Emaar Retail Honours Staff Achievements With STAAR Awards

Emaar Retail LLC, a pioneer in innovative entertainment, leisure and retail concepts, has introduced the STAAR Awards to acknowledge and demonstrate appreciation for the outstanding achievements of its 800-strong staff members.

The STAAR Awards honours employees for five key parameters: Smile, Teamwork, Attitude, Attention to Detail and Respect. Each of the five leisure assets of Emaar Retail including Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo, Dubai Ice Rink, KidZania®, Reel Cinemas and SEGA Republic nominates staff members for STAAR Awards. Based on these nominations, one employee is selected every month from each attraction for outstanding performance within these parameters.

STAAR winners were awarded at a recent ceremony held on May 26, 2011 by Arif Amiri, Chief Executive Officer of Emaar Retail LLC. He said: “Emaar Retail is committed to providing the best of customer experience for our visitors, and in this regard, the active engagement of our staff members plays a vital role. The STAAR Awards are a key management initiative to further encourage our staff members to enhance customer services standards and contribute to the overall efficiencies of the organisation.”

Emaar Retail LLC manages Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo, which opens a new window of learning by showcasing some 33,000 aquatic animals; the Olympic-size Dubai Ice Rink; the Middle East’s largest and first of its kind indoor theme park – SEGA Republic; the region’s largest megaplex; KidZania®, the first and only one of its kind, award-winning children’s edutainment centre in the region; the 22-screen Reel Cinemas at The Dubai Mall, and the 6-screen premier boutique Reel Cinemas at Dubai Marina Mall.
 

2,500 staff members join Dubai Municipalitys Car Free Day initiative

More than 2,500 employees from three local departments joined Dubai Municipality’s Car Free Day initiative on Wednesday by travelling to office using different means of public transport such as Metro and public transport buses.

Eng. Hussain Nasser Lootah, Director General of Dubai Municipality led the large contingent of officials from Municipality in the environmental initiative organized by the civic body for the second consecutive year. Lootah and his colleagues embarked the Metro at Rashidiya Station and came to Union station adjacent to the Municipality.

The initiative, launched in 2010, is being observed this year in cooperation with the Land Department, Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Etisalat and the Roads and Transport Authority.

The small ceremony held at the Municipality staff parking area, which was empty on Wednesday, was also attended by Sultan Butti Bin Mujrin, Director General, Dubai Lands Department and Ghanem Al Marri, Director General, Etisalat, Dubai.

Lootah, who expressed his happiness on the increased representation of local departments in the initiative, said that from next year onwards the Municipality will try to rope in the private sector establishments.

The ceremony included an environment-friendly car show, bio diesel project, a photo exhibition on the last year’s initiative, for which Dubai Municipality bagged the Idea Arabia Award, and a commemorative tree planting by Lootah and other officials.

A religious lecture by Sheikh Abdullah Al Kamali titled "Islam and Environment" was also organized at the Municipality’s City Hall as part of the Car Free Day initiative.

"The Car Free Day was organized to encourage the local community to care their cities the best way by reducing the number of vehicles, especially those used on city roads and also to raise awareness on alternative means of transport," said Lootah. He recalled that last year the initiative could save the environment from three tonnes of carbon dioxide emission as more than 1,000 vehicles of employees did not reach the Municipality, in addition to the vehicles of the DM customers.

Lootah said the Municipality will come out with a detailed report about the result of implementing the initiative, which will include the statistics about the volume of carbon dioxide emission reduced due to the initiative by calculating the number of participants and the kind of vehicles they use.

"We will encourage every employee to use mass transport as much as possible in the future also. When we initiated Car Free Day last year many of our employees have made it a regular practice. More than 100 employees are using Metro for the last one year to commute to and from the office. We have given them free Nol cards that are being renewed every month," he said.

"We are happy that other departments and public have come out in supporting our initiative. Environment is not only the responsibility of the government bodies. All the people have a role and responsibility towards its protection," said Lootah.

He said the civic body decided to adopt the Car Free Day concept as it facilitates a number of steps that enhance the opportunities for achieving sustainable urban transport followed by enhancing the air quality in the urban area as well as reducing carbon dioxide emission, which is considered to be a hot gas that causes climate change.

 

du Celebrates 2010 Successes At Its Annual Staff Gathering

du hosted its annual celebration 2011 at the Arena Hall in DWTC, to celebrate the company’s successes in 2010.

The event is a gesture of appreciation for the commitment and effort put in by the dedicated family of colleagues without whom such impressive results would not be possible. The event was also attended by Ahmad Bin Bayat, Chairman, Osman Sultan, CEO, du’s executive management as well as over 1700 du employees.

Winners of departmental performance and internal competition awards were recognized in of the presence of their colleagues. “best managers” according to the results of studies by Gallup were also rewarded. Results of Gallup have shown that du’s employee engagement has improved significantly over the past two years, with double the number of employees now engaged year on year, placing du near the top quartile of companies worldwide. The highlight of the evening was the CEO’s presentation which covered the achievements of the past year and an overview of the vision for the year ahead.

“Our colleagues are the backbone of our company and the key to our success. We would not be where we are today without their commitment and dedicated efforts. This evening is dedicated to them and has been put together to honour their efforts with a night to remember,” said Osman Sultan, CEO, du.

Two popular international acts “Shadow Motion” and “Dress Change” performed at the event, to the delight of the audience. The acts were chosen for their content that surprises, transforms on the fly and presents the fastest options, illustrating du’s qualities as telecommunications operator and its brand values: friendly, surprising, honest and confident.

 

Emirates NBD Organises A Staff Art Show

As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives and its commitment to promoting art, culture and heritage, Emirates NBD, the largest banking group in the Middle East in terms of assets has recently started the first Staff Art Show. The works of art will be on display at the main Emirates NBD branch until the 22nd of July, before being moved to various other branches in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. A select few will also be displayed in the Pearl Museum, which could be an aspiring artist’s gateway into the world of art.

The opening of the art show, comprising 43 paintings and photographs submitted entirely by the bank staff, was attended by members of the Senior Management of the Bank, as well as the artists, well-wishers, family and friends.

The Art Show received an overwhelming response from the bank employees, with over 180 submissions. The experts taking a call on the best entries were from the prestigious American University of Sharjah, with the design professor Philip Sheil as the painting curator for the event and Tarek Al Ghossein, the photography professor, judging the photography entries.
 

Community Development Authority Trains Dubai International Airport Staff For Meeting Needs Of People With Disabilities

The Community Development Authority (CDA) in Dubai conducted a two-day awareness workshop on topics related to people with disabilities for the front line staff at the Dubai International Airport. The initiative, which was organized in collaboration with Standards & Procedures section, is part of CDA’s strategic objective of enhancing social inclusion and to raise awareness surrounding people with diabilities.

Dr. Eman Gaad, Director of Disability Services at CDA, who is also an international expert in the field of international integration for people with disabilities, Associate Professor at the British University in Dubai and honorary professor at the University of Birmingham, UK, led the workshops, which aimed at promoting the concepts, facilities and services provided by travel and tourism industry physically disadvantaged people.

The workshops included general knowledge about causes of disabilities, a better understanding of the most common disabilities and ways to approach and treat certain categories of disabilities to ensure equal opportunities and rights among tourists as they constitute 10% of the total number of tourists in the world.

“This initiative is part of CDA’s role in strengthening the role of individuals in the society to contribute positively to all sectors of development. CDA focuses on social convergence that is based on the principles of accepting and respecting others and also on the openness to other cultures. The workshops is part of joint efforts to spread awareness on people with disbilities and ways to fulfill their needs during their travel and stay,” said Her Excellency Dr Maryam Matar, Director General, CDA.

“Such constructive initiatives are part of the UAE’s efforts to qualify its tourism and hotel infrastructure to receive people with disabilities by providing services and facilities that meet their needs. The workshops targeted the staff members who deal with all segments of the society including those with diabilities,” said Mr. Ismail Al Banna, Executive Vice President, Dnata

Participants from Dnata included Mr. Nick Moore, Senior Vice President, Mr. Jaafar Daoud, Vice President Customer Service and Mr. Ali Nizar, Special Handling Manager.

New HR And Payroll Law Covering Employees Of Dubai’s Judicial Staff Implemented

In accordance with the vision of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai and the directions of Dubai Government to focus on customer and employee satisfaction, the GRPS division within Dubai eGovernment has implemented the law issued by His Highness on April 12, 2009 on Government Resources Planning which has positively affected Dubai’s judicial staff, namely, the judges of Dubai Courts, the prosecutors of Dubai Public Prosecution and judicial inspectors in H.H. Ruler’s Court.

Thanks to the close follow up of higher management and the sterling effort made by the team in charge of activating the law after Dubai eGovernment was notified of the executive decision on May 13, 2009, the team of six employees from the Government Resources Management and Planning System (GRPS) at Dubai eGovernment managed to provide the necessary technical solutions, procedures and system components for servicing the more than 260 employees involved, in a record two weeks.

Mohammed Karzoun, Director of GRPS at Dubai eGovernment, said: “Departments and employees recognize the importance and effectiveness of the new system. Our use of the best system applications has led to several achievements such as the standardization of procedures, significant reduction of costs, and speedier service delivery.”

The project team included Hamzeh Hamarneh, Project Manager; Hana Al Shamlan, Payroll ERP Specialist; Hatem El Mallah, HR ERP Specialist; Mahmoud Hasan, Senior Application Developer; Dallia Hajjat, Account Manager; and Mohammed Abdel Haseeb, Database Administrator.

The GRPS team monitored the automation of the operational, administrative and financial processes of all the departments of the Dubai Government, referring to the best financial, administrative and legislative practices adopted. A range of cooperative electronic systems serving government departments and their employees was used to implement the project.

It is worth noting that Dubai Government adopted the GRP system provided by Dubai eGovernment to create a pioneering model for systems dedicated to serving government departments and their employees. The integrated and streamlined system provides various services to manage material, human and financial resources. It is based on the principle of accrual accounting, which supports self-service, promotes local development and saves a significant amount of financial resources for the government as a whole.