FEWA honors excellence and innovation among its employees at the fourth edition of its Excellence Awards

Under patronage and presence of His Excellency Suhail Mohammed Al Mazrouei, Minister of Energy and Industry, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Federal Electricity and Water Authority; FEWA Board Members, representatives of the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs; representatives of the Dubai Police General Headquarters, as well as a number of media professionals, the Federal Electricity and Water Authority (FEWA) awarded winners for excellence and dedication in their respective fields of work at the Fourth Excellence Awards.

The special ceremony was held to support the Authoritys vision of instilling the culture of excellence, creativity and quality among employees. This recognition aims to motivate employees who excel in achieving the highest levels of performance, teamwork, and giving. It promotes fair competition to develop the Authority in line with the best international standards.

HE Suhail Mohammed Al Mazrouei delivered a keynote, in which he congratulated the winners and urged others to constantly work hard and aspire to achieve excellence in government services. He also pointed out that these efforts strengthen the UAE’s position among the world's most developed and distinguished countries in providing government services to the people.

In the event, HE highlighted the numbers of participants in the awards over the past four editions since its inception, from 33 employees in 2014, to 54 in 2015, 79 in 2016, and over to 103 in 2017. HE noted that this increase reflects the confidence in the awards and the position they occupy in institutional culture. To assure impartial assessment, external assessors were employed to aid the internal assessment team of 17 highly qualified assessors. The process was also supported by a specialized jury of excellence experts from the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs and Dubai Police General Headquarters. The goal, according to HE, was to present the awards in accordance with highest standards in institutional and professional excellence. The awards are based on a wide variety of criteria, including performance, achievement, initiative, innovation, education, and supervision.

This recognition comes as part of the Authority's endeavor to provide excellence in line with the strategy and vision of UAE's wise leadership. Thus, it focuses on several HR initiatives and programs; most notably the Engineers Development Program, which was launched in the second half of 2017 to attract outstanding students from UAE Universities and develop their capabilities to work in FEWA. Although the program will kick-off in 2018, FEWA has received 257 applications from university students, and has tested and chosen those that meet admission’s requirements. Qualified candidates will join the Authority in August 2018.

Emiratisation is also one of FEWA’s strategic priorities. The Authority seeks to adopt policies that provide a wide range of employment opportunities to UAE nationals. It also ensures the provision of appropriate training programs that contribute to their support and development; and equip them with the necessary qualifications for managerial, technical, and leadership positions. The policy has raised the rate of Emiratization during 2017 in comparison to previous years and achieved a 100% in leadership positions, 75.62% in executive jobs and 82.73% in supervisory positions. Emiratization rates in engineering reached around 60.05% with 184 citizen engineers in 2017; 76% of them are female.

FEWA is focusing its attention on training and development activities. In 2017, it implemented its ambitious program to habilitate, train and refine the expertise and knowledge of all its human resources. 468 programs were implemented during 2017 with a total of 50,795 training hours for 1,519 female and male employees.

The Authority was also keen on ensuring the happiness of its staff, and therefore Happiness Team was formed. The team coordinates with the Staff Welfare Section to launch initiatives that promote happiness among employees. These programs included the Takaful initiative that aims to aid emergency humanitarian cases and reinforce humanitarian work concepts among the Authoritys employees. The Happiness Box initiative was also organized to enhance recognition and appreciation among officials. It resulted in recognizing more than 130 highly motivated and distinguished employees across various organizational units. Additionally, The Forums with FEWA’s leaders “Nalteqee Lenartaqee’ is an initiative which aims to enhance communication among employees and was attended by more than 500 employees. This initiative honored the employees who contributed with the largest number of suggestions, as well as managers who utilized the Happiness Box to promote gratitude among their employees.

In line with the governments strategic focus to make the UAE one of the most innovative countries in the world, the Authority has established a team of a selected employees from various positions and units as Ambassadors of Innovation in their respective areas. The team works on numerous programs and initiatives aimed at achieving the strategic objective “Instill the culture of innovation in an institutional work environment. These programs aim to build the innovation capacity of employees by organizing training courses, workshops and awareness campaigns. The team is also responsible for conducting field visits inside and outside the UAE to learn about the best innovative practices; and encouraging employees to use the system and share their ideas and proposals. The initiative also includes regular meetings between the Authority's officials and staff members to discuss and adopt these ideas and proposals.