Career
In working with staff, it is especially important to strive to improve their work, because the success of the whole business depends on them. HR specialists from transport and logistics provider AsstrA are committed to this principle shared by industry experts. Therefore, in late October, employees of the corporate group took part in an HR conference in Moscow organized by IKEA. The Swedish company is known worldwide for its unique corporate culture.
Julia Vesnovskaya, HR Manager of the AsstrA corporate group, offered her impressions after the event: "Sharing experience and knowledge is a very important part of working with staff. At the conference, IKEA team members raised various related issues like selecting and matching personnel, employee training and development, and supporting their motivation and involvement. After the discussions, we were able to look at many of our internal processes from a wider perspective. We had the opportunity to compare, analyze and understand where we are moving in the right direction and where it is worth trying to act differently."
In his report, the IKEA’s Procurement HR Director discussed the culture and values built into the organization. Yulia Vesnovskaya notes that IKEA’s and AsstrA’s approach to personnel development are similar in their focus on teamwork, successful results, and professionalism. "It is great to see that, like us, IKEA has developed a mentoring program to help new employees settle in to their roles. It was interesting to learn that in the Swedish corporate group, a new employee’s mentor remains his or her mentor as long that employee stays in a given role. The mentorship ends only if the employee is promoted,” adds Yulia.
IKEA HR managers also talked about how important it is to pay attention to measuring staff involvement. The company runs employee satisfaction surveys every year and brings in an external research agency to assess its results objectively. These results are used throughout the year for internal procedures related to employee development and motivation programs as well as for optimizing business processes within the company. According to Yulia Vesnovskaya, organizing a third-party assessment of employee satisfaction at AsstrA will be the next step in the company’s global strategy to support strong relations among all its team members.
