Rostec's uncovered need for production personnel alone in 2023 amounted to more than 23 thousand people. In total, over the past year, the Corporation's holdings have additionally hired more than 40 thousand employees. Such figures were cited by Yulia Tsvetkova, Director of Personnel Management at Rostec State Corporation, in her speech at the Moscow Urban Forum. It is obvious that such an acute shortage of personnel is associated with the fulfillment of the state defense order. But most of the country's industrial enterprises are experiencing problems with staff shortages. That's just that Rostec hardly has a time reserve for their operational solution, but it has its own Academy, which is designed to solve the tasks of professional training of employees of the Corporation.
The Academy was established in 2017, its only customer is Rostec. It is clear that the Corporation's enterprises have a special profile and specific tasks, but despite this, each of them is a separate business unit, which is obliged to increase its own efficiency, productivity and explore new markets and types of products, including civil ones. It's one thing to work for the state defense order, and another for consumers who can choose. Plus, the development of products capable of replacing imported analogues has been added to the priorities of recent years. And all this needs to be learned. Natalia Beloborodova, executive director of the Rostec Academy, says that the new tasks set for the Russian military-industrial complex have significantly influenced approaches to the formation and implementation of training programs. Let's ask her what Russian defense engineers are taught today, how Rostec forms a personnel reserve of managers and by what metrics their effectiveness is evaluated.
— The last two years have been stressful for the military-industrial complex sector. What has changed in the work of the Academy in this regard?
— Today, the most important task for defense industry enterprises is the implementation of the state budget. To do this, they are increasing production for all types of military products, including by switching to a round–the-clock mode of operation, in three or four shifts. Changes in their work required changes from the Academy as well. First of all, our approach to building training products has changed, for example, we have shifted from long-term programs to short-term ones. If comprehensive professional retraining is required, we use the modular principle, divide the course into separate modules, each of which represents an integral block of educational material. These modules can be independent of each other, which allows students to study the material at a pace convenient for them. This approach allows us to receive feedback and evaluation for each module, so we track our progress and make adjustments to the training. Training programs for the personnel reserve, the program "Marketing of high-tech products" and others are based on this principle.
In addition, we are increasingly using the distance learning format, increasing the practical orientation of training — each of them necessarily has an analysis of a practical case or a real enterprise project. Recently, programs that include internships at manufacturing enterprises have been in great demand. For example, we supplemented our course "Improving operational efficiency" by visiting KAMAZ production sites, and this is very much in demand by our students.
— How has your grocery set changed due to the sharp increase in the utilization of military-industrial complex capacities? What programs and courses have been added and become a priority?
— The total number of employees at Rostec is more than 600 thousand people. Due to the high production load, about 40 thousand people were additionally hired. HR management services face a very difficult task: to hire employees, adapt and train the necessary skills. The mentoring institute helps in solving this problem, so the Rostec Academy has actively developed it in production. Together with the HR Department, we have developed a mentor profile with a description of the formal requirements for his personal and business competencies and professional skills. On its basis, training programs have been built for each type of mentoring: for young professionals, students, etc.
In 2023, recruitment remained a very important task for the Corporation. It was solved not only by Rostec HR specialists, but also by managers at different levels; both of them came to us for competencies in this area. Today, the issue of staffing and employee retention is not only a function of human resources management services, but also the task of each individual manager.
The topic of improving operational efficiency remains important. The Academy has a Competence Center in the field of labor productivity improvement, which conducts training in the areas of "Production systems and R&D", "Lean Office", etc.
— Summing up the results of 2023, what conclusions did the Academy team draw, which trends did they note for themselves, and what goals did they set for 2024?
— We strive to increase coverage. Since the foundation of the Academy, more than 100 thousand employees of Rostec enterprises have been trained with us. The year 2023 was a record year for the number of students, today they perceive learning as encouragement and are more responsible about the task of their development. Every year we monitor the satisfaction and loyalty index of our students (NPS), today it is more than 50%, and this is a high level of loyalty, which confirms the reputation of the Academy and the quality of educational programs.
— Does the Academy develop programs exclusively by order of Rostec or does it generate ideas itself?
— The Academy, in fact, is an integrator of educational and consulting services for organizations in the Rostec perimeter, we work only in the internal training market of the Corporation. There are projects for external clients, but this is a very small percentage of the total volume.
— Does the Academy evaluate certain personalities on behalf of the Corporation?
— The Academy's experts, together with the Department of Personnel Management and functional customers, develop profiles of key positions, they describe the goals, tasks, and requirements for employees who apply for them: for example, there is a profile of the position of Deputy General Director for production and technological development, quality, economics and finance, etc. We have also developed assessment tools that allow us to determine how well a person fits the profile of a position. It has become a common practice at Rostec when, when appointed to critical positions, candidates undergo an independent assessment for compliance with a position at the Academy. For example, applicants for the positions of general directors of organizations receive a comprehensive assessment of personal and business competencies.
— Which programs are in maximum demand within the Corporation?
— There is a high interest in programs aimed at developing the functional competencies of employees. By the end of 2023, training programs in the areas of "Production System", "Economics and Finance", "Personnel Management", "Software skills", "Digital Transformation", "State Defense Order", "Foreign economic Activity and Military technical cooperation" entered the top
and others .
— Is training at the Academy a personal initiative of employees or are there regulations for completing programs?
— The Corporation has guidelines for planning and organizing training. They systematize approaches to learning, but the document is of a recommendatory nature.
— Which programs are tailored specifically for top management?
— The main one is the formation of the personnel reserve of general directors. In 2023, the procedure was developed, the concept was approved, and the selection was completed — we prepared more than a hundred managers for the personnel reserve of the Corporation.
— The concept of "personnel reserve" has long been in use. How can it be specified in relation to Rostec: how many specialists and what profile should there be in it? How is the reserve kept up to date?
— In 2023, the Rostec Academy trained the first group according to the personnel reserve training program. 88 employees have been trained in four months, about 70% are managers from production and scientific and technical units. The program for the formation of a personnel reserve is aimed at developing practical skills necessary for future CEOs. The training modules were devoted to topics such as "Digital Transformation", "Marketing of technically complex products", "Enterprise Development Strategy", etc. Plus trainings on effective communications, negotiations, change management, leadership, systems thinking, decision making. The participants sought solutions for specific cases, and received individual consultations on public speaking.
The program is also aimed at developing horizontal links. It is conducted by current managers, each of them has a wealth of professional experience that may be useful to other participants of the program. In the coming year, the Academy plans to launch the next group under the Corporation's personnel reserve development program and scale up work with the personnel reserve to the level of deputy general directors in functional areas.
— Many defense enterprises are headed by senior managers. How do they integrate into the training and retraining system? What barriers most often arise in this process?
— In the current situation, the biggest difficulty is the lack of time. It is difficult for managers to find an opportunity to undergo training or retraining. The online format helps out. Last year, many assessment events and face-to-face programs took place on weekends. We have increased the periods of access to materials and deadlines for passing final tests. In 2023, several leaders from the 70+ age group participated in the Academy's programs. They did an excellent job with the online format and were actively involved in the process.
— Is there a basic set of requirements that the head of an enterprise that is part of the Rostec circuit must meet?
— The regulatory documents specify the requirements regarding the competencies that the head and his key deputies must have. These criteria make it possible to make the management training program more targeted, with an emphasis on the development of those skills and competencies that are necessary in the work of a particular manager. The main requirement of Rostec top managers for us is that the programs should correspond to the modern agenda, the knowledge gained should be focused on practical application in the defense industry and contribute to the formation of state thinking in order to understand well the prospects for the development of the state, existing problems and ways to solve them.
— Do you have blue-collar programs in your portfolio? Can an Academy course become a career elevator for a specialist?
— Rostec Academy has a wide portfolio of educational programs for employees from different fields of activity and at different levels of the management structure. Our courses are in demand, where we introduce students to modern prototyping technologies, engineering design, teach non-destructive testing methods or help create high-quality engineering projects in the field of foundry production.
There are examples when the HR department of an enterprise records an increase in the career ladder of employees who have been trained in courses and programs of the Academy. For example, we have been working closely with the Stavropol radio plant "Signal" since 2019. As a result, we saw not only an increase in output indicators, but also examples of the appointment of employees from the personnel reserve. The company has its own training center. On its basis, production personnel will be trained in high-demand working professions for the entire machine-building industry of Stavropol region. With our active participation, about 500 people a year will be able to gain knowledge and skills here.
— The Academy has a training course on "Tools for assessing corporate values." What is his task, because usually a conversation about values takes place at the entrance of a person to the company. By definition, he must separate them even before hiring. You are dealing with adults who have a value system. Is it possible to instill new ones as part of a short-term training program?
— Rostec is one of the top 5 largest companies in Russia and is the country's leading engineering corporation. We unite more than 800 enterprises in 60 regions of the country. It is impossible to manage such a large structure without a common system, which is why it is so important to develop a unified corporate culture, use common rules of interaction that combine business processes with a value system, promote a common understanding of goals and effective cooperation within the entire structure. In 2021, the Board of the Corporation approved the value model: "We are doing a common cause for our country," "We are creating an environment for the development and improvement of new things," "We care about the life and development of people." All three are united by the common slogan "Creating history together".
Rostec Academy has created an electronic course that introduces each of the values, helps to understand what meanings are embedded in them. This is a series of short videos in which animated characters face various situations, from which an understanding of values helps them to get out. The course is compact, simple and intuitive, and it takes no more than 30 minutes to view it. Each semantic block is complemented by a short video with the participation of Corporate executives, who tell how they see the values of the Corporation and why it is important for work.
— Several products of the Academy are focused on product marketing. At the same time, the military-industrial complex has the task of developing military-technical cooperation with foreign customers and promoting military products. What kind of marketing do you teach defense workers?
— This course focuses on ways to study the consumer properties of products in their development and production. The topic of product promotion and interaction in terms of foreign economic activity and military-technical cooperation is discussed in detail in programs for the development of contractual capacity in domestic and foreign markets, advertising and exhibition activities, interaction on military-technical cooperation with foreign countries, etc. We recommend this block to specialized specialists in foreign economic activity and military technical cooperation. Each such program has a marketing unit, and it is taught by experts working in narrow-profile markets with foreign partners.
— Last fall, you launched a marketing course, at the end of which you receive a diploma in marketing / product manager. What are its features?
— The course "Marketing of high-tech products. Product Line management" is focused on achieving strategic goals and solving the tasks of the Corporation. Rostec's development strategy provides for increasing the company's presence in already occupied segments and expansion into new markets for civilian products.
The sanctions have led to the fact that many Western suppliers have left our market. This opportunity should be used as quickly as possible, first of all, in segments that are important from the point of view of technological sovereignty and directly affect the quality of people's lives and the stability of critical infrastructure. These are air passenger transportation, energy, telecommunications, and healthcare. In order to successfully solve the tasks of creating and promoting high-tech products, defense industry enterprises need specialists who possess a set of relevant competencies in the field of industrial marketing and product portfolio management at a manufacturing enterprise, tools for finding new ideas and promoting high-tech products in changing market conditions. Until now, such specialists have hardly been trained in our country.
The program should solve the problem of the shortage of specialized specialists who are able to quickly solve the problems of import substitution, increase the production of new types of high-tech products. Our course is based on combining marketing knowledge with the technical competencies and experience of specialists of the Corporation's enterprises already available to employees. In nine months, we must teach not only how to identify market needs, create sophisticated high-tech and knowledge-intensive products in demand on the civilian market, but also promote them. The uniqueness of the course is that it was developed by expert practitioners working in leading positions at Rostec enterprises and other large Russian organizations. The program takes into account the specifics of complex technical products produced by the enterprises of the State Corporation.
— The Academy oversees the Vector project, it is a kind of ecosystem for the development of innovations. Rostec also has an internal business accelerator in its circuit. How is the correlation between them built, are they part of a common whole, what tasks do they solve?
— The project was launched in 2018. It was a great experiment for Rostec. A comprehensive, long-term program to develop the competencies of employees in creating high-tech civilian products in demand was launched at the Corporation for the first time. The program is built not according to the traditional model of searching for promising projects, but around specific high-potential employees with project ideas.
Victory in Vector is not the end point, but the beginning of a path in which the winners can count on support within the framework of the business accelerator. Vector is an impetus for development, we can give it to a large number of people at once, more than 16 thousand applications have been submitted for the program in five years. The business accelerator is aimed at working with those teams that have been able to confirm the viability and potential of their projects, ready to take responsibility and lead projects to commercial results. This allows you to implement and scale best practices. Both Vector and the business accelerator are aimed at changing approaches to the development of new products. Teams are faced with the real market and its needs. Often, the initial idea is significantly transformed in the learning process, it becomes clear which product the market needs and has a chance of commercial success.
— It is ideal when it is possible to create not a fake, but a functioning, effective ecosystem inside large corporations, which allows you to grow in the contour of the corporation. How do you assess the level of development of the Rostec ecosystem, is there a task for its development?
— Rostec aims at an integrated approach, and it is easy to demonstrate it using the example of the same business accelerator or the Vector program. The winning teams receive funding to implement their projects.
First, the funds go to the holding company, and then to the enterprise, which will become a platform for implementation. Thus, the holding structure demonstrates that it is ready to continue to support the project and will share responsibility with its team for the allocated funds and for the final result.
Participation in the business accelerator is a really working mechanism for the development and retention of high-potential personnel in the Corporate circuit. Employees see that their professionalism and proactive attitude do not go unnoticed, and often become an opportunity for career development. It is also important for them that the projects with which they came to the business accelerator can enter mass production and become part of the investment program. Thus, a comprehensive system is being built in which the initiative of a particular employee or team can grow into a strategic direction for the development of an entire holding company.
Source BUSINESS-MAGAZINE.ONLINE