The investigation revealed that we are sellers, drivers of furniture and tractors in Lithuania.

For the sake of equity, it should be added that in most municipalities, municipal administrations, hospitals, training and other budgetary institutions are on the lists of the largest employers. But our focus this time is on business.

Absolute leader – Maxima

The absolute Lithuanian employer, the behemoth among private companies both in Lithuania as a whole and in Vilnius and Kaunas counties, is the manager of the Maxima LT retail chain. According to data from January this year, the total number of employees of the largest Lithuanian employer, Maxima LT, is 13,149. It could also be included among the employers leaders of the Kaunas and Klaipėda and Alytus troika, but in this ranking Both Maxima and other companies register in the counties where they are registered.

Palink (5,544), the company that operates the Iki retail chain, or Kesko Senukai Lithuania, a Kaunas-registered household and building materials retailer (3,259), are also among the top five employers in the country.

Among the absolute leaders of Šiauliai employers are only companies that provide transport services. The first two of the top three -Nostrada and Termolita- and KLP Transport, which is in the fourth position, are the companies of the Girteka Logistics network. In Šiauliai alone, they have employed 4,070 employees. They are all headed by the same director, Darius Švambaris. Summing up the Girteka companies operating in Vilnius, more than five thousand people work in them.

No staff in small towns

Maxima LT has the highest number of employees in Vilnius: 4,967 (37.8% of the total number of Maxima employees). In the city of Kaunas – 1 727 (13%), in the city of Klaipėda – 1 051 (8%), in the city of Šiauliai – 470 (3.6%), in the city of Panevėžys – 439 (3, 3%).

According to Ernesta Dapkienė, Director of the Communication and Image Department at Maxima, the retail sector is characterized by a change of employees, which is why they are constantly sought after, and the highest demand is approaching the summer and winter festive season.

“Like many large Lithuanian companies, we are faced with the problem of staff shortages. Recently, the search for employees has been the longest in the smaller towns of the Vilnius region (Širvintos, Maišiagala, Pabradė, Švenčionys, Švenčionėliai), – commented E. Dapkienė. – When we feel the shortage of employees in the market, we try to compensate for it by constantly investing in various efficiency solutions: we review and automate processes both in the Maxima stores and in the logistics and production chains. We are glad that Maxima employees are becoming more loyal and that change is slowing down. Last year, staff turnover fell by 10 percentage points. It shows that our consistent and focused actions to improve working conditions are correct and working. “

According to E. Dapkienė, significant changes in the number of employees in 2021. Maxima does not provide.

In his words, even though the number of employees last year was lower than in 2019, the wage bill remained the same: additional monthly salary compared to 2019. “

According to a Maxima representative, the scope of employee bonuses was expanded last year with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Each employee was given the opportunity to earn more, depending on their efforts and the results obtained.

“The applied motivation system not only allows to receive a greater reward, but also encourages improvement,” said the interlocutor. – Every month, almost 10 thousand. Employees in various Maxima divisions receive various bonuses for individual and team results achieved, amounting to 10-30 percent. work wage “.

Last year, the amount of these incentives paid amounted to about 15 million. euros.

In addition to the usual incentive bonuses, an additional 1.5 million payments were made to Maxima employees during the spring quarantine period. bonuses in euros.

“In 2021 we started by increasing the basic salaries of the employees, which amounted to almost 8 million euros. Most of the employees of the stores, the production and logistics departments of Maxima will experience positive financial changes.

The company has all its employees since 2020. December 1 insured with supplementary medical insurance. The company has allocated 1.5 million for additional health insurance for employees. euros.

In addition, all Maxima employees are also insured against the coronavirus, and this insurance was extended last fall. This latest insurance package stipulates that if an employee becomes ill with COVID-19 and receives hospital treatment, they will be paid a fixed benefit as well as sick pay, ”said E. Dapkienė.

Teleworking can make a difference

According to Guoda Azguridienė, head of research at the Lithuanian Free Market Institute (LFMI), large employers are good for all regions, but even better are many different employers, including smaller ones.

“Because large employers are created only where there are already adequately qualified employees, and when a business closes or an investor leaves (such as relocating investments to more favorable countries), high structural unemployment can occur in the region. This happened in Lithuania after the closure of the Visaginas nuclear power plant ”, said the interlocutor.

According to the analyst, regional specialization can also, on the one hand, generate a synergy effect and, on the other, increase the risk that unemployment will rise disproportionately under certain conditions and make it very difficult for people to find alternatives.

According to her, a similar situation in Lithuania became apparent during the quarantine in tourist cities.

“Some of the industrial companies have been located in those cities since ancient times and this creates a certain attraction for other companies. Cities like Šiauliai, Panevėžys, Klaipėda (port), Marijampolė, Utena should be mentioned here. However, trade and services are the fabric of the economic body that can spread across the country, said an LFMI expert. – It is the services whose provision is not tied to a specific physical space that constitute a potential growth opportunity for the regions. Especially after this long experience of teleworking, the regions could attract people who work online, creating services for consumers whose place of residence is not limited to that region or Lithuania ”.

He points out that statistics usually capture information at the place of registration of a company. But the activities and employees of companies such as supermarkets, post offices, transport and courier services are located throughout Lithuania, and are calculated according to the headquarters in Vilnius. Therefore, when assessing the gap between regions, we should look closely at the figures.

Regions are hard to compare

According to Saulius Žilinskas, director of Creditreform Lietuva, we have very different development regions and difficult to compare.

“We not only have the Vilnius region and the rest of Lithuania, but also the five largest commercial cities in Lithuania, which have concentrated the most globally operating companies across the country, rather than the local ones. Assume 12.5 thousand. Most of Maxima LT’s employees live and work outside of Vilnius, where the company is located.

We not only have districts with large industrial companies, a significant part of which have been since Soviet times (e.g. Mažeikiai, Utena, Kėdainiai districts), but also less economically active Lithuanian districts, such as Kalvarija, Ignalina, Kelmė , Lazdijai, Švenčionys, etc. ”Says Creditreform director Lietuva.

According to him, the differences between municipalities can be clearly seen by looking at how many people are employed by the largest companies in the district, where thousands and only a few dozen: “Perhaps that is why municipalities with less business activity are so trapped and contradict the closure of budgetary institutions. After all, even in large cities, these institutions employ a record number of staff. In small municipalities, where there are few businesses and especially industry, these large employers, in addition to paying relatively high salaries, are a rescue because the municipalities live on the personal income tax they transmit. In Ignalina, the Ignalina District Municipality Administration is the leader in terms of number of employees, Skuodas – Skuodas District Municipality Administration, in Kalvarija – Kalvarija Gymnasium, in the Kelmė District – Kelmė Hospital, in the District of Vilkaviškis – Vilkaviškis Hospital “.

However, according to the interviewee, the size of the companies operating in the district does not always depend on the activity of the district municipality in attracting new businesses. Here, tourist municipalities are traditionally dominated by companies in the service sector, which are generally not large. Industries that normally hire a lot of people here wouldn’t even be very desirable here.

“That would be one of my answers to the question, ‘Which is better: a large company or a group of small ones?’ There is another argument: business diversification. Generally speaking, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. After the collapse of Alytus Tekstile, the city government faced great challenges as several thousand residents of Alytus and its suburbs lost their jobs, and many other businesses in the city serving Alytus Tekstile’s needs and the company itself lost their source of orders and revenue.

Something similar happened after the bankruptcy of Ekranas, one of the largest companies in Panevėžys. Therefore, it is better for the business in the district to develop evenly, not only closely related to the largest player in the district market. It’s great if there are strong companies operating in different industries in the district, then, without a big player, other companies will better absorb the situation and “absorb” the surplus workforce, “S. Žilinskas considers.

Therefore, in his opinion, it is not so much about whether the employer is large, but about how important it is to the district: “Here, according to our calculations made last year, even such a large employer delivered Maxima LT with its 12 ,5 thousand. 2.8% of employees are employed. of all employees in Vilnius, when the share of Intersurgical, the largest employer producing medical devices in the Švenčionys district, in the district’s labor market is 34.5%, IKEA Industry Lietuva in the Kazlų Rūda district – 21 , 6%, Vilkyškių pieninė in Pagėgiai – 24.9 percent.

Generous and not very

And finally, about wages. According to Rekvizitai.lt’s available 2020 November According to the data, the highest salaries (we publish the average salary before taxes – ed.) Among the employer leaders were paid by Mažeikiai Orlen Lietuva (EUR 2,026), Ignalina nuclear power plant (EUR 1,662.68) and furniture manufacturers working in Panevėžys County of Dominari (1,565 euros).

The least generous were Lietuvos Paštas (726.44 euros), Druskininkai Eglės Sanatorium (740 euros) and the Klaipėda-registered security company Argus (779.05 euros).