REP Holding took part as a special partner at St. Petersburg International Labor Forum II which was held in the Cultural and Exhibition Center “Expoforum” on March 1-2 with the support of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security of the Russian Federation and the Government of St. Petersburg.

The Forum - the largest in the country discussion platform on the labor market and development of human capital – gathered more than 4000 leading HR experts, scientists, government officials and representatives of employment agencies from 50 countries and all regions of Russia. The Forum program incorporated 60 business sessions and round tables.
In addition to its active participation in the business program of the Forum REP Holding, as a member of the industrial Group of Gazprombank, jointly with the St. Petersburg Committee on Labor and Employment, prepared and conducted a session "A Real Professional of the Present-Day Production Environment as the Basis of High Technology Achievements".

HR-Directors of the Gazprombank industry group, representatives of industrial enterprises, State bodies, businesses, educational institutions of Russia and CIS countries participated in the Session. The participants spoke about the programs and HR-cases implemented at the enterprises, as well as discussed a set of issues and approaches related to training and development of professional staff in modern high-tech industries.

The discussion was arranged in the "World Cafe" format. This interactive format invites participants to multi-level dialogue in small groups, providing effective exchange of experiences and generation of ideas.

In the proposed model, the session structure was divided into five roles, each represented by an expert in his field: "HR in Business", "Expert Engineering", "the State and Power", "Chief Executive of the Company", "Educational Institution". During the session the participants jointly searched for answers to the questions, the main one of which was: what is a portrait of a professional of the future?

Panel discussions dealt with complicated issues of search for and engagement of professionals needed by the company: how to identify one’s key capabilities, how to inspire and motivate an employee for achievements and further development within the company. The focus was on high technology, namely, its impact on the competency of employees and those mandatory criteria that are set thereby for selection and development of employees.

The declared format of the event made the discussion more open and deep. As a result of the lively debate a consolidated “Integral model of the modern production professional” was formed. Based on it “the Matrix of opportunities, solutions, and baseline scenarios for the preparation and development of the modern production professional” was worked out.

As a result of brainstorming, as the moderator of the event, Director of St. Petersburg Research Center of intellectual property, Alexey Podgornov, pointed out, a practical model of professional core competencies was jointly formed: "It is important that top-ranked specialists and experts from different areas - education, HR, public structures, science and business - took part in the formation of this model. This made it possible to accumulate segmental visions of the declared range of problems and create a new approach to work with people”.

Other participants of the session appraised the event as well. Associate Professor of the Sociology and HR Management Department, University of Economics and Finance, Ph.D. in Economics Sergey Fajbushevich pointed out that during the dispute a number of requirements to the educational system were identified which already now would help to shape the professional of the future: "First of all, it is flexibility of the education system itself, growing diversity of forms and the focus on social competencies”.

Deputy Personnel Director General of PJSC "Izhorskie Zavody" Tatyana Iljina noted the high level of organization and unconventional format of the "World Cafe". "Due to the fact that the discussion was conducted in a multifunctional team which included not only specialists of different professions, but also different generations, we were able to consider the issue from different perspectives. As a result, despite the fact that each of us had his own point of view, we came to the same opinion," she stressed.

Participation in the Labor Forum in this format continued REP Holding’s partnership with the St. Petersburg Committee on Labor and Employment and the city educational institutions in staff development.