Polina ranks first among HR directors of IT companies in the 2017 Kommersant rating. We talked to her about the digitalization of HR and how CROC follows trends.

Polina Khabarova,
HR Director at CROC

Digital HR and recruitment

Do you talk a lot about the fact that HR is already digital and the frames in HR are already digital? How do you understand it? How is digital HR different? Where to find or learn it? Where can he study?

This primarily concerns the approach and tools that HR use in their work. We try to automate and digitize all our processes - colleagues from the IT team help us with this. Without reference to the field, there are two approaches to finding digital leaders: teach the current employee to be digital or close the position with a digital expert from the market. We are moving along the first path.

- AThe analytics and business orientation of HR is also a trend for more than one year. How are you developing in this direction? What metrics are indicative for you?

- Every year we monitor more than 100 HR metrics and indicators, study in detail the analytics of almost all of our processes, analyze and think over what and how can be improved. This helps to track the “average temperature for the company” and notice and respond to non-standard cases in HR in time, be in trend and anticipate the expectations of employees and business.

HR at CROC is part of the business. We not only help IT colleagues to develop their business, but we also bring income to the company.

- CROC is quite well-known on the market as a brand and as an employer. Do you have problems with recruitment?

Everyone is looking for IT specialists today, not just system integrators, as it was 10 years ago. It is also not easy for us to look for new specialists, so for many years we have been working “for the future”.

Firstly, for more than 5 years we have been engaged in vocational guidance for children - we help build a professional track: school - the right university - industry. Secondly, at CROC we grow talents internally, rather than looking for them on the market - most often we hire final year students or recent graduates for internship positions, after which we devote time to their training and development, since university educational programs do not include practice and are often far from business.

Today, any business in the digital economy goes into IT, which creates a huge shortage of IT personnel.

- Does the HR brand help in selection?

A strong HR brand certainly helps to attract the right specialists, saves time, and not only during the search - most candidates consciously respond to vacancies and know for sure that they want to work at CROC.

- What resources and tools do you use in recruiting?

We use different channels. The highest conversion (22%) is the vacancy closing through the recommendations of our employees under the Best Hunter program.

The program is gamified: if a newcomer successfully passes the probationary period, the employee who recommended him/her receives an honorary badge and corporate virtual currency (“beavers”) in our internal social network.

In addition to standard search tools, we post vacancies on new channels, for example, on Telegram, we use Amazing Hiring and VCV services.

About adaptation and motivation

What we can offer at CROC is a unique experience in implementing large-scale projects for big business and government agencies in a team with IT professionals, the ability to influence the development of the industry in Russia and the world, access to the latest information technologies.

- As an IT company, you probably have advanced IT solutions for working with personnel?

The latest solutions are robots and bots. Robots help to automate a large number of important but repetitive processes, for example, in organizing the training of our corporate university. Bots allow you to perform repetitive operations that almost every CROC employee performs on a daily basis, for example, find contacts of colleagues, order a guest pass, book a meeting, and more.

We also pass onboarding to the bot - immersion of a beginner in the company's culture and business processes. New employee in a couple of days, he learns about the inner workings of CROC in the game on the basis of a quest, and as a result, he is credited with corporate currency, which can be used to purchase something from the CROC virtual store. For example, you can buy a desktop ficus, a branded backpack, "tips from an IT guru", an ergonomic chair, a soft pouffe with a logo, CROCpizza (three pizzas from Papa John's), a photo session for 1 hour, a bracket for monitors, an annual fitness subscription - club "Scooter", training in a driving school, medical insurance for travel, congratulations on the "plasma". Twice a year, "beavers" can be exchanged for tire fitting services located in the office courtyard.

In addition, for training and development, we have a convenient CROC distance learning platform. It works from the cloud, synchronizes with external e-courses, including Coursera, and is available from any mobile and stationary devices. There are both micro-learning and full-fledged courses online. Topics also range from professional hard to lifestyle. By the way, CROC customers have the opportunity to rent an LMS platform from the cloud to conduct training at their own premises using their own content or receive content from us.

- Tell us, what solutions do you implement to motivate staff?

CROC has a talent management program. In case of high results for semi-annual monitoring, an employee can get into the creative class, hipo or hipro groups. Each group has access to unique opportunities - the projects most in demand at CROC, subscriptions to well-known publications, applications, invitations to events at the Direct Speech lecture hall, and strategic sessions with top managers of the company.

We also have a powerful knowledge management system. In addition to the enormous amount educational programs, courses and workshops at the corporate university, Krokovites have access to best practices On the market. Every newcomer will definitely have a mentor. By the way, any employee can become one, regardless of position and length of service in the company.

Every year, employees spend 10% of their working time on training; they also have the opportunity to submit their business idea to the CROC Accelerator and defend it in front of top managers and external experts. If successful, open in the company new project. And this is not the whole list of our programs.

- For what positions are these solutions?

Almost all programs are available to any employee, but there are special opportunities for those who have been working for CROC for several years. For employees with more than 5 years of experience, the company provides discounts on CROC MBA or other educational courses at the corporate university. Employees can also choose alternative development options. For example, apply for a vacancy in other departments or for the positions of our partners. Upon request, we can provide a colleague's resume and additional reference. After successful work at the partner, the employee can return back. For those who need to switch and take a short break to go on a trip or for another reason, the company has the opportunity to take a long-term vacation of up to a year. In this case, we keep the position and salary for the employee until his return.

HR in IT companies is always digital, always high-tech, you can peep cool innovations and unusual technologies of the future from them. And IT people also need freedom and movement: programs and codes cannot be written in office clothes and boring surroundings.

Is this really so, how to deal with the shortage of personnel and what awaits HR in a few years, said Polina Khabarova, HR Director of CROC, in an interview with Arik Hakhverdyan, VCV CEO and host of the HR & Business program on the Mediametrics channel.

About company

I suspect that not all of our readers know what CROC is...

We have been working in the B2B sector for 25 years, and this year is CROC's anniversary. In short, we are a system integrator. Technology company that deals with advanced information technologies.

How many employees do you have?

We are relatively large, we have almost 2,500 people.

All in Moscow?

The resource center and the control center are located in Moscow, there are also regional offices, for example, in St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Irkutsk.

Why do you need such a wide regional coverage? Why not leave everyone in the capital?

The regions have strong technical universities that produce top notch professionals. They are not ready to move to Moscow, they want to work in their city.

It seems to me that now all companies, not only IT, looking for IT- specialists. I myself have been looking for a developer for four months now and I perfectly understand how difficult this process is. Tell me, how do you feel, is there a lack of people?

You see at the root: now everyone is looking for IT people. Not only system integrators, as it was 10 years ago when I joined CROC. Now any business within the digital economy goes into IT. And if we had a shortage of specialists 10 years ago, now it is, of course, simply catastrophic.

Now any business within the digital economy goes into IT. And if we had a shortage of specialists 10 years ago, now it is, of course, simply catastrophic.

I can imagine.

In 2005, our candidate funnel looked like this: we processed about 6,000 resumes a year, and from them we hired 300 people. Great conversion! And then we said: the market is complex, we are gathering a team almost bit by bit. Now we have a funnel of 66,000 resumes per year. More than 200 people per seat. We hire the same 300 people. These are statistics from last year. What does it say? In fact, there are more people who consider themselves involved in this profession. When working in the labor market, we use tools from big data. We collect a huge amount of data about our potential candidates, analyze it using IT tools, and gradually turn a funnel into a pipe. This is a top priority for many HRs.

You said that you still have a shortage of personnel. How do you deal with it?

CROC has been working with schools for more than four years. Moreover, we do this not from the point of view of recruiting specifically at CROC - we are engaged in vocational guidance for children in the profession of the future. We help build professional tracks. In general, the idea is to make a Roadmap: school - the right university - the industry. Here I deliberately do not say "employer" - if the guys come to our partners - great. Come to our customers - even better. They will come to work in CROC - we will be happy.

It turns out such social work.

This is one of the projects within the corporate social responsibility of the company. Last year, we worked with more than 2,000 schoolchildren. There is a six-month program "School of IT Solutions", through which more than 100 school teams pass every year, the participants do IT projects within their schools. We do not come and say: "Guys, there is a developer profession." This is our systematic work.

Why did you go to schools?

There are many students who need help with career guidance. If even more than 2,000 schoolchildren understand their future better, that's great.

Is it too late to work with the guys at the stage of institutions?

It's not too late. We are also actively working with universities. For example, MSTU im. Bauman, 12% of our employees are graduates of this university. There are other universities, including strong regional ones. We try to invest the time and effort of CROC experts in them.

How to keep an employee

Okay, we figured out the attraction. But there is another difficulty - to keep people in your company, given that they are all looking for and hunted. Is there something that makes you different? Why do you keep employees?

My favorite question. (smiles) This is a big task. We have a special recruiting in the company. CROC is a non-standard employer – we often hire young professionals and grow them internally. This is easily implemented within the framework of our corporate culture, accumulated experience, for example, the institution of mentoring is very well developed in the company. But there is also a difficulty in this regard. For a large number of employees, CROC is their first job. No matter how great it is here, sometimes there is a desire to learn something else.

Especially if many companies are waiting for someone ready to leave CROC.

Certainly. We are working on this issue. We track the percentage of people who return. We noticed that every year this figure increases. There are no former KROK members. The company has a number of programs aimed at developing a virtual corporate culture among CROC graduates. We offer former employees work opportunities, for example, with partners of the company. We have also developed a special program that is available to those who have been working with us for more than five years and show good results. These employees can take a year of "respite" - leave the company for a year - for example, go to live abroad, open their own business or work for a competitor, partner, customer, and just see what else is on the market. A year later, they return to CROC, they retain their position and functionality. This is a very handy program.

You don't book it as a vacation, don't pay any money, just save workplace?

We arrange it as a vacation at our own expense for the whole year. But we keep part of the social package, for example, medical insurance.

I'm surprised, to be honest. I heard that in the West it is now fashionable to give such a break for a year, even paid, but this is the first time I have met such a Russian market.

This has been working in CROC for more than five years. For us, this problem was relevant, so we came up with a solution.

How else do you keep your employees?

Probably the key motivation for them is constant interesting innovative projects. A large number of R&D within the company, a lot of experience available to anyone, from an intern to CEO. By the way, we have a very flat structure, with only three levels of management, so the degree of responsibility of each employee is quite high - hence, the opportunities for initiative are high. For example, 10 years ago, one of the employees joined the company as an intern, grew during this time and six months ago already took the role of department director. Nothing is impossible in CROC - these are the words of our employees.

I heard that all your employees are actively involved in sports. And I was surprised that many people are fond of trampolining ...

70% of our employees go in for sports together with CROC. We have a huge number of corporate sports programs from classic ones: football, volleyball, hockey, tennis, to unusual ones: diving, trampoline, etc.

Is this all in your office? Or do you just pay for classes?

Both. We have a gym in our office, which is open 24/7 - free of charge for employees, of course. There are also group classes, which I mentioned. But, for example, with trampoline center, which is not far from the office, we agreed.

Why a trampoline?

Four years ago, the theme of the corporate New Year was "Cirque du CROC". It was fantastic! We called the writers and circus performers from San Francisco, who put on Cirque du Soleil, and they worked with our staff for four months. Trampoline jumping is one of the numbers. The guys prepared it, performed. Everyone liked it very much, we decided to launch corporate program. It's both sport and switching. All ideas come from employees. HR doesn't invent for them.

Super! I know that you also had gamification projects. Tell me more.

I am not lying if I say that CROC is one of the first companies to gamify its activities. Our internal currency - beavers - appeared in offline mode 13 years ago. Now we are trying to add games and drive to almost all business processes. For example, we need to share project experience within the company. The more you share it, the more points you earn, they are converted into beans that you spend in the corporate online store. This is a constant move. The number of beavers also affects your level. For individual processes, employees can earn badges. For the holder of certain badges are available additional features: Attending special events, access to key company experts. In general, we try to gamify everything that is possible.

There is an opinion that HR-Department IT- companies can invent a lot of things for themselves internal forces. Tell us if your developers make any products for you HR?

Of course they do. To be honest, we only involve our guys. All novelties for the external market, we test, of course, inside. And our corporate social network was created by CROC employees, moreover, they continue to help. This is the most important thing: just delivering an IT product is not enough, you need to implement it correctly.

Are there any interesting cases?

Of course! For example, the theme of the last corporate New Year was “IT is art”. Creative teams of employees prepared IT art objects. One team that came from different departments did a fantastic thing. You come up with your pass, put it on the reader, and it draws you a map of your communications within the company over the past year!

How did they do it?

We made an IT product for fun, for the New Year, to win a prize. Naturally, when I saw this, I realized that you can get a bunch of useful information. Now communication maps are a working IT tool for me, which I use for internal feedback between employees. There are many variations on its use, although it was originally an idea that grew as a gift from the company.

Very unusual! And something else for Do you have HR?

Yes. Probably, here we are also one of the pioneers in the market. HR in CROC is not quite a classic: we are not only a cost center, but also a profit center. Because there are certain expertise within the framework of HR, and our customers are asked to share this and do some kind of consulting on this topic. It's like one of the vectors. And the second, probably the most interesting - within the framework of training center KROK`OK we have developed the service Learning Management As A Service. For example, you, as a head of a company or an HR director, can come to me and say: “Paulin, I want to outsource the corporate university to you. I do not want to do anything. But I want super automated system, Personal Area for each employee.

I want you to provide me remote and face-to-face content.” And two days later you give me the emails of your employees, you get a learning management service, I upload reports to you online, we create a remote format with you, a common one, depending on your needs. Corporate University it becomes digital, because everything is quickly done from the cloud, everything flies, and there is no implementation and connection with internal IT if you don’t want it.

Does this apply not only to IT people? Can I teach anyone?

Certainly. And this is even more true for companies that have a lot of mass staff. Here you have to train 3,000 people on new security policies. And you don't have a distance learning system. You rented this service, trained all your employees in two weeks - and that's it, you don't need this service anymore, you don't pay for it anymore. That is, everything is very flexible.

About digitalization

Now everyone is talking about digitalization, which is really everywhere. If we take all the departments inside HR: and training, and development, and hiring - what do you digitalize the most?

I now bored answer that everything. Frames, for example, I also have digital.

Tell.

For example, I need to order a certificate from work. Do you know how I do it? I press one button, the help automatically pulls up all the necessary information from all systems, and it comes out on a printer in the financial department, where it is stamped. Even now, the personnel department is thinking in the direction of bots for Telegram, so that ordering certificates in the company is possible through the messenger.

Is this the HR idea?

Yes. I believe that it is necessary to pump all employees on the topic “I am digital”. When every person in his place thinks what can be translated into numbers.

I always wonder how Russian companies are learning something new. Where do you personally get your information from? How do you find what's new on the market, where to lead HR?

I always believe that there is someone smarter, and there are a lot of such people. There are companies that do better. Therefore, we must constantly try to exchange experiences. At every opportunity. And of course, this should not be done only within the framework of the Russian market, although we are also cool, we are great. But it is necessary to look also abroad. My personal KPI: once a month I must communicate with external experts. This can be done as part of a conference, round tables, Skype calls. I try to catch trends in Russian and foreign HR communities. I saw an interesting speaker - go to him and talk to him.

About further development

How are you IT-the company is definitely looking into the future, I hope, and in HR Same. Where are we heading?

I think that in five years, we will all be at least programming in Python. At least at a basic level. Our profession is changing a lot. And by the way, this is not just my opinion. I am a member of a group at the Association for Strategic Initiatives of Russia, which is working on behalf of the President to create working groups as part of the transition to digital economy. Almost all professions of the future, including mass ones, will require at least algorithmic thinking from us, and as a maximum, we will all become programmers a little bit.

When you have a stream of 100 or 1,000 resumes, how can you see these burning eyes?

The Art of the Recruiter. (laughs) And, of course, the leader. I have candidates with whom I personally hold three rounds of meetings, and I sell work to them. It should be borne in mind that "burning eyes" need, and this is a task, including for managers.

I hold the position of HR Director of CROC, participate in the formation of the company's strategy, supervise all areas of activity of the HR department, incl. personnel training and development system, recruiting, the company's personnel system, corporate culture and internal communications. At the same time, I supervise the CROC knowledge management team, which also implements projects for largest companies on the Russian market for over 10 years. Under my leadership, the HRtech practice was formed in the company, the internal business processes of the department were automated. Since 2017, I have also held the position of CTO (Chief Transformation Officer) of CROC. Together with the Transformation Office team, I often advise the top management of the largest companies in Russia and international market on business transformation. I also deal with HR consulting issues, I am one of the key speakers at the largest industry events. In 2018, I took first place among HR directors of companies in Russia in the Kommersant.ru rating. Since 2018, I have been a member of the Transformation Council of the only Association of IT Companies in the Russian Federation (APKIT) and led the project for its changes together with the team.