Web-edition AtomInfo.ru is talking to the research officer of the Center "Career management" of the SCICET (State Central Institute for Chief Executive Training) Margarita Nikolaevna Mashina about the problem of the personnel education for the "Rosatom" state corporation.
Margarita Nikolaevna is a professional psychologist. Spheres of her professional interests - psychological diagnostics and an occupational selection, self-regulation and "stress management" trainings, training of the industry leaders in the sphere of administrative competence.
Moscow State University graduate has been working for the industry for 23 years, has a significant experience of work with the operative, repair and administrative NPP and Rosatom personnel in the sphere of professional psychological career supporting.
Future nuclear scientist should be selected fresh from school
Career management center appeared according to the Rosatom order #424 from the 10th of August 2007. Its task is to create the system of the human resources potential management for the industry. The leader of the center is Pavel Vladimirovich Malinovsky, candidate of philosophical sciences, Moscow State University Professor. He is a famous specialist and an author of manuals in the sphere of human resources management.
Judging by the experience of my work with NPP personnel I can say, that a "career" problem has always existed there. Young people with the definite ambitions, with their potential come there to work. The idea of planning their career has been always wandering - because it is important, it can allow us to put a person to the place, where he could show the maximum of his worth.
Certainly, in the nineties it was a difficult task. Usual promotion, which existed earlier in the industry and was connected with the launch of new generating units in the country and abroad, disappeared. As a result we had been observing stagnant processes during the decades, which had a negative impact on our people.
A person can develop if his activity stimulates him and gives him new tasks. But if his work becomes monotonous and routine a person has to search for another implementation of his capacities. If a person realizes his potential, he comes to the strong personality crisis, and, at the end of the day, to the personality death.In the nineties there were a lot of people in a depressive state and in a hopeless situation. We tried to promote this people somehow - were recommending them for the further education, for mastering parallel professions, administrative ones. But sometimes we failed to do so.
Today we witness a nuclear renaissance. Industry gives us a new task - to form an echeloned human resources reserve. It should be a lot of such reserves. We should form operative, tactical and strategic human resources reserves. We should have a data base with the detailed information about the people, which are capable and eager to work for the nuclear industry, that are capable and desire to work at administrative posts, which are ready to receive a new designation tomorrow.
It is very important to stress, that a longtime program of forming a strategic human resources reserve presupposes to start working with the future employees sufficiently early, from the 6th form of the school, when children start learning physics.Our recent work with youth showed, that if we don't select a young man from the 6th or the 7th form and don't start educating him, he won't be our candidate. Fundamental knowledge, which was not formed at that time wouldn't give them a chance in the future to master a nuclear education.
In my psychological praxis there were situations, when a child from his youth had been prepared for the career of a nuclear scientists, he had been given a proper knowledge. But then, he finds himself in an ordinary school, were his capacities appeared to be useless. That has only strengthened my believe, that gifted children need the system of support, otherwise industry will loose them.
Within the frameworks of the course "Team cooperation training" we practiced solving the advanced school tasks in physics by the NPP operative shifts. The team was to find a required principle and to draw an analogy to the processes in the facility.
I remember how enthusiastic was the operative staff of the middle age group (37 to 55 years) solving these tasks, and how negative different was the learning curve in physics of the guys, that had come to the facility in the middle of nineties! It is obvious, that if a man doesn't realize the physical essence of the processes, which occur in the facility, he will never be interested in his work, and sometimes may become potentially dangerous.
Assessment center for the nuclear-radiological security
In May 2008 at SCICET took place a strategic session, devoted to the arrangement of the nuclear-radiological security (NRS) system. During preparations to the session we had tested a mechanism of valuation procedures for the candidates at school using the assessment-center technologies.
Assessment center - is a specially arranged valuation procedure, which gives an opportunity to valuate a person from different positions.
Before this procedure a competences analysis is carried out, which is necessary for the effective activity of the person. Psychological activity analysis is carried out to define the demands to a person, his thinking, perception, memory, attention, which are made by his activities.
Assessment center procedures are arranged according to the real competences and activities demands. It contains analysis of motivation, self-appraisal, mutual assessments, personality characteristics, characteristics of main cognitive processes, which are necessary in his activity. Assessment methods: psychological personality testing, cognitive personal characteristics testing, active methods (business and role games), team work, that allow to estimate behavioral peculiarities of a person.
Certainly, by the candidates estimation we should realize what competences will be needed in this or that sphere. For example, for the NPP operative personnel attention distribution is the main competence. If a person doesn't have an attention distribution, however clever and intellectual he is, it will be difficult for him to work at the main control desk. And for the administrative activities some other competences are needed, such as a capability to think systemic and strategic, communicate with people, convince them, mobilize and so on.
During our first assessment, dedicated to the NRS-session, we have built a model of man's competences, which could be near his Teacher, adopt his professional skills and in the future could continue translating this knowledge to the others, to continue the idea of the school. Totally 18 students and postgraduates have been invited for the assessment. Only 8 have been selected from them.
During the session candidates could be observed. Certainly, it was difficult for them, because they found themselves in one team with professionals, people who had been working in the nuclear industry for 20-30 years, and had a deep knowledge. But nevertheless, guys have managed to find their role and their niche in the teams.I think, that SCICET will continue cooperating with them within the frameworks of the NRS-school.
The first strategic session "Tasks of arranging a nuclear-radiological security management system for 2008-2010 and further" took place at SCICET on 18-22 of March 2008. It was the first stage of the project of the echeloned human resources management in the structure of nuclear radiation security maintaining. Representatives of 18 organizations of the industry and 8 graduates from STUNPE (State Technical University for Nuclear Power Engineering) and IPPE took place in the work of the session.
Tasks for the participants were the specification of NRS service mission, arrangement of the expert and combined working groups, and elaboration of the NRS-school project.
We plan to apply the experience, gained during the selection for the NRS session, to the other directions according to the needs of the nuclear industry.
I can give you one more example of the announced topics - we need young people, which have a good command of foreign languages and negotiation skills. SCICET can not only diagnose such skills, but also develop them, as we have special courses for that.
Negotiator - is a special knowledge and skill area. For a start, a man can't begin negotiations twice. Negotiations are started from the very first moment, on the stage of presentation and acquaintance. He must understand well not only verbal, but also non-verbal components of communication. There are special methods of negotiating within your team, communicating with the person, which has sent this team to negotiate.
In other words, there are technologies, which make our teams negotiate successfully with clients and rivals. And it is very important, as for foreign nuclear companies work experienced and professional experts. Negotiator that is working on the foreign market has to know and understand the mentality of his partners; otherwise he can become discombobulated and make wrong deductions.
As you can see industry needs different types of personnel. We can't do without managers and negotiators, engineers and operators, without welders and metalworkers - without people who make nuclear renaissance real.
SOURCE: AtomInfo.Ru
DATE: April 21, 2008
