Promoting business participation in solving demographic and social problems of the region: experience of analyzing government social media accounts

The participation of business in the demographic agenda of Russian regions is now seen as one of the effective mechanisms for increasing the birth rate. With the emergence of the national standard “Business Reputation Index of Subjects of Entrepreneurial Activity (ECG-rating)” and as a result of rating Russian enterprises of various spheres of activity and sizes, which includes an assessment of the social package of organizations by indicators, the main part of which is related to the support of fertility and the process of raising children of employees, the practice of corporate demographic policies, which was not widespread before, should reach a new level. It should become visible to the society and public authorities, for which it is advisable to reflect this practice in the state publications with the widest audience. The aim of the research is to study the content of the government social media accounts dedicated to business participation in the issues concerning social and demographic development of the region. As the object of the study, we selected the government social media accounts of the executive authorities of the Sverdlovsk Region, whose activities are aimed at implementing demographic policy and the developing business and entrepreneurship, in the social network “VKontakte”. We analyzed the posts for the period from January 1,2021 to April 30, 2024. We revealed that the public authorities of the Sverdlovsk Region do not yet consider business as a participant of the comprehensive demographic regional policy and do not link the problem of birth rate with the problem of staff shortage in the region. The lack of active promotion in social networks of the positive practices of corporate demographic policy available at the enterprises of the region may act as a certain barrier to their replication. At the same time, we recorded a positive dynamic of the frequency of posts about the programs implemented by enterprises to develop the potential of employees, career guidance, and business participation in charitable events. Consequently, the social orientation of business in the Sverdlovsk Region is being promoted, but does not yet include measures aimed at supporting the birth rate and alleviating the personnel shortage in the region.