The implementation by employees of many Russian enterprises of labor functions involves the fulfillment by them of the requirements established by professional standards. What are they? How are the relevant standards developed?
What is a professional standard?
Professional standards (services or, for example, the release of goods) imply that a person performs work according to the norms fixed in official sources. This can be, for example, GOST or an industry standard. As a rule, these regulatory sources reflect the specifics of a particular economic activity. So, there are standards of service in the field of restaurant business, in the field of hairdressing services, there are norms governing the production of goods.
What are professional standards for?
What is the purpose of the standards in question? First of all, they allow you to regulate the employee’s labor activity - so that any person whom the company hires to cope with the tasks characterizing a particular production function. But on one condition: the employee must have the necessary qualifications. Requirements for it, as a rule, also include professional standards.
Corresponding norms also make it possible to distinguish between the powers of employees and the specifics of tasks solved by various specialists of the company, who, for example, work in one unit.
Standards of quality customer service or product release allow employees to gradually improve their competencies: a person, having an idea of what knowledge and skills he needs for professional growth, will be able to draw up a plan for their development.
In the presence of the standards in question, the employer may also be interested. This is due to the fact that firms using the relevant standards have the opportunity to carry out effective personnel management by issuing local regulations and entering into corporate agreements with employees, which have clauses on the application of certain rules. The employer, obliging the employee to use professional standards, has the right to expect high results from him. Of course, for this, the relevant standards must be well-designed.
These or those types of service and production standards allow employing companies to accumulate and improve the personnel management system, distribute its various elements between structural divisions, and transfer them to subsidiaries and partners. The norms in question are documented: this process, as a rule, is also standardized and assumes that the knowledge generated by one business entity, with minimal labor costs, can be transferred to business processes that take place in a third-party company.
Highly developed high standards of service and production can become a significant competitive advantage in the market. All other things being equal - the same access to raw materials, sales, infrastructure - the company that will be able to create the most effective personnel management system will be the leader in its segment. This can be greatly facilitated by the application of the standards in question.
The relevant standards are classified into 2 main varieties: those related to the service sector and production. We study their specifics in more detail.
What is the specificity of service standards?
The standards in question most often include the requirements:
- to the content of the work of a specialist serving clients;
- to the working conditions of the employee of the service company;
- qualifications of the employee providing the services.
The considered standards are applied in the formation of the staff of service enterprises, in the development of a wage system. Service standards are used if the company is faced with tasks related to the development of a personnel management system, certification of employees, assessment of the qualifications of specialists, ensuring their participation in training as part of corporate programs, as well as in specialized institutions.
What is the significance of service standards?
The standards in question play an important socio-economic role.
Firstly, they encourage enterprises to improve the quality of services for citizens and other organizations: this contributes to a more active use of the services that firms provide in the market, increases the capital intensity of the respective segments, and their investment attractiveness.
Secondly, service standards positively influence the formation of competitive relations in business. Those firms that are ready to ensure the most correct compliance with relevant standards are more likely to occupy leading positions in the market.
Thirdly, high standards of service contribute to staff development in the economy, stimulate the participation of people in various training programs and, accordingly, the emergence of a larger number of educational organizations ready to provide the necessary knowledge.
What are production standards?
The next category of norms is related to the sphere of production. Its specificity lies in the fact that the added value of the enterprise is formed by the release of specific types of goods that must meet certain consumer characteristics. Thus, if we talk about professional standards in production, then they should be considered in a single context with technological standards.
So, one of the criteria for the required level of qualification of an employee (as an element of professional standard) may be his knowledge of GOSTs, industry standards that establish the order of work at the factory.
The quality of elaboration of production professional standards, as in the case of the norms characterizing the service sector, largely determines the competitiveness of firms, and, therefore, the state economy. Therefore, the country's authorities can be no less than private businesses, interested in the availability of high-quality professional standards in the production sector at the disposal of enterprises. Actually, the same can be said about those standards that apply in the service sector. Later in the article, we will examine in more detail how the state can influence the development of professional standards, but for now, let's start by studying the specifics of their classification.
Classification of service and production standards
Consider what varieties the norms in question can be represented.
There are local standards for the quality of service and production. They are developed at the level of individual enterprises by the specialists working in them. Sometimes - with the involvement of external experts and consultants. Local standards are often non-public, or even they are in the nature of trade secrets. But, firstly, they can be transferred from one enterprise to another in the order of inter-corporate cooperation, and secondly, they can be transferred to other companies by employees who leave the organization where the relevant standards are developed. The norms in question best reflect the specifics of the development of an individual enterprise, the particular needs of its customers, and market position.
There are industry standards for service. They are formed at the level of individual segments of the economy, for example, in the restaurant, hotel business, and in the field of hairdressing services. They are usually developed by industry consulting structures, which are established with the assistance of enterprises, trade unions, and public professional organizations.
There are national service standards. They are developed by various state authorities and are enshrined in regulations. The initiators of the creation of such standards can also be enterprises experiencing a certain need for regulatory regulation of activities. In this case, they interact with government agencies in the order of legislative initiative.
There are international standards of service. It can be noted that they are quite rarely the nature of official rules of law, as is the case with national standards. As a rule, these standards are only recommended for use in certain countries and are not binding. However, when it comes to a large multinational corporation, the international service standards developed by this company can be extended to all its local representative offices and in fact become mandatory for use in all countries where the brand is present.
All marked categories of standards can be taken into account by one organization or another. It often happens that the development of local norms is based on the provisions of industry, national or international.
Implementation of professional standards
How can professional standards be implemented in enterprises? This procedure most often consists of 3 stages:
- the formation of a regulatory framework taking into account the local specifics of the enterprise;
- staff training and ensuring that employees receive the necessary qualifications;
- initiating the start of work of standards specialists;
- quality control of compliance with relevant standards.
At the first stage, the company selects for itself the basic standards of service or production - those without which it will be difficult to fully realize the optimization of business processes. After that, the relevant standards are supplemented by others, which allow us to more closely regulate the work order of employees. The next step is to bring the level of qualification of the employees of the company in accordance with the requirements that are prescribed in the selected standards. This can be done in the process of internal corporate training or by organizing the acquisition by employees of a firm of knowledge in third-party organizations.
After employees receive the necessary qualifications, it remains for them to start working in the company according to the standards that are prescribed in the selected standards. Employees begin to solve the usual tasks, adjusted for those rules and regulations that are established by the standards and require them to apply the available qualifications. The effectiveness of the implementation of new standards is checked through control measures. Such as, for example, conducting surveys, monitoring the achievement of key production indicators, analysis of the main economic indicators of the enterprise.
Professional Standard Structure
Let us now examine in which structure a professional standard of service or production can be represented. As we noted at the beginning of the article, the norm is the basis of any standard. It can be developed at the local, industry, national or international level. This rule most often regulates:
- what level of qualification an employee must have to provide services or perform work in a particular area;
- how production should be organized in order to ensure high quality standards of service or production;
- what are the main criteria for the effective management of the activities of workers in a manufacturing or service enterprise;
- what are the rights and obligations of workers whose competence is the release of goods or the provision of services of the required quality.
It will be useful to consider how Russian standards for service and production are developed in various professional fields.
Professional standards in the Russian Federation
Theses on the need to introduce a national system of professional standards in various fields are heard at the highest level of the government system of the Russian Federation. This is understandable, since the availability of relevant standards is the most important factor in the formation of a powerful personnel potential at Russian enterprises, and the Russian government understands this. If manufacturing and service firms operating in the Russian Federation have difficulty finding qualified employees, as well as ensuring a stable level of quality of products and services, this could negatively affect the growth rate of the state economy and its competitiveness at the international level.
Among the key organizations involved in the development of professional standards in Russia are the Ministry of Education, as well as the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. With these structures, the National Agency for the Development of Qualifications was established, which became responsible for solving complex and urgent problems in terms of training personnel for Russian enterprises.
It can be noted that the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers is among the first organizations that developed service standards in Russia. This structure has issued standards governing the activities of workers in both production and service sectors. Structures were formed that were responsible for solving problems arising in the application of professional standards, methods for analyzing educational processes aimed at ensuring that employees of the relevant enterprises received the necessary knowledge and skills were developed. It can be noted that such methods were subsequently approved by the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.
Thus, national standards of service and production in the Russian Federation are developed with the direct participation of both government agencies and non-governmental organizations. Normative regulation of the activities of specialists in various fields, aimed at improving the quality of their work, is largely based on knowledge and experience that are formed at the level of private businesses. For example, such major corporations as Russian Railways, RUSAL, TNK-BP, which largely determine how entire sectors of the Russian economy will develop.
One way or another, several official normative acts are already in force in the Russian Federation that determine the order in which certain service standards should be developed. Among the main ones is Government Decision No. 23, published on January 22, 2013. We will consider its provisions in more detail.
Normative regulation of professional standards at the government level
Decree No. 23 says that the development of a service or production standard can be carried out by the following entities:
- by employers;
- associations of firms;
- professional communities;
- educational institutions;
- self-regulatory organizations.
In addition, any other interested parties may participate in the development of relevant standards. But draft professional standards must comply with the methodological recommendations developed by the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation, and take into account the levels of qualifications established in certain norms.
Professional standards of service and production can be developed in the Russian Federation, if you follow the provisions of this Resolution, also at the expense of the budget of the Russian Federation. For this, the initiator of the relevant norm must submit her project to the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, supplemented by the necessary documents. Draft professional standards prepared by the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation are published on the website of the department for public discussion. Based on the results of the assessment of the relevant documents by the community, they are sent for examination. If successful, the professional standard is approved.
Unified standards of service and production, adopted with the participation of authorities, as follows from the provisions of Decree No. 23, apply:
- employers in the process of conducting personnel policy and personnel management of the enterprise, during the organization of training and certification of employees, in order to develop various instructions, in the formation of a wage system;
- educational institutions that implement continuing education programs for workers in various professional fields.
Thus, the state is one of the key actors in the development of professional standards in Russia. To solve the problems associated with the development of relevant standards, budgetary funds can be used.