Care of Employees
2023 key figures: | 131 – total headcount 10% – employee turnover rate 52.3% – percentage of employees that have taken external training 57% – women / total headcount ratio |
Material topic:
decent work environment, skill development, staff retention
GRI: 3-3, 2-23
Corporate Culture
The Expert RA’s personnel management policy is aimed at hiring and retaining highly qualified and effective employees, who are necessary for the Agency’s successful strategic development and functioning.
Expert RA acknowledges the important role of its employees in the successful achievement of its strategic goals and maintaining its reputation in the financial market. The employees’ high qualifications, professionalism and strong commitment are instrumental in solving financial and IT issues faced by the Agency in a prompt and efficient manner.
These principles have been integrated into the key personnel management processes, including staff selection, hire and shaping up, as well as the internal communications system, the incentives system, the qualification and efficiency assessment system, and the corporate training processes. All personnel management processes are properly documented and approved.
Expert RA Team
GRI: 2-7
Our team keeps growing and has increased from 2022 by 11% — to 131 people. Our team unites people of different ages and with different work experiences, which enriches the Agency with broad knowledge and work experience.
The group of employees doing financial analysis and economic research is the most numerous. A significant part of the staff represents the technical team, engaged in digitalisation tasks.
Almost all employees (99%) have higher education, in line with the industry standards and the nature of Expert RA’s business, as well as the high standards of corporate culture that have formed in the course of the Agency’s activity.
Facts from Expert RA’s practice
The digitalisation and automation of HR processes, including electronic personnel document management, the support of all labour processes today is not just a trend, but an important and necessary condition for a sustainable business growth. In 2023, Expert RA developed and got approved a 2030 Digital Transformation Strategy, which is to be adopted, as part of the Agency’s overall business strategy, in 2024. The Expert RA organisational structure was modified to bring in the Digital Transformation Service (DTS) in place of two business units, the IT Service and the Project Department.
- Develop and implement the digital transformation strategy
- Develop corporate information architecture
- Develop a line of digital products and digital channels for liaising with customers
- Manage the portfolio of projects /problems dealing with the Agency’s business process digitalisation
In 2023, the Agency completed the first implementation stage of electronic HR document management. From their first day at work, the employees are provided with an enhanced electronic signature (EES), allowing them to sign HR-related documents remotely, without visiting the office. This year (2024), the project continues to develop to gradually achieve an all-round automation of the Agency’s HR processes.
Hire and Adaptation
Being well-known in the financial sector and the ESG assessment market for its expertise, Expert RA attracts fresh talent. The Agency realises that the employees’ strong professional skills
We are set to develop our practice of attracting young employees to bring in fresh ideas and energy and maintain the Agency’s dynamism and competitiveness. In our opinion, recruiting young people means investing in the future. All of the newly recruited personnel have a higher specialised (financial, economic, or technical) education.
We select personnel solely according to their professional competencies, regardless of age, gender and other personal characteristics.
Having established the digital transformation service in 2023, Expert RA continued recruiting IT specialists. In 2024, the Agency plans to actively develop partnerships with Russia’s leading financial and technical universities to attract new talent. Under present-day conditions, we need finance and IT specialists to develop digital services based on Big Data and AI.
Our personnel adaptation programme includes more than 10 courses that provide information about our corporate culture and processes and our mandatory personnel requirements.
Expert RA makes every effort to integrate the new staff, quickly and efficiently, into our work environment and corporate culture.
The new staff take courses in labour protection, conflicts of interest and insider information, as well as information security, and get familiarised with the Agency structure. They also study software, business processes and internal regulations, as well as general and electronic document management rules.
Each new employee is assigned a mentor who oversees the process of on-the-job training and onboarding.
GRI: 401-1
The Agency works continually to establish an attractive and stable work environment with a view to retaining highly qualified personnel and reduce staff turnover.
Incentives and Compensation
Seeing the contribution of skilled staff to the development of the Agency, we want them to receive a decent pay. Expert RA’s remuneration system has an effect on the achievement of the Agency’s strategic goals. A competitive pay and fair performance assessment work to attract and keep highly qualified specialists.
The wage fund has the fixed and the variable parts (the latter depends on the staff performance and, consequently, their contribution in the Agency’s strategic goals).
The Agency also used the assessment results as a basis for its managerial decisions concerning staff career progression. As a result, 14.5% of the total personnel were promoted to higher positions.
The remuneration system is based on the principle of equal pay for equal work, regardless of gender, age and other personal characteristics. The amount of pay depends solely on the employee’s professional qualities and performance.
GRI: 404-3
Every year, employees undergo the assessment of individual and corporate KPIs. In 2023, 79% of them were subjected to such assessment, including performance tests and KPI reviews. All of them have been awarded their annual bonuses.
Employees’ Training and Development
GRI: 404-1, 404-2, 404-3
Expert RA appreciates the employees’ constant drive to be successful and attaches great importance to their training and development. The Agency draws up annual educational plans to supports educational programmes, trainings and courses and thereby allow its employees to expand their professional knowledge and skill with consideration to both personal interests and the Agency needs. The results of annual performance tests are very helpful in this respect. Expert RA organises in-house training courses and compensates employees for taking the courses of external training providers. As many as 52.3% of the Agency’s total personnel took training courses covering all our business lines in 2023.
Average hours of training increased four-fold compared with 2021.
Particular attention was paid to specialised training programmed tailored to the Agency’s current business needs and considering the specifics of our tasks.
In light of the Agency’s operational profile, it was important in 2023 to encourage the personnel to study state-of-the-art financial and
The Agency is set to provide its employees with opportunities for their professional development, with possible career growth, as well as the enhancement of their competencies and experience. This may involve both ‘vertical’ and ‘horizontal’ movements between different positions or switches between different teams, which we see as an excellent opportunity to increase the employees’ motivation and improve cooperation between our business units.
Plans for 2024 envisage the development of digital skills in non-IT personnel, the establishment of a corporate university to allow employees to develop and improve their soft and hard skills, and the adoption of interactive tools and another educational content.
Diversity and Equal Opportunities
Material topic:
Equal opportunities and non-discrimination
GRI: 3-3, 405-1, 405-2, 406-1, 407-1, 408-1, 409-1, SV-PS-330a.1
Expert RA has a clear position regarding the observance of human rights and organises its operations in accordance with the current laws and principles of corporate social responsibility.
The Agency is absolutely against discrimination.
The Agency opposes actions that promote a hostile work environment, where instances of belittling or humiliation are possible.
In its activities, Expert RA tries to provide equal employment opportunities.
No cases of discrimination were registered in the Agency in the reporting period.
None of the Agency’s divisions or suppliers has a significant risk of using child, forced or compulsory labor, or a risk of violation of the rights to form associations and/or trade unions.
Wellness of Employees and Expert RA’s Social Responsibility
GRI: 401-2
The Agency continued to head for a stronger corporate and social responsibility in 2023. The development of human capital and the improvement of practical interaction with public and social entities structures is the most important priority for the Expert RA senior management.
Key principles of this approach: |
The Agency sees this as an essential condition for achieving stability and high effectiveness. |
Facts from Expert RA’s practice
We care about the wellness and social safety / protection of our employees, and fully ensure the social assistance as required by the law; we also provide our staff with a number of additional benefits.
Corporate Voluntary Health Insurance (VHI) Programme
It is available to all full-time employees who have worked for the Agency for at least six months. As a result, 84% of the Agency’s total staff are covered by the VHI programme.
In 2023, the latter was supplemented with an oncology disease prevention and assistance programme, under which employees can receive specialised medical care. This programme provides for an extended insurance coverage and a large choice of outpatient clinics.
A VHI policy includes:- psychological support programme allowing employees to receive help 24/7 for various psychological problems
- telemedical assistance service
- medical measures taken for early diagnosis purposes
Every year, the VHI programme is revised based on the surveys of insured employees.
Flexible working hours
We believe that the work-life balance is important for a higher work efficiency and have provided for the possibility of part-time employment and fully remote work.
In 2023, part of our employees continued to operate under flexible working arrangements, with 72% combining remote work with office work.
Material aid
Material aid is provided to employees regardless of the length of their service in the Agency, in connection with significant events or difficult situations, at employee request.
Temporary disability benefits and sick-leaves
The Agency provides additional payments of up to 100% of salary level for a sick leave certificate for seven working days during an individual working period.
The Agency provides three days of additional leave for those falling sick.
Corporate transport
The Agency repays transportation costs when necessary to employees participating in external meetings, conferences, exhibitions, and funds business trips for all employees, regardless of the length of their service.