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Dubai Municipality moves towards a great workplace

The civic body joins global programme which selects best places to work locally, regionally and globally as well as the best working environment, country-wise.

The Dubai Municipality has joined a global programme to qualify itself as a Great Place to Work (GPTW), rating among the best organisations in the world.

The move is aimed at benefiting from the global experiences of the GPTW, an organisation specialising in research and consultancy with over 50 branches across the world in enhancing the work environment of great organisations all over the world.

Khalid Abdul Rahim, the director of human resources department at the municipality, said in a Press release that the GPTW organisation conducts opinion poll among 10 million employees every year to know their work environment both in government and private sectors covering all areas of work. It also issues a list of best work places in the world based on the fulfillment of highest levels and requirements for the employee-friendly working environment.

He said that this survey measures the opinions of employees in certain areas including the trust of employee in the organisation and its leadership as well as their self-esteem and pride in the work for their organization.

“It also considers physical work atmosphere, (and) relationship with colleagues (by) conducting an electronic survey among the entire staff. Moreover, it studies the methodologies, policies and systems adopted by the HR department, and accordingly, identifies the organisation’s conformity with the globally recognised standards,” he explained.

Every year the GPTW selects best places to work locally, regionally and globally as well as the best working environment, country-wise. “Dubai Municipality is one of the early birds to join with GPTW in the emirate of Dubai as it considers its human resources the real assets of the organisation that totals at 11,000 from employees and workers in 33 departments comprising 140 different work sites,” he said.

Speaking to Khaleej Times, Abdul Rahim said GPTW’s UAE branch has already done an e-survey among the office employees of the municipality. “They will now be doing the survey of our labourers in their accommodations. The GPTW team will visit the municipality labour accommodation camps and interview the workers to conduct the survey.” He said the civic body wished to be considered on par with the world’s best organisations, rather than confining itself as a government department.

“It will be great to know how well we are performing compared to great companies like Google, Samsung and Emirates Airline…After the survey and analysis, we will get to know where we stand, whether there are any gaps that we need to fill in, what modifications we need to adopt etc.”

In terms of its responsibilities, he pointed out, the civic body deals with all segments of the society including citizens, residents and visitors irrespective of the age and nationalities, which in turn necessitates to be keen in possessing and providing best ways of satisfaction and empowerment among employees to meet its huge responsibilities.

“A time will come when all government organisations in Dubai would be among the best places to work globally in tune with the aspirations of our leadership,” the official said. —sajila@khaleejtimes.com