Strategic personnel management: context of retirement age reform in Russia

Abstract

Since January 2019, retirement age in the Russian Federation will be gradually raised. Over the next ten
years, the retirement age will be raised by five years to 60 years for women and 65 years for men. The
Russian labor market is characterized by a fairly high level of ageism, manifested in the reluctance of
employers to hire people older than 40-45 years, to train and promote workers of pre-retirement age. The
decrease in the number of young generations and the increase in the proportion of older people actualize the
tasks of working with aged personnel. Given these circumstances, organizations will respond to external
challenges, adapting their personnel policies to new realities. The aim of this work is to identify the willingness
of organizations to employ older workers in terms of pension reform in Russia, and determine how to change
HR practices in these conditions. The paper consists of two parts. In the first part, authors analyze the trends
associated with the increasing share of older generations on the Russian labor market and the qualitative
characteristics of this group of workers. The information base is the Russian Federal State Statistics Service
microdata (labor force survey) and the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey. Based on this, there are made
conclusions about the segments of employment of pre-retirement age workers (50 years for women and 55
years for men) in the labor market and their competitiveness. The second part of the paper presents results of
expert survey of heads of HR-activities of 38 organizations of a large Russian city on the need and
opportunities to expand the use of the labor of pre-retirement age workers, including the transformation of
personnel management technologies to new realities:
- possibility and conditions of using attractive for older workers working hours;
- willingness of employers to participate in the training of personnel of pre-retirement age and conditions of
investment in their human capital;
- changes in the practices of recruitment, adaptation and release of personnel, taking into account changes in
the Russian legislation.
The main results of the study: organizations operating in highly competitive markets and facing a shortage of
personnel, demonstrate a willingness to expand the use of older workers’ labor and adapt the existing HR
practices to them.However, most employers are not yet ready to change their personnel practices and adapt
them to the increase in the older labor force in the labor market. To support older workers in the labor market
there is required the elaboration of state programs for the adaptation of employees of pre-retirement age in the
labor market.