Mentorship at Aktogay

Aktogay has developed a mentorship scheme which has proved to be very successful in helping newly recruited employees to adapt to their new roles. There are two different types of mentorship programmes, one for newly recruited employees and another for graduates with no work experience. The length of the programme depends on the type of mentorship: newly employed staff usually undergo a three-month programme, while the mentorship programme for graduates lasts for a year.

Mentorship is a process of introducing the newly employed worker into their role by providing individual assistance in the development of practical skills and constructive feedback. As a form of vocational training, it is conducted by more experienced staff on the site and the Training and Development team.

The main purpose and objectives of the mentorship programme is to enable new employees to understand the Group’s ways of working and adopt the Group’s corporate values more efficiently. This forms an important part of the Group’s Living Goal Zero initiative to reduce safety and health incidents to zero. It helps new joiners to master new technologies and practices used on site, demonstrates the importance of long-term efficiency and improves staff motivation for work and professional development.

A key role in this programme is played by mentors, who are current employees whose work experience in the company is at least one year and who have a proven focus on the importance of safety and health and whose technical, interpersonal and leadership skills and competencies allow them to be good role models. The mentors go through rigorous training themselves before they can start coaching other staff.

Sometimes young but experienced workers are appointed as mentors. One of them is Madi Sakenov, an electrician who joined KAZ Minerals immediately after graduation as an intern, and after two years of experience, he began the role of a mentor.

“I was lucky that Madi was my mentor. He was always by my side and was very supportive. With him, it was much easier to learn about the electrical equipment and the technological process at the site. Despite being so young, he knows his work very well, and thanks to him, joining the team was much easier. At first, I struggled to get used to rotational work, but thanks to Madi’s and the teams’ support, I overcame this difficulty. Now I enjoy doing shift work”, said Murat Esergepov, a site electrical engineer.

The mentorship programme drives improvements in safety and health, increases employee satisfaction and leads to greater efficiency at the Aktogay site. Results of the programme revealed that, over the period from June 2020 to March 2022, involvement in the mentorship programme increased staff retention rates by over 400%. Each year, the Labour Relations and Training and Development teams hold meetings with those involved in the mentorship programme to gather feedback and improve its impact further.