Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00When I started at Dubai Airport in 2010, it was a general HR and administrative function.
00:13Perception of HR in general is all about administration, terminating people, disciplining people, making
00:19sure salaries are on time, and I took that as a challenge.
00:23My task on this was to transform this perception into something different.
00:29As I mentioned, it's all about engaging people, improving people's morale, productivity, engagement,
00:37performance.
00:38It's something different.
00:39It's more on the strategic element versus administrative element.
00:44Actually, that title came in 2024.
00:46I had a discussion with my CEO, and I said, do you think it's the right time now to transform
00:51this?
00:52Because considering where we are as Dubai Airport, HR is traditional and old-fashioned.
00:58We need to be different.
00:59If we are the best airport, then we need to reshape our titles to indicate how we are
01:03different.
01:04It's a complex environment in Dubai Airport, and I'll tell you why.
01:07As a Dubai Airport entity, we govern the services, the assets, and making sure that Dubai Airport
01:14continues to be the best and the biggest in the world.
01:17It's a competition, and the competition keeps growing as well.
01:20For us, we work with other entities that have a huge influence towards Dubai Airport services,
01:25such as the key stakeholders, police, immigration, customs, airlines.
01:32For us, it's how we get many hearts into one beat, and how do we actually play that rhythm
01:38to ensure everybody works together, everybody speaks the same language.
01:42Police would definitely have different policies, immigration would do, and all that.
01:46The journey is we've reached now to a level where we all talk to each other, we all play
01:51the same rhythm, we all unify to sit together and discuss.
01:55For example, we got immigration, entities like immigration and police and customs to
02:00join our training so that we can unify the training standards, we can unify the service
02:07standards so we all know what are the gaps that we need to close in order to serve the
02:12passengers and make sure that we all serve passengers under one rhythm and not different
02:19rhythms.
02:20When we were training at Dubai Airport, we wanted to be efficient and effective.
02:23We didn't want to focus on volumes.
02:25I mean, people would definitely assume Dubai Airport would be around maybe 5,000 or maybe
02:3010,000.
02:31We're actually only 1,700, and there was a journey for us where we were 5,000 in old
02:37days and we became 1,700.
02:39Our role was just to focus on the right analytical strategic key roles that would influence Dubai
02:46Airport positively.
02:47On the other hand, we had to open a performance contract with key stakeholders who would help
02:53us to deliver their objectives.
02:55What mainly keeps us working together is the culture, culture of collaboration.
03:02As I mentioned, we are a 100,000 workforce, not just us as Dubai Airport is 1,700, but
03:09there are other workforces that we are indirectly influencing.
03:13This goes up to 100,000 people.
03:15Dubai Airport, along with the stakeholder, collaborating under one theme.
03:20This is what makes us successful.
03:21I think it wasn't an easy journey for us to start influencing key stakeholders, especially
03:27when people come from a different background, more disciplined and engaging and all that.
03:34It wasn't easy at the beginning, but when we started showing results, competition, risks,
03:41how other airports are moving ahead, with the commitment from Sheikh Ahmed as well,
03:46that we all should be working under one theme and one objectives and all that.
03:50That's what motivated everyone to start coming up with ways to work with each other.
03:54We facilitated that.
03:56We made sure that we facilitated how we should be working with each other or under one objectives.
04:01We simulated how the results could be if we do work under one umbrella and with each other.
04:07It was a tough journey, but we've reached now to a level where we all understand each
04:12other now and it's way better than ever.
04:15I think my interaction with passengers as a chief people officer will always be at the
04:20minimum level because my focus is on our people.
04:23If I make our people engagement at the highest level, I'm very confident that the effect
04:29on the passenger will always be high.
04:32It's always to do with the soft skills.
04:35How do we actually treat our passengers?
04:37How do we guide them?
04:40How do we help them?
04:41Apart from the technical side as well, how do we make sure that the assets are well-maintained
04:45so that they feel in a comfortable climate, the ACs are good?
04:50But I think it's all about how we focus on our people, how we make our people productive,
04:54well-engaged, and definitely that will give always a successful result towards our passengers.
05:00The help, I think there is an ACI rank where there is indication of how our people are
05:06helping them and that has always been improving, which reassuring that the service we provide
05:12to our people, as an example, for example, training has always been effective and good.
05:17So I think if I recall many, many years ago, there was always issues and gap there where
05:22staff feels that they haven't been served well or not given enough attention or enough time.
05:27The security, especially, sometimes are a bit rigid, typically as other airports are,
05:33but we have transformed that now to a level where we always get positive numbers when
05:38it comes to certain outcomes that we review, which means now people understand what needs
05:43to be done.
05:44It's a hospitality environment as well.
05:47We need to provide a hospitality environment and services to our people so that they feel
05:52welcome, they feel comfortable.
05:54We've done a lot of programs to transform the department to where it is today.
05:59I mean, when I joined in 2010, I was on my own.
06:02There wasn't a structure that looks after people productivity, manpower planning, organizational
06:09design.
06:10And when I met my ex-boss at that time, she assigned me with this task.
06:15She said, I'll get you here and then assign you with the task of head of organizational
06:19development and manpower planning.
06:21And you start from there.
06:23So when I opened that section, and with the experience I had previously, I focused on
06:28how can we start evolving within OD and manpower planning at that time when the DWC was about
06:34to open.
06:35And this is where we put our intake as in what would be the best manpower and our structure
06:41that was supported by Air Force under DWC.
06:44We started to develop entities that would sort of improve that section to be more strategic
06:52oriented versus administrative oriented.
06:54So HR business partner came in.
06:56The business partner is all about how do we collaborate with the business to ensure how
07:02we improve people's engagement under their sections.
07:06So working closely with them, reviewing their current engagement, you know, what future
07:10plans do we need to have in place.
07:12After that, the well-being came.
07:14The well-being wasn't there.
07:15It was never invented at that time.
07:18It was hidden in between, and people were depending on medical insurances.
07:23And this is not tied to me.
07:24I said, we have to have a well-being department where we actually bring the doctors here closer
07:30to our people just to look after them, to see what we do some assessment, to see what
07:35are their major concerns.
07:37You know, the top three are, you know, the diabetes and the hypertension and all that
07:42came in.
07:43And it's for us how we proactively prevent any sort of a serious situation comes in.
07:50We work closely with Gallup, and we have a huge journey with Gallup.
07:54Employee engagement at that time was good, but not to our expected level.
07:58If I tell you what we reached today, according to 2024 results, 4.42, which took us under
08:06the 70th, 75th percentile.
08:09And what does this mean?
08:11We compete now across the global level.
08:14So Gallup have taken our now numbers, the great numbers that we have achieved into an
08:20umbrella where now we compete with other workforce globally.
08:25And we are going to enter this competition in 2025.
08:28And we are up to compete to be the best when it comes to employer of choice.
08:32As a measure of employee engagement, there are many elements under that.
08:36I mean, one of the key ones are work-life balance, development, training, mission and
08:41purpose, caring, and there are many elements in there.
08:47We had certain, I think, a category to focus on.
08:51Things that are at the risk level, things that we need to maintain, things that we need
08:55to improve.
08:57And we always put a plan with the business chiefs as, you know, we need to put some action
09:03plans on a yearly basis.
09:04When we receive the result, there is always an action plan for us.
09:08And this all goes by numbers.
09:09So the action plan is like you have 10 issues, we need to close that 10 issues.
09:14We need to improve it.
09:15It could not be in a year's time, it could be in two years' time, three years' time.
09:19But we got to have to show a good journey there, you know, a progress that we are actually
09:22working on it.
09:23Continuing to become an HR is not fair to where we are today.
09:28Because again, people, as I mentioned, the perception of HR is pretty much administrative.
09:33HR would actually give people opportunity to explore what is the people is all about
09:39at Dubai Airport.
09:41Not what HR is all about, what people is all about at Dubai Airport.
09:45It's all about talent, it's all about engagement, collaboration, accountability, all that comes
09:51under this.
09:52I will never discredit what the team have done on this journey.
09:55You know, you cannot reach here without the right team.
09:59We've worked so hard to get the right team on board and develop the right team who would
10:03actually help.
10:04And we've managed to transform this department into now to become more people-oriented than
10:09administrative-oriented.
10:10You see, I am proud that we have now created a culture of performance and recognition where
10:19we make people feel that they are more valued and more recognized when working at Dubai
10:25Airport.
10:26I think that the advantage also of this is to motivate people to do something better,
10:32to become more innovative, to distinguish between performance from average, low to average,
10:39to high, to exceptional performance.
10:41I think the vision now is how do we take our people to the next level.
10:47I'm sure you've heard the announcement of the new airport.
10:50It's going to even be gigantic and bigger.
10:55And we're working on a plan now, what sort of skills and people we need to have when
11:01that airport is launched.
11:02We need to do something different.
11:03We need to have something special, something unique, something.
11:07And you know, with the elevation of technology and what's happening in the technology environment,
11:12AI and others, you know, what sort of people's strategy we need to build for that new airport.
11:19It's still in progress.
11:21We haven't come up with anything.
11:22But I want to have something special.
11:24You know, you're opening the biggest airport.
11:27You're opening and it's a huge announcement that came up.
11:31When it comes to people, I want also something different to be in there.
11:35Something different than where we are today, actually, where we've reached.
11:38It's not easy.
11:39It's challenging.
11:40But I'm sure we'll come up with something.