The “Human-Centric Approach for Sustainable Development and Technological Leadership” session was held in Sochi on 21 November under the auspices of the ATOMEXPO-2022 business programme This event was attended by representatives of the IAEA, NUTEK Energy Consulting, Technology and Industry Inc., Minskenergo, Khalifa University, the Institute for International Studies (IIS) of MGIMO University of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and ROSATOM. The event was moderated by Vasily Bormatin, Deputy Chairman of the CIS Electric Power Council, and Sofya Chernogortseva, Deputy Vice Rector of HSE University.
Experts discussed the values that underpin the notion of “human-centredness”, key trends in the labour market, and reasons why employers increasingly turn to the human-centric approach to build effective interactions with employees and customers. Additionally, speakers examined specific practices for implementing the human-centric approach in a variety of sectors of the Russian and international economy.
Deputy Director General for Human Resources Tatyana Terentyeva paid special attention to global challenges, such as a shortage of skilled professionals, a value shift in the young generation, and a mental health pandemic. She noted that ROSATOM successfully manages to address these issues thanks to creating its own human resource development ecosystem. This ecosystem includes work with pupils and students, their parents and teachers, projects to attract young people to STEM careers, activities aimed at college and university students to ensure a seamless transition to a job with ROSATOM by combining college instruction with internships, and programmes to train ROSATOM employees, who throughout their employment continue studying at two ROSATOM Academies and through the RECORD mobile digital environment. “The subject of human-centredness emerged at ROSATOM in 2019, when we launched a joint study of the Human Centered Business Index with BCG. But ROSATOM has always placed people front and center. As we say, everything starts with the atom, and ROSATOM starts with people. That is why our Vision 2030 rests on a strategic goal of becoming the best in human resource development, and we work each day on implementing projects to tap the talent of every person who comes into contact with us”, noted Tatyana Terentyeva.
Bahire Gül Göktepe, Director of NUTEK Energy Consulting, Technology and Industry Inc., President of the Turkish Women's Atomic Association, shared her observations of changing attitudes to the human-centric approach in society, the business community and government institutions; she also described the best methods to foster partnership between the employer and employees.
Steve Griffiths, Senior Vice President for Research and Development and Professor of Practice at Khalifa University, shared his view on educational programmes that must be included in the higher education system.
Lisa Lande, Senior Human Resource Development Specialist, IAEA, provided examples of human-centric practices that exist in companies in various countries.
Vadim Sarantsev, director of the MINSKENERGO training center, and Laura Chkonia, Research Fellow of the Institute for International Studies (IMI) MGIMO, also contributed to the discussion. Session participants noted that the human-centric approach is becoming the foundation of sustainable development not just regionally, but globally. For this reason, it is extremely important to strengthen cooperation within corporations and develop links with other companies, governments and countries. Only by a joint effort can we achieve great results and create a better world.