Career-long training

The holding company has a system of continuous employee development. Railway workers are assisted by the company's own digital services implemented by the company's HR and IT units. Training and staff development are also offered at the Corporate University of Russian Railways, colleges, internal training centers and leading educational providers. 

As "1520 International" was told at Russian Railways’ Personnel Management Department, every year more than 200 thousand managers and specialists of all levels upgrade their qualifications on corporate platforms. The main principles of the company are accessibility of training, focus on the needs of business units, personalized approach, the use of modern educational technologies, and systematic evaluation of efficiency.

The main platform for the development of managerial competencies of managers and specialists is the Corporate University of Russian Railways. Over the 12 years of its operation, it has trained more than 500 thousand graduates. All in all, more than 250 programs have been implemented on its platform. The main task of the institution is to develop managerial competencies of executives and personnel training according to the standards of the holding company. The best graduates get an opportunity to take a corporate MBA program. 

It should be noted that Corporate University implements programs by order of the structural subdivisions of the holding company. For example, a management program for the transport and logistics units was launched at the end of last year at the request of Russian Railways’ Center for Corporate Transport Services.  

In 2021, Russian Railways’ Corporate University opened its Far Eastern branch on Russky Island in Vladivostok. The project is implemented in partnership with the Far Eastern Federal University. This branch of the Corporate University offers railway employees training in digitalization, negotiations, project and time management, and client orientation. Training is provided by Russian and foreign experts who cover the issues of economic development in the Asia-Pacific Region, thus ultimately helping increase the attractiveness of the Far East as a place to work.

Another link in the corporate education system is Russian Railways' distance learning, through which employees can take more than 700 courses on a variety of topics (from quantum communications and financial literacy to public speaking and motivation skills), master classes and access to a library of business literature. 

Collaboration with universities

Today the main inflow of specialists with higher and secondary professional education to Russian Railways is provided by target education. The total contingent of target students is more than 27 thousand people. More than 5 thousand contracts are concluded every year. The Company cooperates with nine industry-specific universities: the Russian University of Transport, St. Petersburg State Transport University, Samara State Transport University, Rostov State Transport University, Omsk State Transport University, Siberian State Transport University, Far Eastern State Transport University, Urals State Transport University, Irkutsk State Transport University, 16 leading Russian universities and 140 colleges and technical schools. In 2020, Russian Railways signed the first comprehensive program of cooperation with nine university complexes of railway transport for a period until 2025.

It should be noted that the Personnel Management Department involves students from non-profile universities in the company's educational activities. This is explained by the fact that the company's ambitious projects require the expertise of specialists from different fields - engineers, economists, managers, lawyers, IT, marketing, communications and logistics. Internships and practices, business cases and research projects, hackathons and case championships, excursions to Russian Railways' production facilities and museum complexes and others are available for students.

Employee service portal

Russian Railways develops all digital services for employees on the basis of a single platform - the Employee Service Portal, launched in 2017. Today, the portal is the largest corporate IT platform in Russia with more than 600 thousand people registered on it. 

"For the company, this is a key tool for communication, information and feedback. In turn, employees see this resource as a digital assistant. The service portal allows employees to receive training and plan their careers remotely, apply for corporate benefits and compensation, request references, execute personnel documents, and so on," said Maria Pimenova, deputy head of Russian Railways' Personnel Management Department.

All in all, more than 60 functions are available to employees on the Service portal: reading the news, issuing various certificates, benefits and expression of gratitude in the section "To say "thank you" to your colleague" etc. One of the latest innovations among Russian Railways’ services is the "Showcase" web application. Using this application, employees can remotely exchange points from the "Bonus Package" section for corporate offers (souvenir products with the holding company logo, tickets to theaters, stays at sanatoriums, etc.). The essence of the project is to accumulate points for personal achievements - it could be mentoring, participation in competitions, volunteering, etc. At present more than 87 thousand people participate in the project. 

Tools for personnel managers

Russian Railways' Personnel Management Department emphasizes that the creation of specialized services is directly related to the digital transformation of railways in Russia. Thus, digitalization opens up new opportunities for various divisions of the company. 

Electronic Document Management (EDM) has become one of such services. On the basis of the Employee Service Portal, the most popular personnel documents have been digitalized - various types of vacations, material aid, business trips, part-time work, and others. By the end of last year more than 100 thousand people had joined the program. It is expected that in 2023 all employees of the holding company will be able to switch to the EDM.

The Department also provided information about the "Human Resources Manager Workplace" (HRMW) platform. "This is our own development, a digital platform that combines the services needed by the manager in his daily work, and accumulates all the data on personnel, "- added Sergey Saratov, the head of the Department.

Olga Shelkova