“Employer Club”: Adviros’s View on Innovations in Recruitment

20 May 2025

The recruitment process has long gone beyond simply “finding and hiring” candidates. How to adapt the recruitment process was discussed by our experts together with business representatives during the two-day “Employer Club” meeting.

With rising competition, salary wars, and the search for new ways to recruit staff — what actions should be taken now? This topic, raised by the “Employer Club,” is very timely, which is why 71 new participants joined the meeting.

Natalya Belashova, Director of the Adviros St. Petersburg branch, moderated the event and shared the experience of Adviros, a recruitment company operating across all recruitment areas: from mass recruitment of entry-level and blue-collar positions to highly qualified specialists and targeted executive search for senior management.

Adviros speakers Mikhail Tuzov, Head of Business Analytics and Solutions, and Lyubov Smirnova, Head of Mass Recruitment, shared labor market analytics and how AI can be used in HR. They highlighted trends and new candidate attraction methods. Adviros experts noted that the Russian labor market continues to show dynamic changes. In March-April 2025, the hh.index reached 5.9, indicating a high level of competition among job seekers. At the same time, unemployment remains low at just 2.4%.

Salary Race and Demographic Challenges

Employers actively raise offered salaries, exceeding candidates’ expectations by an average of 3,500 rubles. The median offered salary in Russia was 74,900 rubles, while the expected salary was 71,400 rubles. In St. Petersburg, the gap is even more noticeable: the offered salary is 84,595 rubles versus an expected 86,728 rubles.

However, companies face serious challenges: a shortage of workers in the 25–35 age group, an increasing number of candidates refusing official employment under the Labor Code, and labor “ghosting” — ignoring employer calls and meetings by candidates.

Innovations in Mass Recruitment

To attract candidates, HR specialists increasingly use innovative methods, including:

• Geotargeting: precise candidate attraction based on location, behavior, and interests.

• Gamification: using game mechanics such as quests, social media flash mobs, and interactive ads.

• Chatbots and asynchronous interviews: automating recruitment processes and simplifying candidate interaction.

Large companies already use training portals with gamification elements and actively leverage social networks for recruiting.

The labor market continues to transform, requiring employers to be flexible and adopt new technologies. In conditions of high talent competition, innovations in recruitment have become not just a trend, but a necessity.