Corporate culture
The corporate culture of Russian Railways rests on our rich history and traditions, the scale and global nature of our business, knowledge and experience continuity, and expertise and skills of the Company’s employees.
The Company has a Code of Business Ethics in place, which sets forth unified corporate values, norms and rules of conduct for employees. The Code establishes the corporate standards and rules of business conduct mandatory for the Board of Directors and all employees, and sets out the relations of Russian Railways with shareholders, government authorities, legal entities and individuals.
The Business Ethics Committee participates in resolving conflicts, including violations of the norms and rules established by the Code, and develops recommendations and proposals on business ethics for Russian Railways’ employees.
Brand values and ethical principles
Every employee of Russian Railways is guided by the brand values and ethical principles.
We create an effective environment to develop and support our big team and nurture everyone’s self-fulfilment and recognition. We put a primary focus on people, collaboration and attention to the needs of customers, colleagues and partners.
We strive for creative and successful partnerships based on mutual respect and trust coupled with a responsible attitude towards nature and resources. We value everyone’s contribution to a common goal.
We are open to innovation and keep advancing our competencies to meet the challenges of an ever-evolving world. For us, innovation is key to shaping the quality of our work.
The ethical principles of Russian Railways underpin the Company’s corporate culture and ensure trust and mutual respect, fair competition, social responsibility, objectivity and honesty when making personnel-related decisions.
In 2022, we drafted a new version of the Code of Business EthicsIn 2023, the new Code was approved by the resolution of the Board of Directors of Russian Railways (Minutes No. 13 dated 23 June 2023). to add new sections addressing such trending topics as contribution to the national goals and priorities of the Russian Federation, sustainable development, regulation of user behaviour on social and digital media, and the value proposition of the Company as an employer. The new Code is fully consistent with the previous version, with additions made serving to elucidate important aspects of the Company’s strategy and corporate culture.
Ethics advice and ethical issue prevention mechanisms
The Business Ethics Officer is in charge of ethics advice and ethical issue prevention mechanisms in Russian Railways.
All employees who have grounds to believe that someone’s actions violate the Code of Business Ethics of Russian Railways, as well as the Russian laws, the Company’s Charter or regulations must inform their immediate superiors or the Business Ethics Officer.
The Company guarantees confidentiality of any report made and anti-retaliation protection. The Company does not consider anonymous reports regarding violations of Russian Railways’ Code of Business Ethics.
One can report violations of the Code of Business Ethics by calling Russian Railways’ Hotline for employees (an integrated information and counselling service) or by emailing etics@rzd.ru.
In 2022, the Hotline operators received and processed
- 185 reports regarding business ethics issues (0.5% of all reports)
- 5,613 reports regarding the Company’s treatment of its employees (14% of all reports)
- 15 reports on anti-corruption (0.04% of all reports)
The rest were requests for information and questions not related to the Company’s business ethics, social responsibility and corporate culture; those were handled by operators in real time thanks to the vast knowledge base.