MegaFon guarantees all statutory social support to employees and goes beyond that by running a wide range of additional programmes focused on providing the most comfortable environment for employees’ work and their professional growth. In 2016, MegaFon spent over RUB 500m on social benefits for its employees.
In particular, MegaFon offers its employees the following benefits and guarantees:
MegaFon encourages employees to pursue development opportunities within the Company and rewards their willingness to embrace changes: we cover expenses for relocation to a new place of work in a different region and pay a fixed lump sum to help employees settle in at their new place of residence. The Company provides relocated employees with comprehensive information and organisational support during the first months following relocation.
With a headcount of over 30 thousand people, employees’ health and safety is one of Company’s top priorities. The Company strictly follows its internal regulation on MegaFon’s Occupational Safety Management System, drafted in line with GOST 12.0.230- 2007, "Occupational Safety Standards System. Occupational Safety Management Systems. General Requirements".
To ensure MegaFon’s strict personnel health and safety requirements are met, the Company provides instructions on workplace precautions and safety rules concerning, in particular, the use of PCs and office appliances, as well as emergency procedures. All MegaFon employees must study these instructions and undergo induction training before they start working.
Key occupational safety initiatives in 2016 included:
Today, corporate charitable activities are a key element of corporate social responsibility and an essential ingredient for the continued successful growth of any major company with international operations. This shift in the CSR agenda is driven by an ever-increasing public scrutiny of companies and corporations regarding their social responsibility, which influences the opinions of end consumers.
The key objectives of MegaFon’s CSR activities include consistent and effective support for the efforts to address pressing social problems in Russia based on our professional knowledge and experience and contributing to lasting changes for the better, and promotion of “smart” charity aimed at achieving social results in Russia. The Company also benefits from these activities as they help improve a social and economic state of local communities, increase customer loyalty and create a more favourable environment for future business success. Consistent charitable activities facilitate stronger ties between the Company and NGOs, the government, existing and potential customers, and wider communities in Russia. Therefore, we see the associated expenses as a long-term investment rather than a cost MegaFon’s social investments are a conscious commitment delivered through a well thought-out policy which is linked to all aspects of the Company’s business, its mission and its values. Set up in 2013, the Company’s Charity Committee reviews and approves projects, monitors their progress and assesses their social impacts.
The Company supports both federal- and regional level projects just where our help is most needed. We actively engage with charities, NGOs, celebrities and public officials across Russia, building partnerships to deliver our social projects.
It is impossible to drive sustainable changes in
addressing pressing social problems without
formation of a competent society of charity
providers and increasing the level of literacy
of NGOs. To this end, MegaFon, together with
the Dobro Mail.Ru project and Metalloinvest,
hosted the second annual Dobro (Kindness)
conference in April 2016, bringing together
140 NGOs and dozens of business leaders
from across Russia to discuss growth
opportunities in times of crisis and foster
better dialogue.
In 2016, we enhanced our partnership with
Planeta.ru, one of the first and most popular
crowdfunding platforms in Russia. Under the
MegaFon Helps programme, if charitable
foundations can raise 25% of the amount
required for the implementation of a social
project on Planeta.ru, MegaFon will then
contribute the remaining 75%. During 2016,
15 projects were presented on the platform,
raising a total of RUB 2.6m in private
donations, with the average donation growing
almost 50% year-on-year to RUB 3,369. The
MegaFon Helps programme was recognised
at the Digital Communications Awards 2016
ceremony as the best in the Projects &
Strategies (CSR Communications) category.
For over eight years now, MegaFon has been helping the Polytechnic Museum (Moscow) in the
renovation and restoration of its historical building, the development of architectural projects,
and updating existing and arranging new exhibitions, as well as supporting educational programmes
and youth projects.
| FANK SCIENCE FILM FESTIVAL 360 10 days 8 sites in Moscow 7,000 spectators 50 film screenings 22 films |
39 EXHIBITIONS over 550,000 visitors at own and partners’ sites in Moscow, Ufa, Orsk, Arkhangelsk, Nizhny Novgorod and other cities |
OVER 1 000 1,000 TOURS of the permanent sites of the Museum | 119 PUBLIC LECTURES attended by 3,800 people |
In 2016, MegaFon also became one the
first corporate participants to support
#GivingTuesday, a growing global charitable
campaign. The initiative was conceived in
2012 as a way of engaging people in a major
flashmob campaign of charitable giving. Since
then, people in 71 countries have joined in,
with Russia first participating on 29 November
2016. On that date, MegaFon, together with
the Alisher Usmanov’s Art, Science and Sport
Charity Foundation and the Zhivie Serdtsa
(Live Hearts) Foundation, held free screenings
of Russian films with audio descriptions and
special subtitles for visually and hearing
impaired people in 29 cinemas across Russia(1).
The initiative was run as part of Cinema for
Blind and Deaf People, a wider, long-term
project MegaFon has supported since 2014.
In September 2016, for the first time in
its history, MegaFon announced a writing
competition entitled Provide Real Help and
invited journalists and bloggers to submit
essays highlighting our charitable initiatives.
Over a period of four months, more than 55
participants visited a number of charitable
events hosted by the Company across Russia
and shared their experiences with readers,
followers or viewers. The media tour covered
Barnaul, Vladivostok, Voronezh, Irkutsk,
Moscow, Omsk, Rostov-On-Don, Kalmykia,
Tomsk and Tula Regions, Ulan-Ude, Ufa,
Khabarovsk and other Russian cities and
regions. We launched a dedicated website,
www.dobro.megafon.ru, to cover the project
progress and attract new participants.
Winners received grants of RUB 300,000 in
“The Best Media” category, RUB 100,000 in
“The Best Media Contributor” and “The Best
Blogger” categories, and an opportunity to
become MegaFon Charity Ambassadors for
2017.
Helping orphans and children deprived of parental care
Orphan children are a severe problem in Russia. Although the Russian Ministry of Education and Science reports a reduced number of orphans in Russia, with ca. 481,921 children registered as orphans as at the end of 2015, most orphans face significant difficulties in socialisation and adaptation as they start living independently.
Our key programmes to support orphans are focused on promoting different forms of fostering, guardianship and adoption, facilitating social contacts through involving children in sports activities and cultural life, support for social adaptation and life after leaving foster homes, as well as on improving their education, providing vocational guidance and assistance in employment.
The Future Depends on You, an open all-
Russia football championship among
children’s teams from orphanages and foster
homes held by MegaFon since 2005, is the
only federal-level project nationally that offers
children in care of the state more than just
physical health benefits but seeks to facilitate
social adaptation and promotes fostering,
guardianship and adoption. In 2016, a total of
over 5,000 children from 140 cities and towns
across Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Latvia,
Tajikistan and South Ossetia took part in the
competition, with the championship covering
a total of over 30,000 children grouped in
more than 3,500 teams over the 11 years of its
existence.
The initiative not only helps children from across the country to adopt healthy lifestyles, strengthen their character and build social contacts with peers and adults, but also assists them in finding a new family. Since 2014, the Change One Life foundation with the assistance of MegaFon has been producing video profiles to help children aged 10 years old and above, an age group with fewer chances of being adopted, find a foster family. As at 7 March 2017, 1,695 video profiles of young football players were produced, and 355 of the children already found new parents.
Since 2015, MegaFon, together with the
New Development Technologies Non-
Profit Organisation (NDT), has run We Live
a Real Life, a project focused on building
and developing a framework to facilitate
socialisation of orphaned children through
their engagement in social planning and
charitable activities. The project provides an
opportunity for high-school students to feel
needed, feel that they are useful for society,
learn how to communicate with their peers
and adults as equals, set goals and achieve
them through joint efforts with a like-minded
team.
ПThe project is focused on the following areas:
In 2016, the project covered 238 older children from 32 institutions for orphans and children deprived of parental care and living in the Ivanovo, Lipetsk, Novosibirsk, Tambov, Tomsk and Yaroslavl Regions, and also managers and teaching staff of participating foster homes. In each of the six regions, the initiative has received support from relevant authorities such as social protection bodies, departments of education and science.
The We Live a Real Life project aims to eradicate the entitlement mentality which is widespread among those who have left orphanages and foster homes. The initiative brings tangible benefits to its participants as they are now able to work in a team with peers and adults they did not know before, and confidently communicate with public officials or business people.
The project’s key outcomes in 2016:
This and other initiatives based on social planning will increase young people’s chances of getting into universities or vocational schools, becoming employed and creating functional families over the longer term.
Supporting people with disabilities
MegaFon is committed to helping people with disabilities to overcome internal and external physical and psychological barriers they face in everyday life. We contribute to addressing the problems of limited communication and social contacts, lack of access to education, and employment difficulties, help promote mass sports participation and support Paralympic sports, cultural and artistic events. In helping these people to overcome infrastructure barriers, we promote the development of special technologies and services to bridge the digital divide.
Sports have a unique potential to inspire and unite people irrespective of their age or social standing. Therefore, sports initiatives are high on MegaFon’s list of social projects focused on social adaptation, self-fulfilment and improving the quality of life for people with disabilities.
The Barrier-Free Environment programme is
aimed to increase awareness of the problems
encountered by persons with disabilities
among the public. We offer special tariffs
for subscribers with hearing impairments
and run a dedicated website for people with
impaired vision. Since 2015, people with
eyesight disabilities living in the Ural region
have benefited from our programme that
aims to increase their social and professional
engagement. The programme covers 1,200
people in 10 cities and towns.
MegaFon has run the “Enjoy Sports Together.
Truly” project together with the Perspektiva
Regional Public Organisation of Disabled
People since January 2016. The project is
focused on support for social adaptation
and physical development of children and
teenagers with disabilities through their
participation in inclusive sports events
together with their peers without disabilities.
The project’s mission is to break stereotypes
about the life and capabilities of people
with disabilities and increase inclusivity in
Russian society through provision of equal
opportunities in sports to everyone.
In 2016, 678 students from 23 schools from six Russian cities and towns (Khimki, Kotelniki, Nizhny Novgorod, Ufa, Syktyvkar and Yakutsk) participated in the project: 452 children with disabilities and 226 children without disabilities. To host events under the project we engaged 23 physical education teachers, 51 expert mentors, 47 school administrators, 112 volunteers and 17 representatives of local education authorities. Based on 2016 results, regional education authorities highly praised the project, and decision was taken to extend it into 2017 and add two more cities – Voronezh and Vladikavkaz.
The MegaFon DreamCup tournament is
part of MegaFon’s extensive portfolio of
longer-term social initiatives to develop and
support Paralympic sports. The tournament
has become a flagship Russian wheelchair
tennis event. In 2016, the International Tennis
Federation (ITF) upgraded the tournament
to ITF2 Series and its prize fund was increased
to US$ 18,000.
Athletes participating in international tournaments are awarded high ranking points which enable them to compete in major international events, including the World Championship and Paralympic Games.
In 2016, the event brought together 63 athletes with high international rankings from 13 countries, the wheelchair tennis elite.
In November 2016, the tournament became the winner of the 23rd “Russian Cup” national tennis award, also known as the Russian tennis “Oscar”, in the “Tournament of the Year” category.
Since 2011, MegaFon has supported the
efforts to promote boccia in Russia. Boccia is
one of the few sports enabling athletes even
with severe motor disturbances, including
severe cerebral palsy conditions, to reach
their full potential; therefore, it is called
“athletics for all”.
In 2016, about 1,400 children and adults across Russia took part in international and all-Russia boccia tournaments and festivals, attended sports and health camps, regular workshops and trainings co-organised by MegaFon and its partners, including the Russian Boccia Federation, Preodolenie Kalmyk Regional Social and Sports Non- Governmental Organisation, Khabarovsk Territorial Club of Disabled People for Physical Culture and Sports Non-Governmental Organisation, BLAGO Udmurt Republican Non-Governmental Organisation of Disabled People, and Obyknovennoe Chudo Charitable Foundation for Children.
