Selection, Professional Training and Personnel Development
To ensure that the Group's entities1 are staffed with employees having required professional skills and qualifications, the Company applies state-of-the-art methods for personnel search, selection and adaptation, creation of an internal candidate pool, professional training, and professional development of target personnel groups. Search, selection, and adaptation MMC Norilsk Nickel uses a wide range of advanced approaches to personnel search in order to meet the workforce needs of the Group's entities on a timely basis. In addition, the Company develops its own mechanisms for recruiting workers and specialists among prospective graduates of vocational and professional educational institutions. Personnel search methods used by the Group’s Russian entities
In order to meet their workforce needs, in 2009 the Russian entities of the Norilsk Nickel Group recruited more than 6.3 thousand employees2. The youth is considered as one of the priority categories for the recruitment, and the Company runs a number of targeted programs addressing specifically this category. In 2009, 943 persons were involved in the corporate programs on attracting young workers and specialists to the Company’s operations located in Norilsk and Taimyr Dolgano-Nenets Municipal District. Of that number, 471 persons were recruited by the Company. In order to provide its entities with high-quality young professionals, in the reporting year the Company continued its cooperation with Russian universities. For a number of years, the Company has been offering the "Professional Start" corporate program for undergraduates of Russian universities. The program allows the Company's business units to select their future employees among the students, while contributing to their professional training. Since the inception of the program in 2004, 1301 university students and graduates took part in it, with 449 of them being then recruited by the Company (including 108 new hires in 2009). Kola MMC has been running “Kola MMC’s Scholarship Student” program since 2001. Students of universities, colleges and technical colleges starting from the third year of training, as well as students of vocational schools starting from the second year are eligible for participating in the program. In 2009, 43 participants were enrolled into the program. The stipend size depends on the type of training and student’s performance (from RUB 850 to 1,500 for students of vocational training institutions, and from RUB 1,500 to 3,000 for students of higher education institutions). The Corporate Internship Program offers individual internship assignments at the Company's business units to university graduates. The program is ultimately aimed at the recruitment of highly qualified young professionals aged 28 and younger. Interns are first employed on a fixed-term basis and receive the requisite training under the supervision of a dedicated mentor. Permanent employment is offered based on the results of the final evaluation process. A total of 132 persons were participating in the program in 2009, with 60 of them completing their internships and being recruited on a permanent basis in that year. In 2009, the "New Worker Generation" corporate program was the largest of the Company’s programs intended to attract young workers to its operations. The program is aimed at young persons aged 26 and younger, who are pre-selected and then receive vocational training in the conditions as close to real work as possible. In 2009, a total of 639 prospective young workers participated in the program, with 303 of them being then hired by the Company. In the reporting year, the Company continued to maintain a program on providing relocation assistance to newly recruited specialists who moved to Norilsk or Taimyr Municipal District from other Russian regions at the Company’s invitation. The program provides for compensation of relocation costs and one-time allowance for making living arrangements at a new place. One of the factors limiting workforce resources available to the Company is the limited availability of housing. The program participants are offered compensation of their commercial housing or municipal hostel rental costs for the first three years after the recruitment. In 2009, the program was joined by 121 newly recruited employees who moved to the Norilsk Industrial District for the first time, with the total number of participants reaching 279. The Company views vocational guidance activities in its regions of operations as an important aspect of its social policy, since the young people who grew up in the northern environment and are well-adapted to it are a valuable source of prospective workforce. In 2009, the Company strengthened its activities in the field by commencing a new vocational guidance initiative – the Profnavigator Club (for more details, see Social Programs). Staff professional training In 2009, the Company generally maintained its personnel training activities at the previous year’s level. Additional professional training, re-training and skill upgrading were received by 30,019 employees of the Norilsk Nickel Group (about 40% of the average headcount). The total training time amounted to 3,548.2 thousand man-hours. The largest categories of the overall corporate training activities included training and skill upgrading of workers, as well as training for professional attestations and certifications necessary for obtaining the respective clearances and permits required by Russian supervisory authorities and international organizations. In 2009, the share of these two categories of training amounted to more than 91%. The Company has also been successfully implementing programs aimed at professional development of target personnel groups, training of its candidate pool, skill upgrading of managers and specialists, and other training activities. Breakdown of professional training activities of the Group’s Russian entities, 2009 (%)
In order to further develop the corporate training system, the Kola Personnel Delelopment Center, a corporate training center of Kola MMC, was established in 2009 on the basis of several training facilties of that company. The Center was established in order to improve the effectiveness of professional training and development of the staff of operations located in Monchegorsk and the Pechenga District, expand the range of professional training and skill upgrading programs, and facilitate the development and introduction of new methods of presonnel training and development. In 2009, in order to meet the Group’s needs for filling line management vacancies at all levels, the Company continued to maintain and update its candidate pool formed of the Group’s employees (354 starting level candidates, 671 middle level candidates, and 219 top level candidates). Personnel development In 2009, the Company continued implementing the initiatives aimed at various target groups among its personnel, including such projects as “Leader” Young Professionals Movement, “Master’s University”, “Mentor Academy” and “Woman's Outlook”. The projects are aimed at the personnel development and retention, maintaining a good psychological climate in the labor collectives, and improving effectiveness of internal communications. In 2009, representatives of the target groups organized numerous cultural and sports events, contests etc. attended by a total of 32 thousand of the Group’s employees. Particular attention was paid to intellectual and personnel development events. The “Master’s University” and “Mentor Academy” projects were implemented on the basis of new training programs, adopted in the earlty 2009. In the reporting year, the practice of contests of mentors’ professional mastery was resumed. Within the framework of the “Mentor Academy” project, five contests of professional mastery for various worker specialties were organized, with 68 mentors participating in the events together with their apprentices. ____________________ |
