HR management is a strategically important area built at a professional level and contributing to the achievement of MTS business goals.
Investment in creating an efficient and successful MTS team is aligned with business needs, building a corporate culture and HR ecosystem that allows the Company to grow and develop together with its employees. The MTS HR policy efficiency is confirmed by HR high ratings and awards.
Rankings and Awards
| Forbes Rating of Employers: | Platinum status in all 3 categories: “Employees and Society”, “Environment”, “Corporate Governance” |
| RBC Rating of Employers | Group 1 (the best) of the companies |
| Head Hunter Rating of Employers | Ranked 15th |
| Changellenge Student Rating of Employers | Ranked 1st among telecom companies, ranked 20th among business specialties, ranked 11th among IT specialties, ranked 16th among technical specialties |
| Future Today Student Rating of Employers | Overall rating – ranked 23rd, in its target audience — ranked 19th, in popular institutions of higher education — ranked 16th |
| AK&M Social Performance Rating of the Russian Companies | Ranked 1st among the largest holdings. |
| ESG Ranking of Russian Companies RA EX | BBB, ranked 19th, as well as ranked 1st in the ranking for observance of human rights |
| Rating “Corporate Philanthropy Leaders” of the Donor Forum | A+, MTS became the only tech company in the rating to receive the highest category |
| Bema 2023 Event Marketing Festival | The True Tech Day project won in 2 nominations at once: “Best Employer Brand Project” and “Best Business Event” |
| Reforum Awards | “The Nutcracker. Less Words — More Coding” project won in the “Company Developing Jobs of the Future” nomination |
| HR IMPACT 2023 | The “MTS Is a Company for Everyone” project won in the “Diversity & Inclusion” nomination |
| Champions of Good Deeds | The “Back to School with MTS” project won |
| “Lamp” International Impact Film Festival | Image film “MTS Is a Company for Everyone. Start with Yourself” won in the “SDGs in Short-Length Films” nomination |
| The Best Social Projects of the Russian Federation | The “SVYAZIYA” project won in the “Corporate Volunteering” nomination |
Portrait of the Company’s Average Employee
Personnel structure by education
Personnel structure by experience
Personnel structure by age
Gender Composition
Filling of Vacancies
| Share of IT experts in the total headcount | 1.97% |
| Share of R&D experts in the total headcount | 0.07% |
Net Churn Dynamics
>62
thousand people
the number of the MTS Group employees as of the end of 2023 (including freelance personnel)
79
regions of Russia
geography of the MTS Group employees’ presence
Recruitment and Onboarding
Timely recruitment of qualified personnel and onboarding of new employees for MTS, which owns a wide retail network, is one of priority areas for the HR policy. Moreover, an important component of personnel selection for MTS as a digital ecosystem company is the recruitment of IT experts.
Level of Vacancy Filling, Thousand People
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mass and professional recruitment | 21 | 23 | 20 |
| IT-recruitment | 1.6 | 2.2 | 2.2 |
| Total | 22.6 | 25.3 | 21.9 |
Despite a slight decrease in the overall level of hiring due to the unstable geopolitical situation in the country, MTS managed to keep the amount of hires of IT personnel by active work with hiring managers, employer brand development and optimization of the interview procedure. In 2023, more than 660 managers were trained in the art of recruiting, which allowed improving the Employee Journey Map.
Moreover, in 2023, the Company was able to keep the recruiting efficiency (amount of hires per recruiter) at a level above the market average due to the transformation of internal processes. Considering the situation on the labor market in general, the period for recruiting was reduced, while the period for recruiting IT personnel slightly exceeded the market average as well.
Efficiency of Personnel Selection and Recruitment (Number of Vacancies Filled per Recruiter)
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Professional recruitment | 12 | 10 | 10 |
| IT-recruitment | 5 | 6 | 7 |
Speed of Recruitment, Calendar Days
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Professional recruitment | 40 | 45 | 40 |
| IT-recruitment | 49 | 56 | 55 |
Share of Filling the Vacancies on Time,% (% of Vacancies Filled on Time of All the Vacancies Filled)
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Professional recruitment | 68% | 73% | 79% |
| IT-recruitment | 80% | 75% | 78% |
New employees and those who have returned after a longer vacation are immersed in work and corporate culture at the onboarding events taking place on the MTS Corporate University online platform. In 2023, the personnel onboarding program was updated. The four program sections include knowledge about the Company culture and processes, mandatory requirements, as well as useful internal services for employees. Also, within the onboarding, new employees participate in the Welcome Day online event, where trainers, joined by the key managers, immerse them into the Company structure, introduce them to the strategy and opportunities for development.
Working with Institutions of Higher Education
The MTS Group actively cooperates with the leading institutions of higher education, including the National Research University Higher School of Economics, MTUCI, Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Saint Petersburg State University and many others. The Company has a basic department, master and bachelor degree programs, it participates in special courses and actively holds career events and lectures from experts of institutions of higher education.
Work with Students and Schoolchildren
The MTS Group has internship programs for students and graduates in business and IT areas. In 2023, more than 900 interns in total were accepted for internship (across the entire MTS ecosystem). Almost 40% of those who completed the internship were transferred to regular staff. The Company also actively interacts with schoolchildren, arranges special projects for them and conducts introductory and onboarding events for various educational organizations.
Number of Students who Completed Internship in MTS, Persons
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| 465 | 562 | 613 |
Educational and Special Projects
The MTS Group develops its own educational projects, such as the School of Data Analysts and FinTech Academy, holds its own championships and hackathons, as well as supports special projects at institutions of higher education and partner organizations.
Diagnostics of Competences
In 2023, a corporate competency model was approved, which includes general corporate and management competencies. A pilot for the IT teams was conducted that also included diagnostics of IT competencies. 5,250 employees took part in the pilot, with a rate of reach 81%.
MTS League
MTS developed a special program allowing any employee or employee team to get recognition. A project or a person, including himself, can be nominated through the program platform.
The application shall describe the participant’s achievements in detail. The employees themselves choose the winners by open voting.
Nominations of the Program
- #Take It and Go for It — the best employee
- #Together — the best mentor
- #Fast and to the Point — the best digital project
- #About the Customer — the best project
- #Do It Cool
- #More than Work
In 2023:
- 8,000 users registered on the project’s digital platform
- 1,100 applications for the competition sent by employees
- More than 5,000 employees voted for the nominees
- 134 experts assessed projects and nominees
- 84 employees were recognized as winners, they also formed the MTS League being the first community of the best employees
- 17,000 views on the portal of the news dedicated to the winners of the MTS League recognition program, more than 200 likes and 40 comments
The winners of the competition were announced at the end of the year and awarded in person by top management team at an offline event in Moscow.
Remuneration and Employment Benefits
MTS has a competitive remuneration system. According to the data for 2023, the average salary at the Company is 11.1% higher than in the country as a whole.
Moreover, MTS provides to their employees a wide package of compensations and benefits. The employees have the opportunity to participate in the Benefits Cafeteria program with the ability to individually change the set of personal benefits. This approach enables us to qualitatively satisfy different employees’ needs with high-cost effectiveness.
Performance Evaluation
All of the Company’s employees participate annually in the performance evaluation procedure, which includes both an evaluation of fulfilment of key performance indicators and the competence development level. During the evaluation process, managers provide extended feedback based on annual work results, and, following the results of the evaluation, a plan of development measures is drawn up for the employees.
In 2023, the work on the development and improvement of the KPI system was continued, including an increase in the number of cross-cutting team indicators, which help efficiently unite teams in order to achieve common objectives. For the purpose of developing the employees’ potential, additional options have appeared for assessing the compliance with the Company values.
Thanks to a properly built personnel development system, about 78% of managerial and 60% of other vacancies in the Company are filled through the involvement of in-house candidates. It has been possible to provide employees with opportunities for developing professional and personal competencies, as well as for studying new digital directions and retraining by using advanced remote training platforms without sacrificing quality.
Advanced Training for Personnel
MTS trains personnel using the MTS Corporate University platform, which offers online courses for development of managerial, functional and corporate competencies. In 2023, the share of self-assigned training at MTS PJSC increased by 23% and amounted to 72% (32,000 employees).
Training Formats
In 2023, three main training formats were used: online trainings/workshops, online hands-on sessions to develop skills, and offline ones. During the year, 449 events were held where more than 16 thousand Company’s employees took part.
MTS Corporate University Platform Reach (Remote Training),%
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| 96% | 98% | 99% |
Personal Consultations
In 2023, 47,550 people participated in the engagement survey. The 2023 eNPS (Employee Net Promoter Score) employee loyalty index increased by almost 1 p. p. compared to the last year. The overall employee engagement level is among the sector’s best in both telecom and IT industries. Growth against 2022 +0.2 p. p.
Involvement and Loyalty
In 2023, 47,550 people participated in the engagement survey. The 2023 eNPS (Employee Net Promoter Score) employee loyalty index increased by almost 1 p. p. compared to the last year. The overall employee engagement level is among the sector’s best in both telecom and IT industries. Growth against 2022 +0.2 p. p.
Developing an Inclusive Environment and Information-Oriented Society
The program for developing an inclusive environment and digital society is based on the principles of inclusion, equity and diversity. The program is implemented within the Company’s ESG strategy and DE&I Policy1 — “MTS Activities in the field of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion”2.
1 DE&I — Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.
2 Approved by the Board of Directors in 2021.
DE&I. Developing an Inclusive Environment
In 2023, the MTS ecosystem companies went on implementing the programs in diversity, equity, and inclusion. The key target audiences for the Company remain disabled people, older people and young employees without work experience, as well as people experiencing hardship.
Large-scale educational programs on setting an inclusive culture for managers and employees continued — practices of hiring people from special groups, inclusive hiring and onboarding, rules of communication with disabled people. These initiatives have already shown results: the inclusion index of the ecosystem increased by 35 p. p. compared to 2022:
- 52% of the ecosystem employees rate inclusion in the Company as “excellent”,
- 30% of employees deem it necessary to continue developing inclusion in the MTS ecosystem, which is 10 p. p. higher than last year.
- the majority of respondents deem the DE&I development in the Company to be one of the factors in engaging and retaining talent and improving external reputation.
National Inclusive Agreement (NIA)
In 2023, within the implementation of the National Inclusive Agreement, MTS conducted an audit of business processes for recruitment to determine their compliance with the DE&I principles. Educational programs on gender equity, diversity, and inclusion, which the Company published on RBC as an educational platform “New Business Ethics: How to Make a Company Inclusive” (mts-hr.rbc.ru), became public and open for the business community.
The current MTS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Policy, which systematizes and establishes the principles of the MTS Group activities in DE&I, is also public.
Corporate Volunteering
MTS corporate volunteering unites more than 7.5 thousand ecosystem employees and is an integral part of the corporate culture. Digital and intellectual volunteering became the main areas of volunteer work in 2023, which additionally forms unified approaches of the MTS ecosystem in volunteering and creating the image of a socially responsible employer.
Volunteer Projects
Time for Good Deeds
On New Year’s Eve, together with the Clear Sky Foundation, MTS volunteers visited orphanages and boarding schools throughout Russia, held workshops, gave gifts and congratulated the children on the upcoming holiday.
- 1,600 employees took part in the project
- Volunteers visited 37 sponsored institutions
- 4,792 children became beneficiaries
- More than RUB 1.3 million collected
MTS Mobile Theatre
The “Mobile Fairy Tale Theater” of MTS has existed since 2012. It involves the MTS ecosystem employees, who perform in the sponsored orphanages, social centers, hospitals, and nursing homes. The theater repertoire includes 18 plays on various topics. Since 2021, all video versions of plays have been accompanied by sign language translation and subtitles and are posted in the KION online cinema. The theater works in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Krasnodar.
- More than 150 volunteers participate in the theater work
- 18 plays on the repertoire
- 80 performances per year
- 200,000 viewers online/offline
- 50,000 views on KION in 2023
Back to School with MTS
It is a large-scale federal educational volunteer project of the MTS digital ecosystem. As part thereof, educational, creative and volunteer activities to support schoolchildren are implemented. The funds raised within the project are destined to help the pupils of boarding schools and children from families in difficult life situations in preparing for exams, entering colleges and institutions of higher education, etc.
- 40 cities took part in the project
- Volunteers visited more than 30 educational institutions with educational lessons
- About 1,000 schoolchildren received new knowledge
- 580 employees participated in creative workshops
- More than 2,000 employees participated in charity fairs
- About RUB 600 thousand as the total amount collected
Silver Heart
On the Day of Older Persons (October 1), MTS volunteers visit regional sponsored social institutions for the elderly, hold impromptu concerts, communicate with older people, give gifts being basic necessities and arrange tea parties.
- More than 2,200 nursing home residents received charity assistance
Occupational Health and Labor Safety
Number one priority is to preserve life and health of the employees, to provide favorable and safe labor conditions at MTS PJSC.
Since 2020, MTS has joined the international approach Vision Zero, or Zero Injuries. This is a qualitatively new approach to organization of prevention, combining three areas: safety, workplace hygiene and well-being of employees at all production levels.
The MTS Group Strategy for safety, health and well-being for 2021–2023 that included international practices and methods for introducing the Vision Zero, was implemented in full.
The costs for MTS PJSC occupational health and safety measures amounted to 100% of the budget in 2023.
Costs for Occupational Health and Safety Measures, RUB Million
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| 87.3 | 83.9 | 99.8 |
In 2023, 15,117 thousand people, including managers, specialists, members of occupational safety commissions and other categories of employees, completed external and internal training on occupational safety. Training on first aid to persons injured at production facilities is held.
Special Assessment of Labor Conditions, jobs
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| 23,885 | 24,003 | 23,523 |
A special assessment of the labor conditions was carried out in relation to 91% of jobs in the MTS Group Corporate Center and MTS PJSC branches.
Detailed information on assessment results is available at: Labor conditions assessment — Moscow (mts.ru).
Personal protective equipment plays an important role in the prevention of employee’s direct exposure to harmful and/or hazardous production factors. MTS developed and approved norms of free issue of safety clothing, safety shoes and other personal protective equipment to workers who are engaged in work with harmful and/or dangerous working conditions.
MTS employees engaged in work with harmful and/or dangerous working conditions undergo preventive (at employment) and periodic (during work) medical examinations. During the reporting period, MTS PJSC held preventive and periodic medical examinations of 1,027 and 5,055 employees, respectively. As a result of periodic medical examinations, four employees needed to be transferred to another job; health resort treatment was recommended to 65 employees (the opportunity of treatment was granted at the Company’s expense).
Since 2019, the “Requirements to investigation of accidents” standard has been in place in the Company, and the branches use this standard to take the corresponding measures. Heads of units and representatives of employees participate in monitoring and in the development of annual H & S Safety Plans in branches for the next year, as well as in the development of the List of actions to improve the labor conditions and occupational health and safety and develop the safety culture.
In 2023, four accidents occurred at MTS PJSC with four employees were injured (one of them was a woman). In terms of severity, all accidents fall within the category of minor accidents. The total number of injuries reduced, but their severity did not increase against 2022. No occupational diseases were found in employees in 2023.
Annually, MTS PJSC cooperates with the Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation (SIF RF) for financial support of preventive measures to reduce accident injury rate and occupational diseases among employees and to provide health resort treatment to employees who work with hazardous and/or dangerous production factors, as well as to obtain discounts on insurance rate for compulsory social insurance against industrial accidents and occupational diseases. In 2023, the total amount received from this work amounted to RUB 2.8 million (RUB 6.26 million in 2022, RUB 10.2 million in 2021). Medical examinations and a special assessment of working conditions were performed, safety clothing, safety shoes and other personal protective equipment were purchased at the expense of the Federal Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation.
Since 2018, MTS employees have been taking a remote training video course “Safety Culture” (more than 1,500 employees have already completed the course).
Every year, the Company assesses the efficiency of its OSH management system based on quantitative indicators that objectively assess the extent of implementation of its occupational health and safety policy.
Rate of injury
| Indicator | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accident Frequency Rate (AFR)1 | 0.25 | 0.20 | 0.15 |
| Accident Severity Rate (ASR)2 | 30.4 | 32.4 | 39.8 |
| Accident and Lost Work Time Rate (ALWTR) | 0.06 | 0.05 | 0.06 |
| Lost Work Day Rate (LWDR) | 1.60 | 1.57 | 1.38 |
| Absentee Rate (AR) | 4.61 | 4.53 | 4.37 |
1 Accident Frequency Rate (AFR) defines the number of accidents for the reporting period per 1,000 workers.
2 Accident severity rate (ASR) defines number of disability days per one injury.