2014 was a challenging year for Russian companies for a number of reasons. The market situation and business climate were changing very rapidly, which had a great impact on the decision-making process in companies. When making decisions, companies cannot now rely on last year's data, and when developing new strategies and setting budgets for the forthcoming year, the most up-to-date and relevant information is needed. With this in mind, we decided to launch a rapid survey to assess the changes witnessed in 2014. They key findings of the survey are presented below:

• Average employee turnover during 1H14 was 14.8 percent

• The first half of the year did not see any significant movements in HR headcount, which remained stable in 42 percent of companies, decreased in 32 percent and rose in 26 percent. The overall magnitude of change did not exceed 10 percent

• The data showed that the workload per HR specialist working in the most popular HR functions is 82 employees. If the headcount of HR Specialists is calculated according to all HR functions, the figure declines to 66

• There are considerable variations in workloads for HR specialists working for Russian and foreign companies.HR administration specialist in a Russian company on average serves 366 employees, whereas the figure for a specialist working in a foreign company is 304. A more significant difference can be observed in the Payroll function, where one HR specialist in a Russian company serves 750 employees, compared to 563 in a foreign one

• The data obtained showed a low level of automation of HR processes, which appears to indicate extensive potential in the area. Only 5 percent of companies have a unified system to automate all HR functions. Furthermore, all HR processes, although performed in various systems, are also automated in 17 percent of companies, while another 37 percent of companies automate the majority of HR functions (6–7), and 13 percent automate only payroll and HR administration

• The lowest level of automation (43 percent) was observed in the field of headcount and HR Cost management, where MS Excel remains the main tool for collecting information and preparing reports in the majority of companies