Sberbank - Annual Report 2010 - The Sense of a Common Cause

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# The Sense of a Common Cause

Without a feeling of belonging, it is impossible to build a cohesive team. We make every effort to help our employees feel like they belong by fostering a corporate culture that supports the Bank’s values, while at the same time ensuring conditions in which employees can develop their professional skills and fulfil their ambitions. As such, we aim to create a shared space for corporate communication. Employees in each and every division of the Bank should feel this sense of unity and be aware that they are working for a common cause.

The common values and regulations of Sberbank’s corporate culture are laid out in the Code of Corporate Conduct, which defines the rules of behaviour that apply to all Bank employees. Each new employee is informed about these rules and asked to sign a Declaration of Consent to Apply with the Ethical Standards of Sberbank of Russia. The Bank has in place a system of measures and practices intended to make it easier for new employees to adapt to their new job and the new corporate culture. One instrument that assists this process is the Newcomer’s Guide, an interactive multimedia publication, which contains all the key information a new hire may need. Some regional banks provide special orientation programmes for new hires. Furthermore, we assign personal mentors with extensive experience of working in the Bank to new employees during their trial employment period.

The main instrument used in the Bank’s internal communications is our corporate Intranet portal. This contains a special section on the Sberbank Production System and sections on structural divisions and regional banks, as well as corporate standards, regulations and useful documents. The portal is the key channel for employees to provide feedback to the Bank’s management. We have plans to further develop the portal that include the creation of virtual offices.

All employees receive Good Morning Sberbank, our daily newsletter, as well as Sberbank Day by Day, a weekly newsletter that provides a brief review of key events relating to the Bank over the past week. Other internal communications instruments include My Sberbank, a monthly newspaper, and information boards. The Bank also maintains a telephone hotline for employee feedback and inquiries.

Each month Bank employees receive a letter from the CEO and are able to submit their comments and suggestions in response. Reports summarising employee feedback are prepared and circulated among the management. Employees are also able to write directly to the CEO; in 2010 Herman Gref conducted his first hotline session with employees via video conference.

Not all employees have reliable and regular access to our Intranet portal and their email accounts; this is a particular problem in remote rural areas and some small internal divisions of the Bank. Therefore we use a broad range of communications instruments to ensure that we reach every employee. We currently plan to resume publishing a printed corporate newspaper and to launch our revamped corporate magazine.

In 2010, Sberbank carried out a study to gauge employee satisfaction with the quantity and quality of our corporate communications. The results of the survey will help us choose the right communications channel depending on the message and intended target audience.

At Sberbank, we hold various corporate celebrations on a regular basis. Such events help maintain corporate spirit and traditions, foster an atmosphere of mutual trust and understanding within the Bank, reinforce informal ties between staff members, enhance employee loyalty and create a sense of working towards common goals. Important dates traditionally celebrated at the Bank include International Women’s Day, New Year, Victory Day and Sberbank Worker Day. Each year we also organise various events for children, such as New Year parties, active holidays and art competitions.

## The Big Sberbank Race

In October 2010, the Vostochno-Sibirsky Regional Bank organised an employee forum called the Big Sberbank Race. As part of the forum, Herman Gref, Sberbank CEO and Chairman of the Management Board, held a meeting with branch heads. The forum also saw a roundtable with young employees and a ceremony in which various SPS qualification grades were awarded to employees. More than 1,300 people took part in the forum and 54 initiatives were submitted and subsequently posted on the Ideas Exchange.

The forum closed with a multi-sport competition that involved car races, a ropes course and other challenging contests. The winning team was awarded the grand prize of a group parachute jump.

In recognition of the need for employee feedback and its importance in the effective development of our HR policy, we carry out employee satisfaction surveys on a regular basis. In 2010, we conducted a large-scale series of studies that covered a substantial portion of the Bank’s workforce. The results of these studies helped us determine plans to further improve our corporate culture.

## History

- The Sense of a Common Cause
- Motivation for Success
- Recommend Page
- Realising Employee Potential
- A New Work Philosophy

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