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Human Resources and Social Policy

The Group’s business is based on an efficient human resources policy aimed at engaging qualified employees, continuously improving their professionalism and providing competitive salaries and social guarantees. The main principles of the social and human resources policy are equally important for all of the Group’s companies, irrespective of their region of operations.

Professional Training, Building and Developing the Talent Pool

The Group’s employee training programme includes a complex of measures to select employees, train them, and help them achieve career growth. Young specialists are the main source of the Group’s HR potential. The Group works with schools to prepare students to take advanced degrees in areas in demand at the Group’s companies.

Students attend specialised chemical universities in St. Petersburg, Tver, Ivanovo, Smolensk and other cities under commitment contracts with the Group’s facilities. Students interested in jobs at the Group’s facilities are offered internships to prepare them for employment. Young specialists from other cities are provided with accommodations or financial aid to pay rental expenses.

Personnel Training

The Group’s human resources policy aims to create a team capable of achieving any goals it faces. We go beyond simply hiring well-trained personnel by constantly developing employees’ professional skills and knowledge, forming a corporate vision and creating the conditions for personal accomplishment. Personnel working at high-tech or capital-intensive facilities, as well as individuals involved in explosion- and fire-hazardous operations, are subject to specific personnel requirements. The Group annually approves a programme of employee training, professional education and second profession training. We hold a wide range of courses, seminars, on-the-job training sessions and internships in other departments in order to keep our employees at the top of their profession.

Workplace Safety

Workplace safety is a core component of the Group’s development, closely monitored by management and specialised services. The Group’s safety policy is aimed at improving labour conditions and designing and implementing technical and organisational measures to bring workplaces in compliance with permissible standards. Pursuant to the labour safety programme, employees are obliged to learn safe work methods and techniques, operations culture, undergo labour safety tests and get protective clothing, individual protection means and healthy meals. Some job categories receive obligatory accident insurance. Russian law requires workplace certification. Acron has designed and maintains standards for assessing workplace safety. Each year the Group’s companies sign an agreement with their employees regulating health and safety issues (as an attachment to the Collective Agreement), which defines measures to improve labour conditions.

Personnel Social Support Programmes

Social responsibility is one of the Group’s key operational principles. To motivate employees, ensure corporate loyalty and hire the most experienced and highly qualified specialists and young people, the Group pursues a wide range of social programmes.

The healthcare programme covers medical treatment and rehabilitation for employees and their families. The Group’s facilities have on-site health centres with modern medical and diagnostic equipment. The Veliky Novgorod and Dorogobuzh production facilities have health clubs with swimming pool, gyms, tennis courts and football fields providing opportunities for healthy lifestyles and involvement in sports. The Raduga health camp (Veliky Novgorod) and the Lastochka health centre (Dorogobuzh) open their doors every summer to children of the Group’s employees.

The family support programme manages social benefits and guarantees provided to families with children. Cash supplements are paid to Group employees, including families with newborns, large families, mothers caring for children under the age of three and single mothers. The Group’s employees receive additional family leave time and have access to family recreation opportunities. A special stress-free department was established to ensure that pregnant employees work in the best possible conditions.

Social support for retirees is targeted at providing financial assistance, favourable terms for resort treatment and financing for various events for former employees.

Management also arranges recreation opportunities for employees and their families. Cultural centres in Veliky Novgorod and Dorogobuzh provide meeting space for dozens of employee clubs. Concerts, competitions and festivals are held on a regular basis. Acron actively cooperates with the Veliky Novgorod Drama Academic Theatre named after Fedor Dostoyevsky.