New image of employment agency: improved efficiency of labour market participants

Tomsk Oblast is one of the most dynamically developing regions, research and education centers in Russia. There are favorable life conditions provided including high level of social service rendered to people. A region under dynamic development requires Employment Agencies being reinforced within labour market, so it is necessary to establish mechanisms enabling a distinctly different level of interaction with customers. In 2014, the Department of Labour and Employment of Tomsk Oblast devised a concept of employment system modernisation, based on customer orientation. The concept named "Intelligent Center" included five basic steps: social research, rebranding, structural and technology development, human resources management, implementation of image advertising projects. In 2014, a large-scale social research was carried out with a view to evaluate credibility and quality of service. The research showed that citizens do not associate the Employment Agency with a convenient and widely accessible institution capable of rendering real assistance primarily due to the low quality of service. A specially built up project team started working at the Agency's brand with due regard to its specific character and recent tasks. The developed package of arrangements included modernisation of the logo, style improvement, market positioning, elaboration of ideology. Also it should be mentioned that pilot testing of the entire body of innovations was being held at the largest Employment Agency of the region, in Tomsk. For the moment, the Employment Agency has undergone a comprehensive re-equipment, and, most significantly, principles of customer management have been modified as well. An integrated part of the so-called "reset" was performance adaptation of the Agency employees for innovative technology implementation and, thereby, for rendering high-quality service. Within the concept "Intelligent Center" implemented in cooperation with the Siberian State Medical University, a long-term project started on teaching employees of the Agencies throughout the region at the Faculty of Behavioral Medicine and Management. Within the framework of a specially devised study programme called "Corporate Training. Reset", each individual characteristic of the Agency and the region is taken into account. A significant part of the image-build process is assigned to realisation of the large-scale image advertising projects. The primary purpose of the ongoing reformations is to keep up with the time, to raise the quality and accessibility of service, therefore meeting customer requirements and gaining their loyalty. In accordance with results of monitoring conducted by the Department of Labour, the percent of citizens consulting Employment Agencies of Tomsk Oblast in the first quarter of 2015 increased twice: from 22.1 % to 42.4 % (comparing with the unemployment rate of the International Labour Organisation) while the ranking rose from 57 to 9 place.

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