Ozon is looking for an agency to recruit 350 foreign specialists per week from Belarus and Kyrgyzstan

Ozon is holding a tender to find a recruiting agency that can attract personnel from Belarus and Kyrgyzstan to work in the warehouses, according to Kontur.Purchases, reviewed by RB.RU.

According to the terms of reference of the tender, Ozon needs 350 people per week for “persons to provide services in warehouses” from these countries. The age of the workers is 18 to 45 years, work experience and skills do not matter, but knowledge of the Russian language is required.

The terms of reference indicate payment under a civil contract: from 150 thousand rubles, including a fixed part. It is indicated that the employee will be provided with food, transportation to the workplace, uniform and shelter. It is not known whether this package is included in the salary.

Staff are needed for six warehouses in the Moscow region, as well as facilities in St. Petersburg, Rostov, Chapaevsk and Yekaterinburg.

The recruiting agency will have to select staff, transfer passport scans to Ozon, collect medical certificates with negative HIV and tuberculosis tests, and transfer a list of rejected candidates. For its part, the marketplace will purchase tickets for future employees, register them with immigration authorities at their place of temporary residence, initiate the process of obtaining work permits, and sign an employment contract.

Ozon plans to pay the agency for each candidate, with 30% of the fee to be transferred after the employee arrives in the Russian Federation and 70% after signing an employment contract and working five work shifts. Cooperation with a recruiting agency is expected to be long-term, for one year.

At the time of publication of the material, the Ozon press service did not comment on the information published in the specification.

Disciplined workers

Elena Limonova, development director of the Staff-AP employment agency and a labour market expert at the Moscow branch of Opora Rossii, explained to RB.RU that Ozon’s plans are probably related to the fact that workers from these countries have certain advantages, such as willingness to work and lower salary requirements.

Limonova believes that it is possible that Russians have a lower demand for this type of work and are unwilling to fill such vacancies and have higher salary demands.

“The company may choose to hire workers who are more disciplined,” the expert believes.

Limonova adds that migration flows of workers from Belarus and Kyrgyzstan to Russia can constantly change depending on the economic situation and other factors.

“According to the latest estimates, there are currently 408,000 migrant workers from Kyrgyzstan in Russia. In recent years, the flow of migrant workers from Belarus to Russia has also increased. According to experts, more than a million Belarusian citizens currently live and work in Russia. Considering the specifics of labor migration, it is important to take into account all factors, including social, economic and legal aspects,” the expert concluded.

Growing demand and shortage of warehouse workers.

There is an explosive growth in the number of vacancies for warehouse workers in Russia.

The HH.ru job search service reported that in the first half of 2024, warehouse service companies have opened more than 77,000 vacancies in Russia, which is 56% more than in the same period last year. The average salary offered is 95.5 thousand rubles, compared to 61.2 thousand rubles a year ago, the service’s press service told RB.RU.

According to Avito Works, according to the results of the first half of the year, the ranking of the highest paid logistics specialists also includes warehouseman and order picker professions, with average salaries offered at 115.7 thousand rubles and 110.9 thousand rubles per month, respectively.

As Roman Gubanov, development director of Avito Works, told RB.RU, in the first half of 2024, the number of vacancies for warehouse employees increased 1.9 times (+89%) year-on-year, and their average salary offers increased by 54%. Employers in the logistics sector are ready to offer new specialists an average of 95.2 thousand rubles per month for full-time work.

“Warehouse workers are one of the most sought-after specialists in the logistics sector. They are responsible for receiving deliveries, sorting and inventorying goods, and assembling and packing orders. The active development of e-commerce and marketplaces, as well as high consumer demand, are the reasons for the staff shortage in warehouse logistics. Companies need to improve the efficiency of work processes and increase the speed of order processing, so we see competition among employers for staff,” Gubanov said.

According to the expert, robotization and digitalization are becoming popular tools for optimizing processes in companies, but technologies act as assistants and cannot compensate for human labor and employers’ personnel needs to the extent necessary. Robotization of warehouse and production logistics is an excellent example of the successful implementation of technology in work processes, but even in this case, employers’ demand for warehouse workers, sorters, loaders, receivers and other specialists in the logistics industry continues to grow, Gubanov concluded.