Employee training and development

GRI 3–3

The professional community recognised our personnel training and development system in 2024 with prestigious awards:

• No. 2 in the Best Corporate Training Programme category of the SMART Pyramid award;
• No. 2 in the Best Corporate Training Project category of the SMART Pyramid award.

Personnel onboarding

Onboarding is a comprehensive procedure to help new hires adapt to workplace practices and rules, develop professional knowledge and skills, and learn about the corporate culture, as well as encourage them to be diligent, responsible, hard‑working, loyal, and proud to be part of the Russian Railways team.

Russian Railways’ employees undergo onboarding in line with a dedicated plan.

Employees responsible for traffic safety and the most sophisticated technological processes complete an onboarding internship (also job onboarding).

As part of the initial onboarding efforts, the Company holds Integrated Onboarding Days, an annual event helping young employees get a holistic view of Russian Railways’ structure, its operations, strategy, ongoing projects, corporate culture and values. We also conduct monthly remote corporate awareness events titled Welcome to Russian Railways. Throughout 2024, we organised 252 onboarding events in face‑to‑face and online formats, reaching more than 38,100 employees.

On top of that, the Employee Service Portal features My Onboarding, a step‑by‑step sequential road map with a set of specific actions to be taken by a new hire at each stage of their initial onboarding process.

Mentoring

The Company has in place a system of mentoring, which can be divided into three large streams – professional, management, and youth mentoring.

Professional mentoring is a traditional part of Russian Railways’ processes: weathered professionals immerse newcomers in the process intricacies. In 2024, over 38,000 employees received professional mentoring from 29,700 mentors.

Management mentoring focuses on developing young specialists’ personal and professional potential by transferring management experience from the Group’s senior managers. During 2024, 174 managers joined the project, mentoring almost 400 promising young employees.

We actively developed youth mentoring in 2024 – an informal approach to transferring knowledge and skills to young Company employees for quick team adaptation and comfortable adjustment to new positions. Over 21,300 recently hired young employees participated in youth mentoring during 2024.

Training and development of blue‑ and white‑collar employees

The corporate vocational education system is based on 15 vocational education centres with 71 branches covering the whole country, from Kaliningrad to Sakhalin.

In 2024, the Company trained 43,000 employees in key jobs, including 30,800 in vocational education centres. Over 228,000 employees completed training as part of professional development programmes, including 199,500 in education centres. Training in blue‑collar occupations at Company centres is provided free of charge. Trainees receive scholarships, and graduates are offered guaranteed post‑graduation employment.

In 2024, the Company carried out the following measures to improve its employee training and development system:

• 288 educational programmes were developed and approved;
• 66 distance courses were created;
• 65 technical training aids were supplied, including 22 training simulators;
• seven training infrastructure sites were repaired;
• construction of two training centre campuses in Tynda and Krasnoyarsk was completed;
• six training centre sites were equipped with new furniture and appliances.

Managers and office workers training

The Group has a comprehensive system for the development of employees included in the Company’s talent pool. The system consists of:

• levels of improving managerial competencies;
• functional programmes to develop high‑potential managers in the Company’s key business areas;
• a corporate MBA programme.

We supplement the talent pool development system with programmes supporting new management tools implementation, addressing specific unit needs and strategic Company goals including digitalisation, process approach, traffic safety culture, risk management, and customer focus.

More than 4,700 managers received training under programmes for comprehensive development of the Russian Railways talent pool.

More than 3,000500 linear managers were trained at six transport universities through programmes delivered under partner arrangements of the Russian Railways Corporate University.

In 2024, the Company adopted an updated approach to developing managers’ professional competencies. We expanded our portfolio of joint educational solutions with transport universities by launching the Professional Plus programmes for regional and linear managers in the areas of railway, infrastructure, and traffic management.

As part of developing professional competencies for managers in key production areas, we implemented the Traffic Control Academy. Projects programme and organised expert-led master classes on Regulatory Framework for Organising the Transportation Process. For managers without specialised railway education, we launched the Fundamentals of Russian Railways Operations programme and expanded mutual internship practices for managers across railway industry divisions.

The Company’s training programmes for managers and office workers to support Russian Railways’ Digital Transformation Strategy see consistent expansion, too. The programmes include face-to-face and distance learning options. Over 80 training materials on digital literacy topics were added to our Distance Learning System. The system now contains more than 1,700 materials. Over 358,000 employees used the system in 2024, earning more than 1.6 million certificates for successful course completion.

Additionally, we conducted a digital literacy test in 2024, with over 7,000 employees participating.

During 2024, we developed programme series focused on enhancing managers’ analytical and systematic thinking skills plus data visualisation capabilities.

For continuous development of professional and corporate competencies, the Company implements the Knowledge Hour project, enabling course completion through the Distance Learning System with content developed by experts from 13 Russian Railways branches. Over 1,200 courses are available to employees in total.

We expanded international cooperation in development of managers and office workers: Armenian and Uzbek railway representatives underwent training, we held a joint round table with colleagues from Azerbaijan, and organised training for Chinese railway managers under the East-West Transport Corridor: Logistics Solutions and Prospects programme.

Knowledge.Express open learning formats continue developing, such as master classes, educational mini sets, audio discussions, RZD TV programmes, Book Club video interviews with authors, educational online marathons, and a dedicated track for international cooperation within BRICS.

In 2024, the Company hosted the annual Russian Corporate Learning Leaders Forum, a professional community for corporate business education. Participants included representatives from over 50 leading corporate universities and academies across industries: transport, manufacturing, regional management, banking, telecommunications, IT, and retail.

New generation managers

In 2024, we launched large‑scale educational programmes titled Professional Plus. Movement and Professional Plus. Track, aimed at developing professional competencies for managers across various Russian Railways units. Over 300 managers were trained at five industry universities through unique modules combining engineering knowledge, modern digital practices, and real enterprise experience. For the first time, training builds not only on theory but also on live discussions with regulation developers, business games, and field sessions at key Company facilities.

This approach not only helps managers solve production challenges promptly but also creates strong professional networks throughout the country. The programmes have already proven their effectiveness as participants report gaining fresh perspectives on familiar processes.