18.04.2008 // Obninsky Vestnik

Atomenergoprom OJSC and SCICET have conducted “Human Resource Management” seminar for personnel management executives

The Corporate Management Department of the State Central Institute for Chief Executive Training (SCICET) was established in Feb 2008. The head of the department Marina Kandalova says that, presently, the department is conducting marketing studies so as to be able to fully meet the needs of nuclear companies, i.e. to help them in their reorganization and reformation.

— Ms. Kandalova, what was the objective of the past seminar?

— As you may know, presently, our nuclear industry is being reorganized. We have established Atomenergoprom OJSC, a holding comprising lots of organizations, particularly, such giants as TVEL and Atomredmetzoloto with plants and factories all over the country. Presently, Atomenergoprom is organizing a system for managing the efficiency of those companies. The idea to organize such a seminar emerged quite long ago. But now that we are undergoing changes we had to fit its program to present realities. We brought together all the personnel managers of the companies that have already joined Atomenergoprom and the companies that will do it in the coming two-three months. In fact, it was an acquaintance-seminar. It was a meeting for outlining concepts and development strategies.

The seminar was conducted by the director of the Personnel Management Department of Atomenergoprom OJSC S.Puchok, his deputy L.Strutskaya and the senior specialist of the department T.Bondarenko. These are new people: they have all come into the industry from business and have big experience of JSC management. We discussed which instruments from the kit of international experience we should use to make our personnel management, remuneration and motivation systems more efficient and to harmonize them with the international standards. Today, our nuclear industry has grandiose plans. Sometimes, it seems that we will not be able to handle them. But we all understand that we have no other way. By 2030 we have to increase the share of nuclear power plants in the total energy production to 25% and effective personnel and quality management is the key instrument for attaining this goal.

– Are you satisfied with the results of the seminar?

— Of course, it was a hard job to bring so different people together. Some of them are real professionals and have worked in the sector for several decades but now they have to get adjusted to new requirements and new realities. On the other hand, there are lots of newcomers, young ambitious people, and, in their turn, they have to adopt our traditions and values, to take in all the best we have achieved in the past 50 years. There are things we have no right to lose: for example, our high safety culture. During the seminar we formulated five values that are supposed to unite all people working in the sector irrespective of age and experience: high safety culture, standards, high quality, efficiency and innovativeness. These are the values we should introduce at all companies of the sector.

– How many people took part in the seminar? Where were they from?

— From all over Russia. Presently, Atomenergoprom comprises almost 30 companies. We had 45 participants representing all companies that have joined and will join the holding.

— Ms. Kandalova, you said that it was a kind of acquaintance. How often are you planning to conduct such seminars? What other plans do you have?

— We have decided to conduct them regularly. Once a year we hold a meeting, once and sometimes twice a year conduct seminars. But it was the first time we had so many participants. We are already planning a new seminar. Our program for this year includes discussions of the ways to improve the remuneration system and the competences Atomenergoprom executive should have as well as a couple of guest seminars. This will be a good opportunity for an exchange of experience: some people have something they want to share with others. So, we are considering the possibility of meeting once in three months. We are strongly committed to start these projects but there are lots of problems we have to solve at first, particularly, the problem of resources.

We have long and actively used the practice of guest seminars. We have a couple of companies that are always ready to host such events. We have already held such seminars at Siberian Chemical Integrated Plants (Seversk) and on Lake Baikal (organized by Electrochemical Plant, Zelenogorsk).

Our seminars are focused on practice and specific examples. We use them as models for possible application at other companies. We pick up the best practices and make them known to our colleagues and they are always ready to learn. Our principle is “not just theory but also practice.” We widely apply the modular approach because innovative projects require change of mentality, preliminary psychological training. Psychology plays a big role here: people working at big companies with long history and strong traditions find it hard to fit themselves into changing realities. They think: “Everything has passed and this will pass too.” They don’t realize that, even though we have been reforming our country for 20 years already, the real reforms in Rosatom are just starting and this process is irreversible. It will never be the way it was before. And people are gradually getting used to this.