Hryvnia strengthening, salary increase, maintaining of a social package and the opportunities for additional income helped ArcelorMittal Kriviy Rih in 2019 to reduce the outflow of personnel, despite the increase in labor migration in Ukraine.
Compared to 2016-2018 the situation with human resources has improved at the company. First of all, regarding the main engineering professions. The staff of such specialists has increased on average to 96%, and with the certain professions such as mill operator, steel caster, coke machine operator, has reached 100%. At the same time, in a little more than a year number of hired employees in main professions exceeded the number of dismissed ones: +726 people against -518 people.
For the company as a whole, personnel turnover decreased by a quarter. While in 2018 it amounted to 12.3% of the total number of employees including the subsidiary companies, in 2019 it did not exceed 9%. Some of the employees return to the company after a “foreign trip” – about 18% of the newly hired employees have work experience abroad.
The turnover decrease at ArcelorMittal Kriviy Rih is linked to a number of reasons, first of all, to an increase of average salaries over the past two years. In November 2019 it became 65% higher than in the same period of 2017. Besides, it is linked to hryvnia strengthening against major world currencies. In dollar terms, the average salary at the company in November 2019 was about $700.
In addition, switching to the graded system of employee compensation plan has provided the opportunity for combining functions, fixing it in the position and, accordingly, increasing of remuneration for additional work. Training in the second profession is also in high demand, because this leads to an increase in the “capitalization” of employees in the eyes of any employer.
Another positive factor is the change in the bonus system and the improvement of direct communications with the employees. This helped ArcelorMittal Kriviy Rih to relieve tension in the team and many questions about the remuneration. The relations between the employer and the employees also had a positive effect on maintaining a significant social package comparing to the standards of the industry and expanding the range of educational programs for the employees and their children.
However, it’s premature to talk about a long-term trend, considers HR Department of the company. Last year, world prices for steel products fell significantly, and production volumes followed them. In such conditions, it will be difficult for the companies of Mining and Steel Sector of Ukraine to maintain the previous rates of salaries increase. Besides, stable hryvnia increases the attractiveness of Ukrainian employers, but negatively affects the financial condition of exporters, which include the companies of Mining and Steel Sector of the country.
“We understand that labor migration is a real problem and challenge for the whole country,” notes Yulia Chermazovich, acting director of Human Resources Department, ArcelorMittal Kriviy Rih. “The task of each socially responsible company is to do everything to support its team and Ukraine as a whole. Therefore, at ArcelorMittal Kriviy Rih we implement various social, career guidance and motivational programs for our employees, providing for them the opportunity to learn, develop and earn more. At the same time, we realize that today’s world is borders-free, people can try themselves in various areas, evaluate their career opportunities. It is important that recently we have been observing a growing trend in the number of specialists who are returning from abroad and asking to be hired back. This points to the fact that home is still better. Of course, not everyone will be able to get back to ArcelorMittal Kriviy Rih after earnings abroad, not always to the same position. But we are meeting needs of people and receiving them into our team. I am sure that such a trend will continue in the future. And we, for our part, will continue to offer to our employees new development and retention programs”. (AMKR/Ukrainian metal)