Professional standards of service

The implementation of labor functions by employees of many Russian enterprises presupposes that they fulfill the requirements established by professional standards. What are they? How are the relevant standards being developed?

What is a professional standard?

Professional standards (services, or, for example, the release of goods) suggest that a person performs work according to the norms fixed in official sources. This can be, for example, GOST or industry standard. As a rule, these regulatory sources reflect the specifics of specific economic activity. So, there are standards of service in the restaurant business, in the field of hairdressing services, there are rules governing the production of goods.

Why do we need professional standards?

What is the purpose of the standards in question? First of all, they allow you to regulate the work activity of the employee - so that with the tasks that characterize this or that production function, any person the company hires to work can handle. But under one condition: the employee must have the necessary qualifications. Requirements for it, as a rule, also include professional standards.

Corresponding norms also allow to differentiate the powers of employees and the specifics of tasks that are solved by different specialists of the firm, who, for example, work in one department.

Standards of quality of customer service or release of goods 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 make a plan for their development.

The availability of the standards in question may be of interest to the employer. This is due to the fact that firms that use the relevant standards have the opportunity to implement effective personnel management by issuing local regulations and entering into internal corporate agreements with employees in which there are clauses on the application of certain rules. The employer, having obliged the employee to use professional standards, has the right to expect from him high results of work. Of course, for this purpose the relevant norms should be qualitatively elaborated.

These or other types of standards of service and production allow employers' companies to accumulate and improve the personnel management system, distribute its various elements between structural divisions, transfer to subsidiaries, partners. Norms in question are documented: this process is usually also standardized and assumes that the knowledge generated by one business entity, with a minimum of labor costs, can be transferred to business processes that take place in a third-party firm.

Qualitatively well-developed high standards of service and production can become a significant competitive advantage of the company in the market. Other things being equal - the same access to raw materials, sales, infrastructure - the company will be the leader in its segment, which will be able to create the most effective personnel management system. This can be greatly facilitated by the application of the standards in question.

The corresponding norms are classified into 2 main varieties: related to the sphere of service and production. Let's study their specifics in more detail.

What is the specificity of service standards?

The standards in question are, most often, requirements:

- to the content of the work of a specialist serving customers;

- to the working conditions of the employee of the service enterprise;

- to the qualification of the service provider.

The considered standards are applied at formation of staff of the service enterprises, at working out of system of a payment. Standards of service are used if the company faces tasks related to the development of a personnel management system, the certification of employees, the assessment of the level of skills of specialists, ensuring their participation in training within the framework of corporate programs, as well as in specialized institutions.

What is the significance of service standards?

The standards in question are of great social and economic importance.

First, they stimulate enterprises to improve the quality of service for citizens and other organizations: this facilitates a more active use of services provided by firms in the market, increases the capital intensity of the relevant 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 the relevant standards, with a higher probability will occupy a leading position in the market.

Thirdly, high standards of service contribute to the development of skills in the economy, stimulate the participation of people in various training programs and, consequently, the emergence of a larger number of educational organizations ready to provide the necessary knowledge.

What are the standards of production?

The next category of norms is related to the sphere of production. Its specificity lies in the fact that the additional value of an enterprise is formed through 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 viewed in a single context with technological norms.

Thus, one of the criteria for the required skill level of an employee (as an element of the professional standard) may be his knowledge of GOSTs, industry norms that establish the procedure for performing works at the factory.

The quality of elaboration of the production professional standards, as well as in the case of norms characterizing the service sector, largely determines the competitiveness of firms, and hence the state economy. Therefore, the authorities of the country can be no less than private businesses, are interested in the availability at the disposal of enterprises of high-quality professional standards in the sphere of production. Actually, the same can be said about the norms that are applied in the service sector. Further in the article, we will consider in more detail how the state can influence the development of professional standards, but for now let us begin with a study of the specifics of their classification.

Classification of service and production standards

Let us consider what sorts of varieties can represent the norms in question.

There are local standards of quality of service and production. They are developed at the level of individual enterprises by the specialists working in them. Sometimes - with the help of external experts and consultants. Local standards are often non-public, and even have the nature of commercial secrets. But they, firstly, can be transferred from one enterprise to another in the order of inter-corporate cooperation, and secondly, transferred to other firms by employees who leave the organization, where the relevant standards are developed. The norms in question are best reflected in the specifics of the development of an individual enterprise, the specific needs of its customers, the situation on the market.

There are industry standards of service. They are formed at the level of individual segments of the economy, for example, in the restaurant, hotel business, hairdressing. They are developed, as a rule, by sectoral consulting structures, which are established with the assistance of enterprises, trade unions, and public professional organizations.

There are national standards of service. They are developed by various state authorities and fixed in regulations. The initiators of the creation of such standards may be enterprises that have a certain need for regulatory regulation of activities. In this case, they interact with state structures in the order of legislative initiative.

There are international standards of service. It can be noted that they are rarely of the nature of official rules of law, as is the case with national standards. As a rule, these norms are only recommended for use in certain states and are not mandatory. However, if it is a large transnational corporation, the international service standards developed by this firm can be extended to all its local representative offices and in fact become mandatory for use in all countries of the brand presence.

All the marked categories of standards can be taken into account by an organization. It often happens that the development of local norms is based on the provisions of sectoral, national or international.

Implementation of professional standards

How can professional standards be introduced into the activities of enterprises? This procedure usually consists of 3 stages:

- the formation of a regulatory and legal framework, taking into account the local specifics of the enterprise;

- training of personnel and ensuring that employees receive the necessary qualifications;

- initiating the start of work of specialists in standards;

- quality control of the implementation of relevant standards.

At the first stage, the company chooses for itself the basic standards of service or production - those without which it will be difficult to fully optimize business processes. After the relevant norms are supplemented with other, which allows more detailed regulation of the work of employees. The next stage is bringing the level of qualification of the company's employees to the requirements that are prescribed in the selected standards. This can be done in the process of internal corporate training or through the organization of obtaining employees of the company knowledge in third-party organizations.

After the employees receive the necessary qualification, the matter remains for the beginning of work in the firm according to the norms that are prescribed in the selected standards. Employees begin to solve the usual tasks with an amendment to those rules and regulations that are set by the standards and require them to apply the available qualifications. The effectiveness of the introduction of new standards is checked through control measures. Such as, for example, conducting surveys, monitoring the achievement of key performance indicators, analyzing the main economic indicators of the enterprise.

Structure of professional standard

We will now study in what structure the professional standard of service or production can be presented. As we noted at the beginning of the article, the basis of any standard is the norm. It can be developed on a local, sectoral, national or international level. This rule most often regulates:

- what level of qualifications should an employee have to provide services or perform work in a particular field?

- the way in which production should be organized in order to ensure the high quality of service or production standards;

- what are the main criteria for effective management of the activities of employees of a production or service enterprise;

- what are the rights and duties of employees who are competent to produce goods or provide services of the required quality.

It will be useful to consider how Russian standards of service and production in various professional fields are developed.

Professional standards in the Russian Federation

Theses on the need to introduce a national system of professional standards in various spheres sound at the highest level of the system of state power of the Russian Federation. This is understandable, since the existence of appropriate norms is the most important factor in the formation of a strong human resource potential at Russian enterprises, and the Russian government understands this. If the production and service firms operating in the Russian Federation have difficulties finding qualified employees, as well as ensuring a stable level of quality of products and services, this can adversely affect the growth rate of the state's 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. These structures established the National Agency for the Development of Qualifications, which became responsible for solving complex and urgent tasks in terms of training personnel for Russian enterprises.

It can be noted that among the first organizations that developed standards of service in Russia - the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers. The given structure has issued the norms regulating activity of workers both industrial, and a service profile. The structures responsible for solving the emerging problems in the application of professional standards were formed, methods were developed for analyzing the educational processes aimed at ensuring that employees of the relevant enterprises received the necessary knowledge and skills. It can be noted that similar methods were subsequently approved by the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.

Thus, the 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 large corporations as RZD, RUSAL, TNK-BP, which largely determine how the entire sectors of the Russian economy will develop.

In one way or another, there are already several official statutory acts in Russia that determine the order in which certain standards of service should be developed. Among the main - Government Decision No. 23, published on January 22, 2013. Consider its provisions in more detail.

Normative regulation of professional standards at the governmental level

Decree No. 23 states that the development of a standard of service or production can be carried out by the following entities:

- employers;

- associations of firms;

- professional communities;

- educational institutions;

- self-regulating organizations.

In addition, any other stakeholders may participate in the development of relevant standards. But the projects of professional standards should correspond to the methodical recommendations developed by the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation and take into account the levels of qualifications established in those or other norms.

Professional standards of service and production can be developed in the Russian Federation, if we follow the provisions of the Resolution in question, also at the expense of the budget of the Russian Federation. For this purpose, the initiator of the relevant norm should submit her project to the Ministry of Labor Protection, supplemented with the necessary documents. Projects of professional standards, prepared by the Ministry of Labor Protection of the Russian Federation, are published on the agency's website 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.

The uniform standards of service and production, adopted with the participation of the authorities, as follows from the provisions of Resolution No. 23, apply:

- employers in the process of maintaining the personnel policy and personnel management of the enterprise, in the course of training and certification of employees, in order to develop various instructions, in the formation of the wage system;

- educational institutions that implement programs to improve the skills of workers in various professional fields.

Thus, the state is one of the key actors in the development of professional standards in Russia. To solve problems related to the development of appropriate norms, budgetary funds can be used.