On November 27, the NSC HR Forum was held in St. Petersburg as part of the X All-Russian Forum «National Qualifications System of Russia». The event brought together HR directors, heads of HR departments of large companies, representatives of the educational sector and relevant ministries and departments.

The HR Forum included two sessions: «The best HR practices and HR management technologies of Russian companies» and «Effective platform solutions and artificial intelligence in human resource management».

The topics of the first session included issues such as improving the efficiency and productivity of Russian companies by working with human resources, the hidden opportunities of the Russian employment market and unused labor market resources, life hacks and modern solutions related to the search and hiring of employees for the real sector of the economy.

The moderators of the site were Valery Katkalo, the Director of the Higher School of Business of the National Research University of Higher School of Economics and Olga Lotsmanova, Deputy Director General of the National Agency for Qualifications Development.

Opening the event, Olga Lotsmanova said: «Today, the National Qualifications System makes a significant contribution to ensuring the technological sovereignty of our country. It synchronizes supply and demand for qualified personnel, forms and continuously improves a multi-level system of requirements for knowledge, competencies, skills of graduates and the quality of education. The National Qualifications System allows market participants to speak the same language and understand each other. It connects vocational education with the labor market by monitoring the needs for the number and level of qualifications of personnel for the medium and long term, bringing educational programs in line with the requirements of employers, and independently assessing the quality of training and qualifications of graduates of universities and colleges».

Speaking about the urgent tasks of the National Qualifications System, Lotsmanova noted that today there is a situation in the market in which a shortage of personnel is a serious challenge. According to research conducted by the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, this factor is one of the key constraints for business today.

«And in the current conditions, we are no longer talking about a personnel shortage, but about personnel hunger», she concluded.

Head of the industrial sector «Production» HH.ru Aleksandra Baye noted that in Russia, the demand for personnel significantly outstrips the supply of human resources:

«By 2030, the economy may lack from 2 to 4 million people. The Headhunter company has such a thing as an «HH index». This is the number of resumes per vacancy. In order for companies to hire safely and comfortably, this indicator should be above the mark of 6 resumes per vacancy. In general, there are currently 3.5 resumes per vacancy in Russia. In the manufacturing sector, this figure is 2.8. Among milling turners and welders, there is less than one resume per vacancy».

Yulia Vorotnikova, Head of the Youth Policy and Social Affairs Department of the Personnel «Directorate of EuroChem Mineral and Chemical Company JSC», noted in her speech:

«We have a great need for personnel, but when we start the interview, the candidates’ competencies still do not meet the expectations of the employer.

When we talk about investing in training, the result still does not meet expectations, because companies are starting to change very quickly. Unfortunately, the mentality of candidates with experience does not allow them to quickly adapt to the conditions of the environment that is being formed at enterprises». Among the solutions to the problem, the speaker named youth work, mechanisms for supporting young professionals through mentoring and youth advice at enterprises, and the integration of corporate training practices into the secondary vocational education system.

Nikita Aleksandrov, Director of Educational projects of «Strana Vozmozhnostei JSC» spoke about the specifics of the implementation of the federal project «Professionalitet»:

«The practices that teachers receive after completing an internship at a real enterprise, they can apply in life. For example, they come to a robotics company, study the practices of using equipment, and then return to their colleges. Teachers, having acquired practical skills during an internship, apply this knowledge and these skills in the educational process».

The speaker stressed that today, within the framework of the project «Professionalitet», there is good cooperation between business, the specialized secondary education system and government authorities.

The session was also attended by the Tomasz Navratil, Director of Strategy and Development of «ATSM LLC», a member of the industrial cluster of the Republic of Tatarstan, Elena Safina, Head of the Department of the «Professional Training Foundation Profesionalitet», Institute for the Development of Professional Education «FSFEI», Andrey Shobanov, Deputy Director for «Scientific and Methodological Work at the Russian Railways Corporate University», Evgeny Titanov, Director of «Personnel Training Center – Tatneft PEI», Artyom Kiselyov, Director of «ANO» Training and course combine «Mosoblgaz», Olga Afanasyeva, Deputy Head of the Scientific and Educational Center of «Obukhov Plant JSC».

Alla Faktorovich, Deputy Director General of the National Qualifications Development Agency, summarizing the presentations of the first session, noted that all the practices mentioned in it are united by mentoring technology. «The long-term monitoring conducted by the National Agency provides the same «top» of the best technologies and the best measures of interaction between educational organizations and business. And mentoring takes the first place here. Respondents from different target audiences, both business and educational organizations, note mentoring as a means of bridging communication gaps between the two sides of the dialogue. In addition, enterprises, promoting mentoring, tend to talk about reducing staff turnover, increasing productivity, and reducing costs for staff adaptation and training».

Faktorovich noted that over the years the National Agency has been developing various methodological tools that allow it to train mentors and successfully actively implement the system in companies.

«We have been working with these tools for a long time, developing and complementing them. Almost everything we do is completely open-source. We are happy to share them with our colleagues and partners. These are professional development programs, recommendations for mentors, and methodological documents for HR specialists. All this is publicly available on the website of the National Agency».

At the second session, «Effective platform solutions and artificial intelligence in human resource management», experts discussed the implementation of artificial intelligence technologies in various fields and industries, talked about the sustainability and vulnerability of AI myths, the boundaries of its application in human resources practices. The speakers answered questions about whether artificial intelligence will displace humans from various sectors of the economy in the foreseeable future, what new professions and qualifications are emerging due to the introduction of AI technologies, and how it is changing traditional HR practices.

Irina Voloshina, Director for the Development of the Professional Qualifications System at the
All-Russian Research Institute of Labor FSBI, presented the results of a study on the extent of the spread of AI in 12 industries. The speaker stressed that respondents did not name human substitution as one of the risks associated with artificial intelligence, but a shortage of personnel who know how to work with new technologies. At the same time Svetlana Naumova, Vice-rector of the Institute for the Development of Professional Education FSFEI, noted that a new specialty «Integration of solutions using Artificial Intelligence Technologies» should appear in the vocational education system in the near future.

Andrey Filatov, the managing partner of Lab «SP LLC» and Artyom Semenikhin, Partner of the technology practice «Technologies of Trust» also took part in the discussion. The speakers analyzed the trends and horizons of the use of artificial intelligence in the work of HR services. Ruslan Aligadzhiev, Director General of the «Biorg» IT Company, a resident of the Skolkovo Foundation, and Aleksandr Krass, Director General of «FRIENDWORK LLC», presented platform solutions that facilitate the recruiting process and improve its quality.

Kirill Khramtsov, a member of the CPC’s Professional Standards Committee at MMC, spoke about a pilot project with several CPC with the support of the NAQD on the use of AI in the development of assessment tools for the professional exam. According to the speaker, the innovation, if validated by the expert community, will significantly reduce both the time and costs of developing the IQA’s assessment tools.

Nadezhda Shilova, Head of the Mass Segment Training Department at «Rostelecom PJSC», shared her experience in using AI in staff training. As it turned out, AI has access to quite creative, complex expert work on the development of educational programs.

Alla Faktorovich moderated the discussion. At the end of the conversation, she noted that the discussion has an open ending, since the question of the role of AI in the development of qualifications has yet to be discussed repeatedly and one must be prepared for the challenges that it prepares in order not to be replaced by it.