RSPP: Social responsibility is the basis for business success

One of the topics of the social forum of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) held in Moscow was the role of responsible business in ensuring economic sovereignty.

Representatives of business and government agree that investment growth, aimed at increasing labor productivity through new technologies, is inextricably linked with the social agenda. In this regard, leaders in the field of CSR are increasingly paying attention to educational programs and the well-being of their workforce. At the same time, it is socially responsible market participants who invest in the development of human potential that become the most successful, emphasized Alexander Shokhin, President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.

Chairman of the RSPP Committee on CSR and Sustainable Development, member of the RSPP Board Bureau, head of the Russian Association of Fertilizer Manufacturers (RAPU) Andrey Guryev, in turn, noted that in the context of the desire for technological sovereignty and import substitution, the need to ensure personnel security and social well-being of the regions where companies operate. This task has acquired particular importance against the backdrop of new global challenges: a pandemic, geopolitical instability, climate change, worsening food security problems, and growing inequality.

“In recent years, the work that domestic businesses have been doing for many years has become even more noticeable. These are primarily programs to support a favorable social, economic and environmental environment in the regions of presence, create new jobs and improve the quality of life. Domestic companies today are actively investing in human resources. First of all, through our own educational programs for personnel training, indexation of salaries, creation of more comfortable and safe working conditions and comprehensive programs for the development of new competencies by personnel,” said Andrey Guryev.

Another important area is close cooperation with educational institutions. “In the case of the best practices, it starts from school and continues in colleges and universities. It is this systematic approach that creates a solid foundation for personnel security for the future,” emphasized the head of the RSPP Committee on CSR and Sustainable Development.

At the same time, global challenges also hide prospects. “Now new opportunities are opening up, we must definitely see them and try to implement them,” summed up Andrey Guryev.