The Federal Authority for Government Human Resources (FAHR), participated in the virtual conference recently held by the Arab Administrative Development Organization (ARADO), under the title "The Role of Arab Public Administration in Containing COVID-19 Pandemic". Ministries, heads of bureaus and civil service entities in Member States participated in the conference, to review experiences of their entities and other governmental institutions in dealing with the pandemic.
The Authority was represented by Hamad Buamim, Director of Policies and Legal Affairs Department, who confirmed that the UAE Government has taken proactive steps to limit the repercussions of COVID-19 pandemic on vital economic sectors, as well as mitigate its impact on various aspects of life.
He said: “The UAE felt the importance of investing in modern technology, including artificial intelligence techniques, in addition to automating government services, to make them available to customers through various electronic and smart channels.
“The Authority has always been a major partner in supporting the state’s efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. In this regard, it took a number of precautionary measures, which had the greatest impact in protecting Federal Government employees, ensuring business continuity and smooth service provision at the level of ministries and federal entities, within a safe and stable work environment.”
Hamad Buamim reviewed the most important measures taken by the Authority to combat the Coronavirus disease. He said: “A set of guidelines have been developed covering the remote working system at the Federal Government level, under emergency circumstances arising from the pandemic, in cooperation with the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs and the Future, to provide all services needed by the Federal Government employees and customers electronically through the Federal Government’s HR Management Information System (Bayanati), the Smart Application (FAHR), and the Customer Happiness System.
“In addition, the attendance and departure registration service for Federal Government employees has been launched electronically to suit the remote working system, as well as the virtual sessions approach which was launched through the e-Learning Portal (Al Mawrid), to enable Federal Government employees to continue learning and training through the portal.”
Buamim spoke about the results of the study prepared by the Authority, during2020, on the implementation of the remote working system in light of exceptional circumstances at the Federal Government level, covering 53 federal ministries and entities, with the participation of 6,327 employees.
He explained that that the study came up with important results, that would help the federal entities in general, and the Authority in particular, especially in terms of setting policies, preparing better for the future, and organizing remote working; in order to achieve the best desired results regarding protection of employee health and safety.
He said that the results of the study showed that 91% of Federal Government employees are satisfied with introducing the remote work system under the current situations, and 96% of them confirmed that their entities are implementing remote working system under the current exceptional circumstances, while 92% of respondents said that their tasks are being documented and their accomplishments monitored on a weekly or daily basis, during remote work period.
“The study also showed that 85% of respondents felt that their employers provided the necessary technological requirements for working remotely, and 61% of them confirmed that they did not encounter any difficulties in coping with working remotely,” Buamim noted.
He added that, according to the results of the study, 92% of the employees have their tasks and achievements monitored on a weekly and daily basis, (50% of participants are documenting their tasks through periodic reports that are shared with the entity’s officials, while 37% of them are doing so through electronic systems.