Nornickel’s Polar Division, Norilsk, Russia

A. Yu. Perfileva, Deputy Director of Personnel and Social Policy, PerfilevaAYu@nornik.ru
M. I. Kazakova, Director of Personnel Selection and Reserve Department
D. B. Cheprasov, Head of Social Project Implementation Office of Personnel and Social Project Implementation Department

Nornickel Corporate Center for Health, Norilsk, Russia

G. A. Filippov, CEO

Sustainable development of mining and metallurgy in the conditions of the Extreme North requires an integrated approach to the social policy of business. This article discusses the system of social assistance of employees in implementation at Nornickel’s Polar Division. The scope of the discussion embraces such key trends of the policy as personnel selection and training, remuneration of labor, corporate medical service, housing programs and innovative motivation tools. For handling issues connected with human resources in the conditions of geographic isolation, the system of distributed recruitment is introduced, with the agencies in Orsk, Ufa, Irkutsk and Norilsk. Professional training at the corporate university covers more than 300 programs grasping more than 300 thousand employees annually. The practical training infrastructure is created, including an underground training area at the Angidrit Mine and a high-altitude operation training facility. The remuneration policy materializes the principle of quantum meruit with systematic wage indexation ensuring a 65 % growth of income of employees in 2019–2024, which exceeds the registered inflation rate. The employee benefits include an additional paid leave, an annual allowance for travel to place of resort, corporate pension plans and a voluntary health insurance. A significant effect of attraction and retention of staff is produced by the housing program Our House/Your House and the soft lending program which embrace more than 6500 employees. The system of corporate medical services is developed concurrently, with the active centers established in Norilsk, Dudinka, Talnakh and Monchegorsk, which is proved by a sustainable growth of applications. An innovation is the program Digital Investor which grants employees digital financial assets secured by the market value of the Company. The program shapes a new interrelationship model based on the collective material interest in the results. More than 90 % of the Polar Division’s employees–participants of the program have already received the first periodical payments. This evidence proves that the consistent implementation of the social responsibility principles is both the factor of labor shortage risk reduction in remote and rough regions of the Arctic and the basis for the long-term competitive strength of the Company on the job market and also for the Company’s investment attractiveness.

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