More than 1,000 Zaporizhstal employees are defending Ukraine from the enemy at the frontline, and 168 steelworkers have already returned to work and civilian life. Everyone has their unique combat, traumatic experience after service, and it is important to find the right approach to each of them.
To make the adaptation process as comfortable as possible, managers of various levels are currently taking the Wartime Leadership training course.
During the four-week course, the plant's professionals listen to online initial training sessions with qualified military psychologists and trainers. In particular, they get insight into the problems and challenges of initial reintegration of veterans and acquire skills in diagnosing and providing first aid, and so on. The course helps team leaders to organise effective work and strengthen teams.
In addition to online sessions, the course participants can also get useful information from a specially created telegram channel. It offers a lot of additional useful materials, tests and practical exercises, and recordings of sessions.
Vasyl Zavhorodnii, an electrical equipment repair foreman of Zaporizhstal's cold rolling shop, is gaining important knowledge alongside his colleagues. He is convinced that the new skills will help him in his interaction with the team.
"The war has taken a toll on all of us in one way or another – the military and their families, the internally displaced persons, those who continued to work and support the country's economy amid the sound of sirens and explosions. And we, as managers, must be able to properly communicate with each team member. The training course helps to find different tools for interacting with the team – both with military personnel returning to civilian life and with those who held the line on the economic front and worked at the enterprise. Despite our differences, our motivation is the same – everyone in their place is doing everything possible to support Ukraine," says Vasyl ZAVHORODNII.
It has been a month since stormtrooper Ruslan Sutkovyi demobilised from the Ukrainian army and returned to his workplace in the control room of continuous pickling line No 4 at Zaporizhstal. At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, he joined the territorial defence forces and later became the deputy commander of the assault group of the 71st separate jaeger brigade. While Ruslan admits that civilian life is very different from military life, colleagues and the immediate environment help him adapt to it.
"It happened more than once that I was asked extremely inappropriate questions about the war, and this unwittingly brought back memories of my military experience. About things you don't really want to remember. It is clear that now there is a kind of barrier between civilians and the military that impedes comfortable communication. At the same time, I also understand that it is hard for all of us – whether you were on the frontline or not, you still feel the pain of war. Because we are one front, and each of us is doing everything in our power to bring the Victory closer. And we are adapting to the new reality and learning to be forbearing, tolerant and mutually supportive," said Ruslan SUTKOVYI.
As a reminder, since the beginning of the war, 9,000 Metinvest employees have joined the Ukrainian defence forces, and 400 of them have already returned to work. Under the circumstances, the company has developed one of the best adaptation programmes for veterans and is actively working on reintegrating the heroes into civilian life. Creating veterans' communities, preparing teams for the return of demobilised employees, as well as caring for veterans and the conditions for their return to work are the main criteria, based on which Metinvest Group has been chosen as the winner in the Work for Heroes nomination according to oboz.ua.
