The workshop was opened by Aisha Al Suwaidi, Executive Director of Human Resources Policies Sector, in the presence of dozens of employees of ministries and federal entities implementing the Guide.

HE Aisha Al Suwaidi emphasized the importance of the Guide in developing the institutional system in the Federal Government, speeding up the work in ministries and federal entities, and upgrading the quality of services provided by the human resources departments in the ministries and federal bodies for both internal and external customers.

She said: “The Authority has prepared on the Guide to HR Accelerators in order to assist the ministries and federal bodies with preparing and implementing service level agreements (SLAs)that help instil a culture of service excellence and customers’ happiness.  SLA is an agreement that is negotiated and coordinated between the human resources department at a ministry or entity, in its capacity as a service provider on the one hand, and recipients of such services including departments, employees and customers on the other. It aims at clarifying and detailing the expectations of human resources services in terms of quality and time frames. It seeks to clarify and detail expectations of services and targets”.

Aisha Al Suwaidi stressed the importance of service level agreements for human resources departments, service recipients, and ministries and federal agencies in general. “At the level of human resources departments, these agreements contribute to focusing the time of these departments and their resources on strategic aspects, besides meeting day-to-day operational requirements effectively and efficiently, as well as assisting in identifying relevant human resources procedures and services provided by the department, clarifying the roles and responsibilities of the department, and providing a mechanism performance measurement and improvement”, she noted.

According to Aisha Al Suwaidi, SLAs define the needs, requirements and expectations of service users, clarify their roles and responsibilities, ensure alignment of the Federal Government’s HR Strategy with the strategy of the entity, contribute to creating a culture of service quality, enhance the concept of continuous improvement and provide a mechanism for governance and problem solving.

She said that the 4th edition of the Emirates HR Award will witness the addition of a new criterion that measures the performance and effectiveness of human resources departments in the ministries and federal entities. Each federal entity will be evaluated according to its binding service level agreement. She added that the services provided by human resources departments cover three levels: employees, organizational units within the entity, and external parties dealing with human resources departments.

Characteristics and milestones of SLAs

For her part, Maha Khamis, Senior Executive, Policies & Research shed light on the most important characteristics of service level agreements. She explained that such agreements are introduced as part of a quality initiative to improve customer focus, should be based on negotiation and agreement, be measurable, objectives, realistic but challenging, approved by senior management, and continuously reviewed and updated.

According to her, preparation and implementation of the service level agreements goes through five stages: First, define SLA Scope - This defines the exact manner in which services are delivered within the agreed upon time frame. It also outlines priorities of the entity assigns roles and responsibilities of all the departments/vendors involved.

Second, set plan and SLA outline, through determining the course of HR service delivery and verifying the content of the proposed SLA.

The third step is implementation phase, where the work plan is prepared, the need for new operations is determined, the training of human resources staff is carried out, and the SLA is disseminated. The performance measurement phase is then compared to the service agreements.

The fourth step involves monitoring performance and compliance, as well as submitting reports to senior management, while the fifth and final step is to keep your SLAs open to changes and modifications to progress with evolving business and customer needs.