Caring about people: how TAIF-NK keeps its workers healthy

Staff’s health is company’s main value

Almost 4,000 people work today in one of the biggest Russian oil refineries TAIF-NK, and each of them has decent social benefits. Corporate wellness programmes include a full set of measures aimed to keep the workers healthy.

Prevention is the first and crucial link of this chain. At this stage, the company does its best to diagnose prerequisites for a disease at an early stage and prevent its development. At the second stage, to be able to recover health, every worker has additional medical insurance and has a chance to improve his or her health in health resorts.

“Routine medical check-ups are a necessary measure in organisations using hazardous facilities. It is impossible to achieve goals that are set and provide normal operation of production without a healthy worker,” says head of Process Safety Service at TAIF-NK JSC Rinat Kurmanov.

TAIF-NK JSC does the check-up in a specialised health care establishment according to a schedule to avoid queues near rooms and follow social distancing. Moreover, additional protection measures from the coronavirus infection are taken indoors.

“This year we had to perform a tough task to do the check-up in the current epidemiological situation because of the coronavirus infection. Additional measures on the use of protective masks, disinfection of hands, social distancing, a limited daily number of workers, timely disinfection of surfaces that were taken allowed separate the staff from external factors and protecting the workers from the infection,” head of Process Safety Service at TAIF-NK JSC Rinat Kurmanov said.

Workers do additional screenings

During the medical check-up, the employees compulsorily do a сomplete blood count and biochemical test, an ECG, have their hearing, vision checked, etc. They are examined by such specialists as otolaryngologist, ophthalmologist, neurologist, neuropathologist, addiction psychiatrist, dermatologist, general practitioner and occupational therapist.

“The goal of the routine check-up is to determine a health group and give a worker recommendations. As an addiction psychiatrist, first of all, I pay attention to a person’s resistance to banned psychoactive substances and alcohol and evaluate the employee’s psyche. There are special tests, a set of methods for this purpose. Fortunately, everything is great at TAIF-NK. There aren’t people here who would cause fears or doubts. The system protecting drunken workers from entering the territory of the company makes itself known, and this just inspires respect,” noted addiction psychiatrist Timur Bikmullin.

Doctor’s consultation

Thanks to support from the management of TAIF GC and TAIF-NK in the last years, the employees have done a thorough check-up, which includes additional screenings for dangerous diseases and risk factors for their development.

“The cardiovascular system was screened last year. To obtain dynamics in this area, there were found employees with different risk categories. These workers made an appointment with the cardiologist for additional examination, some of them were under supervision and registered in polyclinics, they were made reservations to receive treatment in health resorts,” Process Safety Service at TAIF-NK JSC Rinat Kurmanov stressed.

This year, it’s been decided to do an additional check-up of the digestive system of all workers of the company.

“First, the employees do an abdominal X-ray, which includes an examination of the liver, gallbladder, pancreas. Then they go to the gastroenterologist’s room where the specialist gives them a medical certificate and talks about the state of their health. During an appointment, we compulsorily ask them if they have complaints, pains, after that, we compare X-ray tests and do an examination. If needed, we give them recommendations or prescribe treatment, while sometimes, in ambiguous cases we prescribe them additional examination,” said gastroenterologist Elvina Myasoutova.

The management of the company believes that the detection of diseases at an early stage will allow recovering health and start working at minimal cost and with the minimum amount of effort. For this purpose, every worker is annually given a voluntary medical insurance certificate. It gives them a chance to receive qualified advice from specialists of health care establishments in any city not only in the Republic of Tatarstan but also outside it.

“People often don’t know which doctor they should seek advice from. For instance, a person complains about back pain, moreover, he doesn’t understand what aches — a kidney or the lower back. After a medical check-up, it turns out that he should pay attention to the low back, do a CT and turn to a neurologist. We consult him, give him the first prescriptions. Workers at TAIF-NK are young, healthy,” says neurologist Natalya Naumova.

Caring about everybody

TAIF-NK's staff is young, one in two workers are from 18 to 35 years. Aleksandr Safronov has been working in the oil refinery for 12 years already. According to him, the medical check-up organised by the enterprise’s management helps saving time it takes to go to urban polyclinics.

“We always do the check-up in one place. Everything is compact and convenient. We learn about the state of our health within a couple of hours, after that, we go back to our workplace. It is very convenient, thanks to the management of the company for the opportunity and the care about our health,” says Aleksandr Safronov.

If after the check-up it turns out an employee needs to improve his health, he goes to health resorts of Tatarstan or Volga Federal District.

“Thanks to the check-up, we can consult top specialists from Kazan, get necessary recommendations. A scheduled medical check-up allows us to learn about the state of our cardiovascular, digestive systems, detect health problems. It is a big advantage for us,” said Vice Director in Property Management Andrey Ivanov who has been working at TAIF-NK for over 11 years.

The management of TAIF-NK understands its responsibility to the staff that work in non-stop production, implements big investment projects because strategic tasks set to the enterprise can be performed only in a professional and, most importantly, healthy staff.

“All our facilities are hazardous. This is why keeping TAIF-NK workers’ life and health is one of the main tasks together higher reliability and production efficiency. The whole staff of the enterprise works for the common business with full self-dedication. This is the recipe for success of the company because precisely highly qualified specialists are the most important thing in process safety and the manufacture of high-quality products,” thinks Rushan Shamgunov, director general of TAIF-NK JSC.

Today TAIF-NK is a modern oil refinery exhibiting tendencies of the development of the global industry and is the foundation of the global economy. Stable operation of one of the leading enterprises of the republic and country, undoubtedly, increases gross regional and national products and enhances the general level of effectiveness and innovation of the regional economy.

Affiliated report