Personnel development

At Stoilensky, mentoring as an effective way to transfer the professional experience is fixed in the "Regulations on the adaptation of new personnel". This document came into force in June 2015.

Mentors from among the heads of departments, supervisors, and foremen assist their students to navigate in the professional environment, determine the direction of improvement and to develop an individual training programme taking into account the selected direction.

Stoilensky’s Young Professional programme is aimed at finding, developing and facilitating the acceleration of social and professional development of promising young employees of the Company. All workers with higher education, under the age of 30 can apply to the programme.

The main goals of the programme:

• To raise awareness on the Company's activities among young workers;
• To promote the continued growth of the professional competence of young workers to the level of highly qualified specialists;
• To create conditions for unlocking young workers’ potential to build their careers;
• To involve young workers in the processes of solving production problems, develop their initiative and creativity;
• To form loyalty and commitment to the interests of the Company;
• To form leaders’ talent pool.

The selection of high potential young employees is based on recommendations of heads of departments, results of the candidates’ work and test results.

The goal of working with promising young employees is to develop their personal and managerial skills, involve them in activities to improve the Company’s performance, and to minimize the risk of them leaving to other companies.

The list of high potential employees is adjusted annually based on the results of assessment, their performance, the recommendations of heads of departments and HR service.

Managing the talent pool is one of most important areas of Stoilensky’s HR policy. The purpose of the work with the talent pool is a more efficient use of human resources of the Company; to meet the plant needs for candidates at various levels; to develop a uniform personnel policy in the matters of career and professional growth for the employees.

Shaping the talent pool of the Company lies in the selection of candidates, their further training and development with the prospect of career growth. When selecting candidates to the talent pool not only the formal requirements (work experience at the plant, age, and education, professional assessment results (for executives and specialists)) are considered, but also managerial capacities.

The Capacity Assessment of the candidates to the talent pool is carried out using SHLOOLS online system to allow evaluation of the personnel by means of tests of professional skills and CEB's SHL Talent Measurement Solutions, professional personality questionnaires. Such assessment allows the personnel to determine the extent to which the employee is prepared to solve their assigned tasks, as well as the extent to which they generally correspond to the position and the nature of activities they should carry out. The results of evaluation procedures determine whether the employee is included in the pool for the position or not. Workers, who failed the assessment on the first try, can try their hand in one year.

The plant introduced an onboarding programme for new employees in 2015.

The main objective of the onboarding programme is to provide support to new employees during their adaptation period and to create conditions for the development of their functional responsibilities. This is done to ensure implementation of production goals in a timely manner, to shape a correct understanding by new employees of their duties, develop conscientious attitude to them and personal responsibility for the results.

Mentors together with the heads of the structural units determine the duration of onboarding period individually for each employee. Usually, onboarding takes at least two weeks.

Each newcomer passes two onboarding stages. The first stage is organizational and administrative which includes a workshop, which introduces the history and the organizational structure of Stoilensky, as well as its main production processes, explains the activity of NLMK Group, its ecological programmes, occupational health and safety regulations, and so forth.

The second stage is training at the workplace under the guidance of experienced mentors who transfer their knowledge and experience to the mentees and introduce them to the process, as well as contribute to shaping good relationships in the new team.

"Best in Profession" contest of professional skills is held annually to enhance the prestige of working professions, to develop technical creativity and encourage employees to increase productivity and qualifications, identify and support the most promising and effective employees and to promote the professional growth of young employees.

Any employee who is independent in their professional activities can participate in the contest for their specific profession. The level of theoretical training and practical skills of participants is determined by the test questions and practical tasks.

The goal of the contest is to form proactive attitude among young professionals, to create a workable environment and a professional and proactive talent pool of managers. During the competition, the participants develop managerial skills, organizational skills, stamina, stress resistance, and learn to work in a team.

Contestants take tests and participate in a business game and sports competitions. The contestants are given the opportunity to show their leadership qualities, agility of thought, public speaking skills, and ability to work in a team. The winners and contestants of "Young Leader" competition receive cash rewards.

The contest aims to attract scientific and technical potential of employees for the implementation of the company's innovative and advanced solutions that will improve the efficiency of production capacity and product quality.
Those employees who have professional education and working experience of at least one year can participate in the corporate contest. Both individual and collective participation is allowed.

The winners and laureates of Engineer of the Year contest receive cash rewards. Incentive awards are also provided.

The contest aims to identify and support of efficient line management and increase their professional level.

Those employees who have working experience as a foreman (except for senior foremen) of at least one year and have no violations of labour discipline within the calendar year can participate in the contest.