Employee training and development

The Company has a comprehensive ongoing training and development system for its employees, from entry level to top management.

Key documents:

• Russian Railways’ Human Capital Development Programme until 2025Approved by Russian Railways’ Order No. 2757/r dated 14 December 2020.;
• Regulation on Training and Development of Russian Railways Managers and Office WorkersApproved by Russian Railways’ Order No. 1241/r dated 9 June 2020.;
• Russian Railways’ Programme on Employee Development and Training System Improvement until 2025Approved by Russian Railways’ Order No. 2827/r dated 18 December 2020.;
• Rules for Organising Employee Training and Professional Development at Russian RailwaysApproved by Russian Railways’ Order No. 493/r dated 5 April 2021.;
• Regulation on Organising Employee Training and Professional Development at Russian RailwaysApproved by Russian Railways’ Order No. 675/r dated 21 March 2022..

Key achievements in 2022:

• The Company continued to improve its remuneration and qualification system by developing (updating) ten professional standards for the main professions and positions in railway transport.
• Russian Railways’ Corporate University started developing and implementing new educational solutions aimed at fostering professional competencies of managers at key production branches.
• The number of courses offered by Russian Railways’ distance learning platform exceeded 1,100. We created a separate training area for the quick onboarding of new employees. Seven sectoral universities joined the platform.
• The Company continued its Knowledge Hour project with more than 750 courses involving over 250,000 employees.

Personnel onboarding and mentorship

Onboarding is a comprehensive procedure to help new hires adapt to workplace practices and rules, develop professional knowledge and skills and learn about the corporate culture, as well as encourage them to be diligent, responsible, hard-working, loyal and proud to be part of the Russian Railways team.

All Russian Railways employees undergo onboarding in line with a dedicated plan.

Employees responsible for traffic safety and the most sophisticated technological processes complete an onboarding internship (a type of job onboarding).

In 2022, 15 railways held corporate Onboarding Days for Young Professionals (47 events with over 7,400 attendees) to provide a holistic view of the Russian Railways Group, its corporate culture and values.

Professional mentoring is a traditional part of Russian Railways’ processes: seasoned professionals immerse newcomers in the process intricacies and familiarise them with the corporate culture. 2022 saw seven branches of the Company pilot a new approach to organising professional mentoring in their dedicated units with the aim of improving employee training efficiency.

Highlights of Russian Railways’ new approach to mentorship:

• developing a set of skills (specific actions to be taught by the mentor);
• freedom of the mentor to determine the way of teaching key skills;
• a demo day where mentees demonstrate how they use their new knowledge in practice;
• financial and non-financial incentives.

To promote professional mentoring, we automated the maintenance of the sets of skills to be learned, the creation of order forms, and downloading of demo day checklists.

The Company also develops distance learning courses in mentoring methodology and mentoring process in information systems.

Training and development of blue- and white-collar employees

In 2022, the Company trained 40,000 employees in key jobs, including 32,800 in vocational education centres. 169,200 employees completed training as part of professional development programmes, including 137,800 in vocational education centres. Teaching skills and technology courses were offered to 448 vocational centre instructors.

In 2022, the Company arranged and carried out the following measures to improve its employee training and development system:

• 165 educational programmes with teaching and learning packages and sets of assessment tools were developed and approved (64 programmes for basic training and 101 programmes for professional development);
• flexible training formats were developed for simultaneous training in two professions (diesel locomotive operator’s assistant and electric locomotive operator’s assistant) allowing for on-site and distance learning in the evening and during weekends;
• availability equipment at training grounds for improving practical skills was increased by 14%;
• modern equipment was procured, including 43 simulator complexes and 46 interactive panels for digital educational resources;
• to create a modern educational space, vocational education centres created and approved albums of standard design solutions for training buildings and dormitories of training centres.

Management and office workers training

According to Russian Railways’ Human Capital Development Programme until 2025, the main goal of white-collar employees training development is to boost efficiency by ensuring accessibility, quality and focus of educational opportunities aimed at building all kinds of corporate and professional competencies.

In 2022, over 315,000 managers and office workers received training, including over 191,000 trained at the Russian Railways Corporate University.

Talent pool

The Corporate University serves as a centre of excellence in carrying out programmes to develop the Russian Railways Group talent pool, personnel assessment, methodology of new educational programmes, implementing innovative technologies in education, and promoting best management practices and business initiatives.

The Corporate University has established a comprehensive system for the development of managers included in the Company’s talent pool. The system consists of:

• levels of improving managerial competencies;
• functional programmes to develop high-potential managers in the Company’s key business areas;
• a corporate MBA programme.

In addition to the framework for talent pool development, we also have in place a set of programmes to support management tools upon request from relevant business units and in line with the Company’s strategic goals (for example, digitalisation, process approach, traffic safety culture, risk management, and customer focus).

Developing managers and specialists in 2022

• More than 1,700 managers received training under programmes for comprehensive development of the Russian Railways talent pool.
• To increase coverage of linear managers, more than 1,300 employees were trained at regional railway universities under partner programmes of the Russian Railways Corporate University.
• We also continued the Master-Club Programme for the Management Board members, directors, heads of units of the Executive Office, railways and regional directorates of Russian Railways. In 2022, the Company launched a new format of the Master Club: Practice programme — a series of master classes by leading experts focused on finding solutions to specific production or management tasks of Russian Railways divisions.
• We work consistently to develop high-potential managers to cover all functional areas of the Russian Railways Group’s operations. In 2022, managers of the construction, transport, logistics and economic business divisions were trained under the Functional Management programme; qualifiers were held to select managers of the locomotive fleet and the Company’s property management division.
• Russian Railways Corporate University came up with a new educational solution: exchange internship of managers at railway enterprises of different railway domains. In the reporting year, management teams from the Far Eastern and West-Siberian railways took part in the internships.
• We continued with our training programmes for managers and office workers to support Russian Railways’ Digital Transformation Strategy until 2025.
• Educational solutions dedicated to sustainable development were implemented: an e-course in Management of the Company’s Sustainable Development, Social Well-Being master classes as part of the Knowledge.Express open learning format, Technological Transformation of Railway Transport as a Key Factor of Sustainable Development for students of talent pool development programmes.
• The Company continued its project to form a community of in-house coaches from among the Company’s employees who were selected, trained and certified to conduct educational events for their colleagues. At the request of branches, certified business coaches with proprietary programmes can conduct training sessions to develop employee competencies. Russian Railways certificated 74 in-house coaches.
• The Company continued its Knowledge.Express project based on the continuing education concept. Over three years, 92 masterclasses were held, 16,000 students took part online, and the number of masterclasses viewed on the platform exceeded 110,000

Distance learning

To improve personnel performance and ensure continuous professional development, we have a distance learning system in place, offering more than 1,100 training courses.

The Company also launched a Knowledge Hour project to develop professional competencies. It focuses on keeping the personnel competencies at a required level by dedicating one working hour per month to training. In 2022, we introduced over 750 courses attended by more than 250,000 employees from eleven branches. In 2022, the project was joined by the Central Directorate for Multiple Unit Trains and the Directorate for Traction Stock Repair.