Only 1% of business leaders started to work after 25 years of age, whereas 48% were earning enough to live independently by the time they were 19, and 12% by the time they were 16, according to professionals at the Kontakt recruitment agency, having questioned 300 high- (74%) and middle-level (26%) business leaders working in major Russian companies in March (see diagram). Three quarters of respondents were below 40 years of age.

The way women evaluate their role in Russian business is of particular interest. In order to shed more light on the matter, the Kontakt Agency conducted  their traditional yearly study, entitled 'The Female Executive: Career and Private Life'.

The Agency Kontakt decided to enquire into the personal lives of female business leaders in Russia, having questioned 159 female respondents occupying high-level positions in large and medium-sized Russian and international companies.

More and more women can be found in high-level positions in areas such as sport, the fashion and beauty industry, tourism, media and advertising, and the FMCG sector – according to a survey of 159 female executives carried out by Kontakt. Nevertheless, they are still only rarely found in what are thought of as more typically 'male' sectors, such as manufacturing, electrical energy, and the extraction of raw materials.

"Every business manager at a bank–whether over the retail or corporate division–has certain KPIs that must be achieved in order to get extra compensation. That bonus generally depends on sales," explains Andrei Zakharov, Agentstvo Kontakt's Director of Personnel Placement for Banks and Investment Companies.

In January 2012, there were a number of promotions at Agentstvo Kontakt, one of which was the transfer of Tatyana Bibikova to the position of director of Personnel Selection for the Fashion&Beauty Market.

On December 9, 2011, on the threshold of the upcoming New Year, the Agentstvo Kontakt office became Santa’s workshop, where every company employee could participate in creating a handmade gift for one of the key company clients.

A system of compensation and benefits is intended to influence the effectiveness and force of work performed by personnel in companies in any line of business. It links an employee's monetary compensation with his or her personal results and the company's performance overall; it stimulates labour productivity; it guides and improves the effective use of labour resources.

General, technical and commercial directors for the regional offices found themselves unusually sought after. For the five years prior to the crisis the majority of them led meteoric careers by getting themselves transferred to head offices. The ones who stayed in place saw their salaries increase multifold.

Since the nineteenth century, when women struggled for equal rights with men in society, the world has changed dramatically. Every year more and more women are occupying managerial positions in companies in various industries; women are equal with men in the rankings for leading top managers both here and in other countries.