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– Sergey, let’s reveal problems which a network company can meet in Russia.
– Firstly, the problem is the head office is at a distance from its subsidiaries and they could be far away from each other. It may be across time zones so that in one office a working day begins and in another one it ends. Furthermore, there are cultural differences. One office is located in Tatarstan and another one is in the Far East, and all of them have there own culture, traditions and life style. Moreover, our technologies are as bad as our roads and even in this age of the internet there are regions without phone connection. Besides, we have become used to taking information from our boss and then transmitting it to subordinates. However, there can be problems with transmitting the information as people in distant offices are not always involved to the full extent. If the staff is involved, it means that the corporation culture is strong and correspondingly the company is effective. It is very difficult to imagine one team that works in different subsidiaries. As a result there are some limits for personnel development: staff motivation in distant offices decreases. Imagine that you are working in Blagoveschensk. There are five people in your office. The maximum position you can reach is a head of the office and if there is no chance for career growth, motivation disappears.
– What can people working in the personnel department in head office do to solve all these problems?
– In our company we have worked out some projects to transmit our corporation culture to people working outside of the main offices. The aim of these projects is to make people feel they are not alone; they are a part of a team, one family.
Corporate university
We have analyzed the experience of other corporate universities and have chosen an optimal form that combines distance and internal education. Our educational web site is available for everyone who can enter the intranet. The main advantage of it is its effectiveness. Furthermore, each person can choose their own routine, timetable and the place of studying: at home, at work, during the lunch break, after work. Whenever is most suitable for them. At the same time the manager can see who has studied, how long they spent doing their homework, how good the tests results were. The studies can be included into the career program and staff development. Certainly, not all of the courses are ideal and there are some negative points. It is necessary to involve and interest people in educational processes. The biggest advantage is the opportunity to make contacts with people who are on the other side of the Earth. Virtual communities, forums, and chats, where you can communicate, exchange ideas, discuss training and do tasks together. As a plus, every season ends with exams from a professional training company, our partner that supports this web site. They begin with an introduction briefly describing the company history, culture, values and work principles. Then the difficult programs start.
We estimate the effectiveness of the education under the classic system of Kieran Patrick, which has four levels, from the simplest (participant liked, didn’t like) and testing the knowledge level. After six months there are exams where we see the staff work and their behavior has changed. We see the results that have been made on practice. The last level is the most difficult one and doesn’t always give an objective appreciation.
Corporate magazine
 This idea was born in our HR department. We started doing a newspaper and initially thought it would be just a leaflet, something like a newsletter. Then we understood that this was not enough and we decided to make our newspaper on four, A3 pages. At first the newspaper was managed by one of our supervisors, who was responsible for education and development. A contest for the best name was announced and as a result we entitiled our magazine «Efes Digest». Most of the content was about what had happened in the company and there was also a part where different specialists described their activities. It turned out that marketing workers had hardly ever imagined how the product they promote has been manufactured and vice versa. «Efes Digest» became a lynchpin in regional communication. Far region stuff felt they were not forgotten and they were fully informed about company news. Our company was growing, its problems were changing and it was not enough to make a newspaper on free basis. A PR-manager was employed to solve the problem. A glossy well printed magazine was published. But I have to say that the interest in the publication lowered, because the liveliness from people disappeared. «Efes Digest» became more official and lacked human warmth. It is rather a copy of releases and leaflets that already exist.
Working quality groups
People from different department, offices, subsidiaries, regions were united in groups to make their work better. These groups are cross functional and cross regional. They choose a theme or a problem, for example, five people from Moscow, Novosibirsk, Ufa and Rostov work on how to transport our products from three sites to far regions by railway (lots of breakage, big loss, regional distributors are displeased). This project is good because people are involved in the process, the company doesn’t ignore their ideas and implements their solutions. We let people be enterprising. Communication skills develop and a opportunity to realize themselves appears. In Maslow’s pyramid self realization is on the top. A project consists of several stages: planning, information gathering, calculating (with quality instruments we learnt in training).
– How is the cross-regional group formed?
– It consists of an executive committee including directors, a project coordinator who is responsible for communication, a representative of each department who presents the project orally, by e-mails and through the web-site and asks to people to suggest amendments. Actual offers are put up on the web-sites and on the notice-boards in offices. People become acquainted with the issue and want to participate. Little by little the number of participants grows. At first fifteen groups on thirty themes were registered. About five months later, when plans have been made and it is time to collect the information, there are only ten groups left due to different problems. By August five or six groups will remain. We will invite all representatives here for the meeting and all the projects will be realized.
– It is important to have mutual understanding between regional leaders and company headquarters for effective network interaction. How do you look for regional managers?
– 99% of the managers came from inside the company, both in Moscow and in regions. The Far East region is managed by a Muscovite who used to work in the Moscow office. There are people who used to work in the East, then in the Far East, then in Moscow and finally they became the managers in Eastern region. Some people started their careers as sales representatives in the Central or Volga region. One regional manager worked in our daughter companies then came to Russia. First he worked in Moscow and then became the regional manager. Proposing a person for managing position or inviting a manager from outside the company we assess his key competencies, entrepreneurship, team playing abilities and how much he strives for perfection.
– And how do you interact with Efes Pilsner Group? Do you feel part of an international network company?
– There are some international projects with representatives of different companies in different countries participating. Let us suppose that we built up a brewery in Kazakhstan. At the initial stages we need a start-up team: for example a quality specialist from Russia, brewer from Turkey, engineer from Moldova. They start production as fast as possible and train a team which will work there. Teams are collected for specific projects. The department which is responsible for company development looks for specialists and so the company develops both inside the country and abroad. Knowing the trend of this development we create a team of players. The Russian part of Efes Pilsner is the most advanced if we do not take into account the mother company in Turkey. Many of our activities (quality researches, company magazine) are used in other affiliates. We have learned many things for 6 years and our ambitions are bigger. As participants of the united international company we meet regularly and share our experiences in different areas.
– And finally do you participate in other network communities outside the company?
– I participate in "HR professionals" – a Russian community both in Russia and abroad. There is ISIC alumni. Some association members work with our company. It is an active organization, for example, something is happening tomorrow but I am flying to Ufa unfortunately. We have a web-site. There are many projects, actions, congresses, conferences and this community is really helpful … There is also the SSE alumni: some professional problems appear between modules and we help to solve them to each other and this community functions effectively. |
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