MOSCOW, October 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --
Speaking at the 13th Russia and CIS HR Directors Summit held in Moscow on 4-5 October, Olesya Oblasova, HR Director of FOREX CLUB, a leading online broker[1], gave a presentation on how its group of companies has transformed itself from being a Russian brand and culture to one with a greater international business environment, staff and practice.
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While FOREX CLUB proudly embraces its Russian heritage, a decision was made in Q4 2010 at the corporate level in support of the group of companies' strong global business goals. One key requirement to do this was to foster an international work environment, staffing, culture and communications practice. As a result, from January 2011 on, the HR Department in its core role to oversee all staff and recruitment processes, spearheaded the initiative to encourage and grow a global, multi-cultural, multi-language work environment. The key process involved an ongoing, concerted effort proactively to communicate messages across the business to all staff, both from a top-down and bottom-up series of communication channels.
About the Summit: The Russia and the CIS HR Directors Summit is a major annual meeting for exchange of experience, discussion of new strategies and global trends, case studies presentations, review of topical studies, live discussions and roundtables. Olesya Oblasova's speech was well-received by the audience of approximately 500 HR professionals from a wide range of industry sectors. FOREX CLUB is one of a number of Russian-based and respected brands that has demonstrated leadership for other Russian-founded organisations with global commercial interests and a large and geographically dispersed workforce.
With clients spanning 120 countries, FOREX CLUB Group of Companies has over 650 employees in 60 offices across several countries, including throughout the Russia Federation and CIS, as well as in USA, Malaysia, Brazil and China. Yet at the beginning of 2011, 99% of staff were either Russian or CIS nationalities. Since then, there has been an increase by approximately 10% in the employment of non-Russian staff, most notably at the management level (i.e., management of both staff and global departments).
Process and approach: In order to compete more effectively on a global scale and to attract staffing talent on a worldwide basis, the company decided to influence a positive change within its corporate culture by implementing a series of international best practice communication standards, which included:
1. Making English the official second language of its group of companies
Formal communication channels were published in two languages - English and Russian. To help managers who spoke only Russian, the company employed a translator and signed contracts with several translation agencies. The HR Department also heavily invested in all staff, irrespective of location, having access to online and/or face-to-face language training (Russian and English). The English version of the website portal was updated and synchronised with the Russian version with regard to news and documents published from January 2011. It became routine and compulsory from that date for all communications to published always in bilingual versions and on both the Russian and English versions of its global intranet sites. Online and face-to-face meetings were also conducted in two languages.
2. Introducing a new structure for internal communications based on the "diffusion of innovations" marketing model
FOREX CLUB introduced a segmented approach to communicating ideas and information throughout its business operations, based on the 'Diffusion of Innovations' model[2] created by Everett Rogers. It is a 'top down/bottom up' communications practice. 'Top-down' initiatives include: Monthly team briefings using a core brief template to supplement the monthly online conferences by the CEO; performance appraisals; open door policy throughout each office/branch; and a meeting with the CEO for all new employees. To ensure effective feedback on staff's well-being, a number of 'bottom-up' communications initiatives were introduced, including: Monthly team briefings; and satisfaction surveys. Annual employee satisfaction surveys were also set up to allow regular feedback to all staff and to assess employee engagement levels.
Commenting on the implementation of these procedures, Olesya Oblasova said: "We are proud to have established significant and positive change in our group of companies by helping to build a truly global and unified brand from which everyone benefits. But it would be complacent of us to think that this is a one-time effort. Ongoing benefits are contingent upon continuous investment in - and attention to - communications and staff engagement, so our communications and culture are areas that we are committed to improving continuously."
About FOREX CLUB Group of Companies
Established in 1997, FOREX CLUB (the company) is the brand name for a group of companies that provides clients from over 120 countries with platforms and services for trading forex, CFDs and other online trading and educational products. We offer every client effective tools in training, analytics and education, as well as personal support where they want it. FOREX CLUB has over 650 employees worldwide. In 2011, over 45,000 traders chose to learn forex trading with us. FOREX CLUB was one of the industry's first to offer zero spread trading and commission refunds on all unprofitable trades.
We are committed to the developed standards set forth by government regulators and one of our company's priorities is to conduct business in strict compliance with current regulatory requirements of the markets within which we operate. Our Russian broker, LLC FOREX CLUB, is a founding member of CRFIN, the Russian self-regulatory organisation.
The structure of FOREX CLUB Group of Companies includes a range of brokers and training centres, including FOREX CLUB INTERNATIONAL LIMITED, and the International Academy of Investments and Trading (license #025928). For information on our business, please click here.
1. FOREX CLUB was rated one of the top ten global brokers by retail forex volume in Forex Magnates' Q4 2011 and Q1 2012 Industry Reports.
2. This highly successful model was created by Everett Rogers [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everett_Rogers ] (1931-2004), an academic whose published work made him one of the world's leading authorities on communications theory and practice, and education.
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