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Dr. Abdulrahman Al Awar at the opening of International HR Conference: the human element is the ‘real capital’

Tuesday April 19, 2016

HE Dr. Abdul Rahman Al Awar, Director General of the Federal Authority for Government Human Resources (FAHR), confirmed that the UAE pays great attention to upgrading the development of the human element as the real capital of its progress and prosperity, and a means to promote a sustainable knowledge economy.

He noted the keen interest of the wise leadership represented by President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, to adopt the best global practices and experiences to achieve those objectives and provide a work environment which encourages people to attain the highest levels of creativity and innovation.

The remarks were made in the speech delivered by Dr. Al Awar in the opening ceremony  of the Sixth International Conference on Human Resources, organized by FAHR under the auspices of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, with the participation of 30 speakers, and international experts, in addition to  some 500 participants interested in this sector, and nearly twenty sponsors, exhibitors and partners.

HE underlined the importance of human capital in enhancing the position of the UAE’s global leadership and competitiveness, especially in this critical stage, which is witnessing a race towards knowledge economy that acknowledges the challenges of a rapidly changing macroeconomic environment.

Explaining the theme of the 2-day conference, which was held at Dubai World Trade Centre, he said that it was centered around achieving  happiness and enabling young people to build the future of their homeland, especially that the conference  came  two months after the radical structural changes in the federal government announced by the wise leadership. “The changes lay the building blocks for the government of the future, by focusing on happiness in the work environment, the impact of global changes on competencies needed for future governments, the role of talent in competitiveness of institutions and governments, as well as  adoption of innovative and effective practices, and optimal use of technology to ensure effective and sustainable performance of human resources and organization” he noted.

The Director General added: “What distinguishes this conference form all previous ones is the size and active participation of speakers and international experts sharing their unique and successful experiences, and scientific insights that will support the participants and their organizations  to raise their performance  and productivity to new heights”.

At the conclusion of his speech, HE Dr. Abdulrahman Al Awar thanked Informa Middle East, Conference sponsors Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).and knowledge partners, particularly the Society for Human Resource Management in the United States (SHRM), Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

Talent & Institutional Competency Management

On the first day, the conference discussed many topics relevant to its slogan, and the development and empowerment of the human element, through the working papers and panel discussion sessions. The first paper was presented by the guest of honor Lin Goodyear, CEO of Australian Institute of Human Resources (AHRI), under the title "Talent Management In a Changing World & Its Impact on the Public Sector”,  indicating that the public sector employees provide a successful role model, in terms of participation and involvement in the work environment, so as to achieve the aspirations of their leadership in return for the attention, appreciation and facilitied provided for their success.

Lin Goodyear confirmed that talent management and change leadership are the most important priorities on the agenda of AHRI at the present time, and that successful organizations are those institutions that consider and treat each employee as talented, stressing the need for talent management in a scientific and systematic way for an organization to bring about the desired change and achieve its strategic goals.

She explained that human resource department managers are required to develop programs to develop the capabilities and skills of their staff, according to talent management criteria based on three elements: employee’s competence, contributions made at the team and organizational levels, and commitment to the culture and values of the enterprise.

Lin Goodyear emphasized the importance of investing in competencies and talents, involving them in decision-making, enabling them to take up higher jobs,  and identifying their needs on an ongoing basis, as a crucial success factor in any organization. “The future of organizations depends largely on the attention given to the development and empowerment of their human capital.” She said.

Effective Participation

Jenn Lim, CEO and Chief Happiness Officer of Delivering Happiness presented a working paper on "Exploitation Employee Happiness in Promoting a Culture of Active Participation," reviewing the creation of more innovative environment in the workplace, in order to achieve active participation of employees and change their ways of thinking, with a focus on Emiratization programs and talent management.

She stressed the importance of workplace happiness in increasing productivity and satisfaction of employees and customers alike. “If you have happier employees you will actually have happier customers and then you will have long term, more sustainable companies / brands”, she noted.

She added: "Given the fact that achieving the people's happiness is one of the main goals set by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, as reflected in UAE Vision 2021, institutions are seeking to transform the workplace, characterized by stress, to an environment conducive to  innovation and creativity by establishing happiness at work. Great progress has been made to achieve this goal by the UAE generally and wonderful Dubai in particular. So, companies can use happiness as a business model to increase productivity and profitability”

The speaker said that happiness is not just a rigid concept or a marketing feature, but has become a business model and a global approach designed to increase the happiness and satisfaction of employees and customers, thus improving performance and productivity.

 

She called on organizations to promote a culture of happiness among employees, give it a great attention and study, and make it a top priority , by promoting the underlying values, ethics and behaviors of all employees, to ensure their compliance. Similarly the organizations must demonstrate transparency while communicating with them, involve them in the plans and strategies, fulfill their needs and encourage them for more creativity and innovation.

She also noted that happiness in the work environment is achieved by  building relationships between management, employees and customers, as well as initiating active communication with these parties, and well planned teamwork based on brainstorming and feedback. She added: "We have to  focus on happiness in the workplace today more than ever, and make happiness a life style in our organizations through inspiration and visual thinking to achieve sustainable happiness"

“In fact, there is a direct correlation between happiness at work and employee engagement. Happiness at work doesn't just boost morale, it also increases productivity by almost 50%. Happiness, therefore, leads to success, not
vice versa”. The speaker concluded.

Administrative changes

HE Mohammed Ali Al Bastaki, Asst Undersecretary for Humanitarian and Development, Ministry of Presidential Affairs, explained, in a special session on human capital management transformation, that human capital development has undergone major changes during the past two decades, due to several reasons, including: globalization and changes in the administrative approach, diversity in global production and the rise of emerging economies leading to brain drain from west to east.

He said: “The transformation of government's performance from traditional to electronic, then to smart government has a very important impact on the development of local human resources, depending on national strategies announced by the leadership. These national strategies resulted in the establishment of a corporate culture based on openness in government work, leading to growing attention to encouraging employee and studies on the causes and mechanisms that lead to this end”.

 

HE Al Bastaki said that the UAE was among the first countries to give a special attention to employee - organization relationship, providing all conditions for innovation and organizational excellence, through the adoption of a number of national programs, such as: organizational excellence awards, leadership development programs, talent management programs, creation of government work environment competitiveness, diversification of education outcomes, etc. All these initiatives significantly impacted employees’ relationship with their institutions leading to a new corporate culture.

He stressed that increasing the knowledge of the staff is the most effective tool for the development of creative local human resources, besides adopting innovative approaches to encounter challenges, in order to achieve government excellence and productivity in government work. In this regard, he cited the National Strategy for Innovation launched by the Government in 2014, and emergence of national creativity incubators, as well as the government's drive to invest in cognitive capabilities in research centers and conduct national studies in many areas, especially energy,  and establishment of knowledge cities across the emirates, leading to increasing numbers of government employees wishing to complete their higher education.

According to Al Bastaki, career counseling services has an important role in the development of human capital, as a crucial vehicle to define  behaviors of employees and jobseekers, simplify the mechanisms for job performance toward a more understanding to the role of each employee, and explore reasons for employee turnover.

The speaker reviewed the relationship between business sector and scientific research institutions and universities, indicating that global investment in scientific research reaches nearly $ 400 billion a year, or approximately 7% of global GDP. This investment has positive results on corporate performance, especially that technology has become a strategic partner of institutional sectors, and that technological applications are leading to workforce reduction and are seen as a breakthrough in human resources management.

Smart Workplace

For his part, Joe Chalouhi, Senior Human Resources Manager for the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) at General Electric presented a  paper on  smarter workplaces titled “How technology Changes the Nature of Work”, highlighting integration of technology in human resources operations in the Middle East region, and success factors in this area.

He explained that the speed at which the new business world develops, reflects the rapid pace of innovative technologies impact on the way people perform their work and deal with each other.

Chalohi reviewed the contribution of technology in human resources operations in the Middle East and, explaining that tablets, smartphones and social media have played a big role in the spread of digital technology in the world, and that any success today depends on this technology.

He said that General Electric is now is the number one company worldwide in this area, with 300,000 employees around the world linked to a human resources system that enable them to complete their transactions, or get answers to their inquiries, without having to travel to the company's headquarters in the United States

He added: "In some companies team leaders vertically focus on  participation and enhancing skills, but there must be leaders working on horizontal side also and focus on attracting talents capable of generating  creative ideas to contribute to the desired development process, so that we predict the future rather than waiting for what it will bring”.

Exhibition

On the sidelines of the Conference, in which Dr. Abdulrahman Al Awar, Director General of FAHR honored the knowledge partners and sponsors, an exhibition was held, bringing together a number of companies and organization specialized in systems, programs and knowledge related to human resources and human capital development and management.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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