions to the rules”.
FINANCIAL: AIMS International Ukraine, a part of AIMS International Company, specializes in the recruitment of CEOs and board members for local and international businesses. What’s the main issue to be taken into consideration while searching for CEOs? Candidates with which university diplomas are preferred?
A. When we are looking for a top-manager, we always take into account the specificity of this search. Usually it is not really important for an employer if the candidate has a professional diploma and experience in the same sphere of activity. The most common requirements for a top manager are the results of his activity in a company with the same structure of business, good reputation on the market and great personality, charisma.      Â
Q. Could you define how BSI works in terms of B2C and B2B approaches?
A. Dividing of all our consultants in to two main Business Units, B2B and B2C allows us to collect expertise in specific spheres of business. This means that each consultant knows the main trends on the market, companies and key people. It helps us to do our work more effectively.
Q. How popular and demanded is recruitment for service companies in Ukraine? Which sectors tend to be the most interested in your services?
A. Recently the services market has been developing very fast. And of course recruitment services are in great demand now, especially concerning financial structures: banks, investments and insurance companies.
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Recently Brain Source International Georgia has started offering outsourcing services to both global and local companies operating in Georgia.
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“Starting from the year 2000 the outsourcing services in Ukraine were rendered by the special subdivision within Brain Source International recruiting company. In the year 2002 a high demand for such services resulted into the opening “Acumen Outsourcing” company on the basis of the subdivision”, Alexander Verovka, Business Development Manager of the Acumen Outsourcing company in Ukraine explains.
“In the year 2005 Acumen Outsourcing was awarded the The Best Outsourcing Company title. The award is granted by The Choice of the Year organization in Ukraine and is audited by Deloitte company. In the year 2007 Acumen Outsourcing was recognized the Best Employer company in Ukraine. This recognition is the result of the Hewitt Associates study Best Employer held yearly in more than 30 countries in the world”, Verovka says.
“Today the company consists of more than 1 500 employees of clients in the 9 regional offices.
Acumen Outsourcing possesses the experience of long term cooperation with known multinational companies and implementation of large scale outsourcing projects for the five plants. Acumen Outsourcing is the one and only company in Ukraine which provides employees with a category of so called “high risk works.” We also gained rich methodological knowledge in such fields as workforce management, HR administration, payroll calculation, taxation and labour safety provision”.
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Acumen Outsourcing gained 6 years emerging market experience in the Ukraine and is now expanding to other CIS countries with our 2 service lines:
PEO (professional employer organization) services: Workforce management for production companies; Staff leasing/Out staffing (production, sales, administrative personnel); Temporary staffing (seasonal workers).
BPO (business process outsourcing): Payroll outsourcing; HR admin outsourcing; HR audit.
We consider the Georgian market strategic for our development and think that our expertise will help companies operating in Georgia to deal with local challenges. We have all the needed resources (both human and financial) to do this.
BSI News in Georgia: “Several months ago BSI Georgia started developing outsourcing activities which are a very essential part of the company’s activities in Ukraine. Considering the previous year’s success we achieved in terms of recruitment, I believe outsourcing will follow that well-probed success track,” Michael Lelashvili, Head of BSI Georgia, told The FINANCIAL.
The BSI representative in Georgia has become a Georgian juridical body and is now called BSI Georgia. BSI also has official representations in: Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. In Georgia the company has been active since 2006.
“Becoming a Georgian juridical body has allowed us to add new services like outsourcing to BSI offers in the country. Though there are some other companies engaged in this business, I dare say we’re the pioneers in offering high quality and professional outsourcing services in Georgia,” stated Lelashvili.
According to Lelashvili, in terms of outsourcing BSI Georgia offers: staff leasing, temporary personnel, and out staffing. In addition the company operates payroll outsourcing, HR outsourcing and HR audit. However the most intensive works are being conducted in terms of staff leasing at this point.
The international companies BSI Georgia is in close partnership with include such global brand names as: Philip Morris, Kraft Foods, AREVA, ABB or ASBIS.
“When I say BSI Georgia success has appeared to exceed expectations, the statement is backed up by highly impressive statistics. For instance for the last year the business activities in terms of CEO Search and recruitment were increased by 120% compare with 2006,” said Lelashvili.
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