Caucasus.RF integrates the experience of Moscow and Dubai in improving labor productivity.

Caucasus.RF's new area of activity, dedicated to human resources, competencies, and labor productivity, is being actively integrated into the federal agenda in this area. At the invitation of the Moscow Government's Department of Economic Policy and Development, experts from the development institute took part in a business mission for hoteliers in Dubai, UAE. Given the importance of such events for borrowing best international practices, Caucasus.RF plans to organize similar missions for Caucasian hoteliers in the future.

"We are actively taking the best practices from the market. For example, the Moscow Government has been working on labor productivity since 2022. They managed to increase productivity by 1.5 times in pilot projects and reduce the duration of business processes by a third. The total effect for 439 companies exceeded 14 billion rubles. It is important that our colleagues pay special attention to SMEs, which make up two-thirds of the project participants. Of course, it is foolish to ‘reinvent the wheel’ when you can establish cooperation, travel, and learn," says Timur Kebekov, curator of the new direction and deputy general director of Kavkaz.RF.

Technologies for increasing labor productivity are often inaccessible to small and medium-sized businesses. That is why, according to statistics from the Moscow City Hall, labor productivity in the SME sector is a quarter lower than the average for the economy. For the same reason, Kavkaz.RF, represented by the Industry Competence Center in the field of tourism, pays special attention to this segment of the tourism business.

One of the tasks is to expand the tools as much as possible and make them available to Caucasian businesses, including residents of SEZs under the management of Kavkaz.RF. To this end, the Competence Center plans to develop off-the-shelf solutions for optimizing operational processes and services, helps to introduce lean technologies in enterprises and hotels, and constantly improves its own insight and expertise.

As part of the business mission in Dubai, participants were able to learn the basics of hotel service quality management, as well as technologies for creating premium services.

"Premium service has long since abandoned scripts—it is impossible to show true care and hospitality on paper. The most important thing in successful hotel systems is to anticipate customer wishes and create a feeling of a second home so that people come back. And although robots are widely used in cleaning large hotels and the check-in process is automated, full automation in the premium segment is not expected. People need people," says Ruslan Tlepshev, a participant in the business mission.

Interestingly, during the trip, Russian hoteliers and productivity experts were able to study internal hotel administration—messaging apps, document approvals, and resource consumption accounting systems, including carbon emissions monitoring and energy efficiency improvements.

The Dubai team paid special attention to developing concierge services. In the UAE, this isn't just a reception desk, but an entire ecosystem that includes future professions such as "trip designer"—a seamless journey for tourists between attractions, activities, and unique experiences. AI is being actively integrated into travel design to eliminate language barriers and accommodate all guest interests.

The foundation of the success of each hotel that hosted the business mission participants is their staff. The utmost attention is paid to their work. Firstly, career advancement is rapid and transparent within the system. Mentoring tools, cross-training between departments, weekly team briefings, and a monthly meeting with the general manager are actively utilized.

The knowledge and contacts gained will be actively integrated into the work of both the Competence Center and the Association for the Development of Human Resources of the North Caucasus Federal District, created by Kavkaz.RF to address personnel issues in the tourism industry. Continued collaboration is planned with the Autonomous Non-Profit Organization (ANPO) Mosstrategiya, which is implementing a federal project on labor productivity in the capital, tourism, and hospitality.