RUSSIA'S SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS

IN MY HUMBLE OPINION

by Sharon Tennison

A bear of a man covered with a leather coat and French hat walked into my St.Petersburg apartment yesterday. This 40-year-old was intent on serious discussion. The request for the meeting had come from one of Russia's largest companies in timber and pulp.  They wanted to discuss how to encourage charitable services and volunteerism among their workers in far away cities and towns - the "one company" cities, which one occasionally hears about.

I had asked for an agenda and had sent my questions for discussion.  It was a pleasant surprise that I didn't need to pull information from Denis. He began talking specifically to the points I had requested in my agenda and flooded me with facts regarding their business, their work in far out Russian regions, their 50/50 joint venture with a large American company (2007), the charity the company did during the Soviet years, and their relatively new Fund (2005), which was created solely to promote charity work among their workers.

He accented that charity had always been a "brand" for their company. This was verified in the evening when Asya, the young Russian who watches over my apartment, came home from work at Toyota.  Her eyes got big when I related with whom I'd met. She exclaimed,, "I always wanted to work for that company - they are so exceptional in Russia!" This was good information. Asya is a litmus test for me - if she approves concerning an 'unknown', I know I can trust. If she doesn't, I proceed with caution.

Denis, the director of the fund who sat before me, explained that his well-endowed company fund was set up to create complete transparency about what was given by the company and also how the money is spent by the recipients.  This is a new direction from the past (and goes along with the entire push toward transparency going on across Russia in the past four or five years).  And it was good news to me that this company is trying to be socially-responsible.

Dennis seems obsessed to find new ways to create volunteerism where none has existed previously (and was forbidden by the Soviet state - unless permitted by large companies like his).  He dates this current effort to when the American partners came into the corporation. He was proud that during the original negotiations, their American partners approved of the company's big outlay for social causes.

"The American partners suggested that we try new instruments, such as volunteer programs to engage our workers. So we started trying to figure out how to do this 18 months ago.  Honestly, we don't have any experience in how to approach this subject. We made decision to try various formats. What did we try?  We created a charitable auction.

Our orphans painted pictures, and we auctioned them off for money to our workers.  We made about 8000 rubles. The company gave 50,000 rubles, and we bought photographic equipment for the orphanage.  We have a "Company Day" in each city where we encourage our workers to do good work. They help put on sports events, and we provide foods and entertainment. They enjoy participating and feel good about their company.

We take care of sick children - we had two sisters in Arkhangelsk region who needed kidney transplants. Their mother and grandmother offered kidneys, but still they needed money for the transplants.  We decided to give workers opportunity to contribute - and they did and the company, of course, made up the remainder of the mone. It helped to get our workers involved, and they felt good about it.  The same happens for children who need prostheses. We take up donations, helping our workers feel involved in the plight of others.

In one of our locations, the workers are now taking orphans to their homes for weekends to build special family relationships. In the summer they organized picnics for the kids - and the company gave money for beverages and food.  However, we see that we have some failures.  We tried to get workers involved with creating a playground for orphans. Our workers didn't show up!  Others from the city did - but not our workers.  We wondered,  "How did we fail?"

How to motivate people, this is what we need to know!  What ideas do you have?  What works????"

This conversation went on for two hours. By the end I realized I'd felt more passion from this young man about how to create volunteers out of ordinary Russians than I'd felt in a long, long time!  And I so want to help them, but don't have this much experience!

If any of you have examples about how you see volunteers work in your communities that we might share with this earnest fellow and his company,  please send them to us. They are ready to put ideas to work.  Your examples could literally affect tens of thousands of lives in the far North of Russia and in Siberia. I will keep you informed.

Warm wishes to you from St.Petersburg,   Sharon

Comments

[whitney r. white]

Sharon! We met in Texas in JoAnn's class, I am so excited to stumble upon your blog. Let's continue our dialoge to bring UNT students to St. Petersburg. I think we could really expand on these relationships. When are you coming back to Texas? -Whitney R. White