Shortage of personnel in agriculture: agronomists specializing in greenhouse vegetable farming are in search of job opportunities, as the statistics show.

Today, one agronomist position receives 3.3 resumes with a normal level of competition ranging from 4 to 8 candidates. In the field of greenhouse vegetable growing, this figure often does not exceed one candidate per vacancy. This was reported by Alexey Korenin, project manager at "Grodan" company (a business unit of "Rockwool"), during a panel discussion at the Global Fresh Market: Vegetables & Fruits exhibition.

According to statistics from hh.ru, agriculture is among the top 10 professional fields with the highest labor shortages. The number of resumes increased by only 7% as of September. Veterinarians and agronomists are particularly in short supply, with the latter's average salary increasing by 17%, up to 77.2 thousand rubles.

"Employers are interested in hiring highly qualified specialists, of whom there are very few on the market. The hh index, which stands at 3.5 candidates per vacancy in agriculture, indicates a serious labor shortage," noted Korenin. - "In October, the number of resumes increased by only 2% compared to the previous month. Comparing with 2023, we see growth only in the number of vacancies. At the beginning of the year, growth ranged from 11% to 21%, only in the second half there was a decrease. From January to October 2024, Russia opened about 10 thousand vacancies for agronomists, which is 5% more than in 2023. In greenhouse vegetable growing, it often happens that there are no candidates for some vacancies."

At the same time, employees show less loyalty to employers. One of the main demotivating factors is the excessive workload on qualified specialists, which does not correspond to their job responsibilities. In conditions of staff shortages, employees have to perform tasks unrelated to their duties, which can distract them from their main functions. Misunderstanding the purpose of such tasks and the lack of clear results lead to fatigue and burnout. The lack of evaluation and recognition of specialists' achievements also has a negative impact on their motivation and allegiance to the employer, noted Korenin.

"In the conditions of a strict labor shortage and growing demand for specialists, another factor complicates the problem - the lack of the ability to quickly train new employees. Therefore, it is very important to maintain the loyalty of the existing qualified personnel, and special attention should be paid to non-financial motivation" he believes. "First of all, this includes creating comfortable conditions in the team, opportunities for professional and career growth, adjustment of management style. Tools such as feedback, meetings with management, training, development, and mentoring can significantly influence the increase in employees' loyalty."

"In greenhouse vegetable growing, as in all agriculture, there is also a shortage of personnel. Starting from manual workers - vegetable growers, unskilled laborers, specialists in plant care, to highly qualified agronomists, engineers, technologists," confirmed Tamara Reshetnikova, CEO of "Growth Technologies". - "However, only people who live nearby or those who can be delivered to work daily can be linear staff of greenhouse farming. A good example is agro-complexes in the Novosibirsk region, where workers are delivered daily from Novosibirsk itself and nearby settlements located in rural areas. New staff can be trained if the enterprise has experienced workers who can show, explain, and supervise the work of newcomers."

As for agronomists in protected ground farming, it should be understood that many different specialists work in greenhouse farms: protected ground technology experts, specialists in specific crops, plant protection specialists, Reshetnikova notes. They have different basic knowledge: if 30 years ago one agronomist was enough for everything, now enterprises with protected ground, especially with large areas, require several agronomists, plant protection specialists, plant nutrition specialists. "Problems with finding such specialists existed and still exist since the beginning of modern greenhouse industry development," said Reshetnikova. - "But over the past five years, specialized universities, including the K.A. Timiryazev Moscow Agricultural Academy, have started training specialists who possess the necessary knowledge to work in next-generation greenhouses."

Until 2020, when greenhouse complexes were just beginning to develop, there were many foreign agronomists who were very expensive: in addition to high salaries, they were paid additional rewards, compensated for annual flights home, Reshetnikova explains. "Then we moved on to an active period when our agronomists were offered internships abroad, and then these specialists returned to Russia. Today we have quite a few highly qualified agronomists in the country, but with the industry's development and the construction of an increasing number of greenhouse complexes, the demand for such specialists is not decreasing," the expert notes. "On the other hand, the last ten years have increased the demand for highly qualified employees, leading to staff turnover, specialists moving from one greenhouse complex to another. Their salaries are very high, but the shortage of such specialists still remains." Some greenhouse complexes train their specialists: they organize mentoring, send promising employees for training, including for the position of agronomist, adds Reshetnikova.