Corporate demographic policy: The reality and development opportunities in Russian organizations

Abstract

Support for families with children within the social institution of business is viewed as a potential strengthening of the demographic policy of the state, which can add to public assistance and make it more targeted by taking into account the needs of the workers who, along with performing professional functions, also carry parental responsibilities. The article studies the relationship between the readiness of a company to cover demographic aspects in its social responsibility policy and the presence of an innovative corporate culture. The theoretical basis includes the new institutional approach, according to which organizations and the environment they operate in are interconnected. Among the research methods used in the paper are expert survey, document analysis, as well as economic and statistical methods of univariate and multivariate analysis. The empirical basis was the results of: (1) a sociological study involving 500 representatives of all Russian federal districts (May–June 2020), which assessed the prevalence of corporate demographic policy measures in Russian regions and their effectiveness, and (2) an expert survey of 7 HR specialists (November 2021), which identified the type of corporate culture in a large Russian IT company instituting these measures. The findings show that the introduction of international practices at Russian enterprises to support families with children was accelerated by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The usefulness of such practices is highly valued by employees. The case study of the IT company reveals that it uses an innovative type of corporate culture. We demonstrate that the integration of demographic policy into a corporate culture of this type increases labour productivity, forms a positive public and corporate image of the company and contributes to its investment attractiveness.