Apatit uses SCOUT-Interfax to automate HR processes

JSC Apatit, a member of the PhosAgro fertilizer group, has, as part of its ongoing business digitalization, finished automating human resources processes using the SCOUT-Interfax platform.

This enables the company to work with job seekers in digital format, among other features. Candidates are able to fill in application forms and consent to have personal data processed via the web interface on the PhosAgro corporate portal without visiting the HR department in person. The system prevents forced errors by candidates, automatically checks the data entered for correctness and helps with filling in forms. All application forms are protected against unauthorized access, and candidates are identified with a code sent by SMS. If candidates do not have the necessary documents at hand, they can save the data they have entered and fill the forms in later.

"Given the pandemic, we have been able to evaluate the new system's advantages: the whole process of interaction with a candidate takes place remotely, without the need to visit the HR department. HR personnel no longer need to be in the office, scan documents or upload data to HR systems," said Margarita Kotlyarova, JSC Apatit's HR and Social Policy Director.

According to preliminary estimates, the use of SCOUT-Interfax at three of the four JSC Apatit production sites will considerably reduce the number of visits by candidates in person to the personnel department. It is already taking HR services only half as long to process application forms, and more than half of the personnel recruitment staff at company branches in Cherepovets, Balakovo and Kirovsk have been able to work from home.

The system has unified the rules of procedure for the work of personnel services at all enterprises and simplified the implementation of mandatory personnel procedures.

The SCOUT platform, which has already been implemented at a whole host of Russian companies, automates a company's internal business processes, combining data from in-house and external sources and interacting with corporate information systems like ERP, CRM, human resources and others. Some companies are already using SCOUT to automate in-house due diligence processes, drawing on data from Interfax Group information systems like SPARK, X-Compliance, SCAN and others, and on information from in-house databases.

The new SCOUT module was developed in conjunction with JSC Apatit, said Andrei Isayev, Executive Director of the Interfax Information Group's Financial and Business Information Department. "This joint project has given us a unique opportunity to digitalize the personnel processes of one of the country's biggest industrial companies and to involve the best HR security specialists in testing our solution," he said.

PhosAgro (www.phosagro.ru) is a vertically integrated Russian company and one of the world's leading producers of environmentally safe phosphate-based fertilizers as well as high-grade phosphate rock with P2O5 content of 39% or more. PhosAgro's fertilizers are highly effective, ensure that agricultural products are eco-friendly and do not contaminate soil with heavy metals.

The PhosAgro group is Europe's biggest phosphate fertilizer producer in terms of DAP/MAP/NP/NPK/NPS production capacity. It is the world's biggest producer of high-grade phosphate rock with P₂O₅ content of 39% or more and one of its biggest producers of ammophos and diammonium phosphate, one of Europe's leading and Russia's only producer of feed monocalcium phosphate (MCP); and Russia's only producer of nepheline concentrate.

The company's chief products, phosphate feedstock, more than 50 types of fertilizer, feed phosphates, ammonia and sodium tripolyphosphate, are used by customers in 102 countries in all habitable continents. Priority markets besides Russia and CIS countries are Latin America, Europe and Asia.

The company's shares are traded on the Moscow Exchange and Global Depositary Receipts on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker PHOR. The GDR were added to the MSCI Russia and MSCI Emerging Markets indices on June 1, 2016.