Yulia Chupina spoke about corporate culture building at Web Summit 2021

Senior Vice President of Sberbank Yulia Chupina has addressed a panel session called “Building Culture without Buildings” at Web Summit 2021, one of the biggest international tech conferences, held on November 1-4 in Lisbon. She spoke about the use of digital technology in HR and the building of an effective corporate culture.

Yulia Chupina mentioned that Sber, being one of the most profitable tech companies in Russia, creates innovative high-tech products for its clients – for instance, there is the SberBank Online mobile app, which 70 million clients use at least once a month. Since Sberbank employees are also its clients, the quality bar is just as high for the HR mobile apps, which are designed to deliver an equally enjoyable customer experience.

Yulia Chupina believes that all key digital services for employees must have a human-centered design, be available within one application, and be compatible with virtual assistants. Having all of the above, Sber’s HR platform Pulse is used to address most tasks: searching for coworkers, vacation, statements, team status analytics, meeting goals, integrated recruiting and hiring, developing employee skills and competencies, and career management.

During the pandemic, the bank not only did not make staff cuts – on the contrary, it hired over 30,000 new employees, a quarter of whom were IT specialists. Their adaptation to work from home was facilitated by SberCode, a special application containing all the information newcomers need about Sber: its structure, culture, processes, etc. The app supports electronic signatures for staff documents. It also allows users to communicate with the bank’s top executives and has a mentoring system (buddies or senior colleagues).

As a result, the adaptation satisfaction rate increased to 91% from 57% among the company’s co-workers and new hire turnover decreased significantly.

Sber has paid and continues to pay particular attention to building its corporate culture, including through remote work. The organization’s culture is focused on achieving results, self-development, and improving society. The company’s strategy is to become one of the leading diversified ecosystems in the Russian market, as well as one of the drivers behind the national ESG agenda and ethical artificial intelligence, which underpins all Sber processes.

Yulia Chupina, senior vice president, Sberbank: “There are four pillars at the foundation of Sber’s corporate culture transformation. First, all mid-level and senior executives must lead in the corporate culture, otherwise they simply cannot work at the company. Second, the company helps leaders grow through feedback, emotional intelligence programs, coaching, and mentoring. Third, Sber clearly communicates what it expects from employees in terms of culture, integrating this information into the work of branches, corporate traditions, and monthly meetings. Fourth, Sber integrates corporate culture into business processes, through the KPI system, recruitment, promotions, and incentives for employees.”

None of this is possible without the comprehensive development of the entire team’s skills and competencies, Chupina emphasized. Sber helps colleagues create their own startups, study, teach, lead expert activities across communities, and do volunteer work. Work-life balance is achieved through extensive application of remote work, flexible working hours, and geographical mobility. There are also courses on responsible parenting, mental health, and improving your relationships.

PJSC Sberbank is Russia’s largest bank and a leading global financial institution. Holding almost one-third of aggregate Russian banking sector assets, Sberbank is the key lender to the national economy and one of the biggest deposit takers in Russia. The Government of the Russian Federation represented by the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation is the principal shareholder of PJSC Sberbank owning 50% plus one voting share of the bank’s authorized capital, with the remaining 50% minus one voting share held by domestic and international investors. Sberbank has customers in 18 countries. The bank has a major distribution network in Russia with about 14,000 branches, while its international operations – subsidiary banks, branches, and chapters – include the UK, US, CIS, Central and Eastern Europe, India, China, and other countries. It holds general banking license No. 1481 dd. August 11, 2015, from the Bank of Russia. Official websites of the bank: www.sberbank.com (Sberbank Group website), www.sberbank.ru.

In 2020 Sberbank underwent a rebranding, offering financial and non-financial services of the bank and Sberbank Group to individual and corporate customers. Today, the Sber ecosystem is a raft of services for life and daily assistance in handling pressing everyday issues for individual customers and businesses. The Sber ecosystem website: www.sber.ru.

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