Coverage & Photography: Mahmoud Mansi
Employee Engagement, a topic that concerns Egypt very much, not only in the corporate life, but we do lack engagement in many things. This was the opinion of Mr. Ahmed Badr – an HR professional, consultant and business owner – who was giving his course in taking place in Hilton Corniche, Alexandria, on the 23rd of January 2016, in cooperation with AHRA (Alexandria Human Resources Association – www.ahra-eg.org) regarding Organizational Engagement Practices. Mr. Ahmed Badr last visited Alexandria 2 years ago with AHRA talking about Talent Management. His impact was well memorable and functional according to Mr. Moemen Assem – HR Manager at GEMS Academy Alexandria, “When I attend any of his courses I come out knowing what kind of annual plan I will be having for myself and my company. In the Talent Management course – when I used to work in a petroleum company – I started searching for the talents within the organization and highlighted them to the board and managers to invest in them. This led us to a stronger succession plan and conducting effective training programs to the employees. Today’s session highlighted questions marks in my work, and it helped me understand people’s behavior more regarding engagement. What I like most about the instructor is the case-studies he shares with us and how he organizes the ideas in our minds and helps us to plan.”
In the course Mr. Ahmed highlighted the impact of having disengaged employees on your organization, and how to deal with them. The concept of disengagement is not only directly related to the employee’s awareness towards his or her impact on the company, but it’s directly related to how managers deal with their employees. Mr. Ahmed spoke about the difference between managers who lecture their employees and managers who coach them, and how a manager can be a role model and stand for his or her employees’ rights.
Mr. Moustafa Samir Hamama – Manager of Contracts & Legal Advising & Corporate Affairs at Mobinil, “I implement employee engagement as stressing the importance of contracts and its magnitude, and how our colleagues in Mobinil are also our customers, therefore my employees would know their impact on the entire organization and among competitors too. This is my first time with Mr. Ahmed Badr, and my first time to attend a long course without being distracted. He has the ability to keep his audience focused at all times and well ‘engaged’, and the way he narrates the case-studies made me quite imagine it very well, and visualize the situation.”
Mr. Ahmed Fawzy – AHRA Board Member & Erada Project Manager at Unilever – has a different perspective based on his wide experience in implementing employee engagement with employees with special needs, “My team at work consists of blind employees. The most important step for me to engage them is to win their trust. Some of them are from different cities, and they work with us for this reason. Trust is the most important thing to build between the manager and team. To do this you should be close to your team members and support them even in their personal and psychological problems. Mr. Ahmed Badr perfectly has the gift to deliver the content of the day in a very organized manner, and through empowering the material with true examples that will remain memorable to the audience.”
Dr. Ola Samir Hamama – AHRA Board Member & HR Director ESACO – had a very exciting terminology regarding employee engagement, she called it “employee citizenship” and she carries many pieces of advice to employees and managers, “This course is very important because mainly there is no much employee engagement in Egypt. There is withdrawal and indifference, because managers do not focus on the alignment. That’s why employees are away or unaware of the organization’s vision. Some managers are disengaged themselves, and this is according to the system or overall environment of the organization, yet in the end of the day I am still a manager and I am responsible for my employees. If I am a disengaged manager yet I worked hard to make my own team engaged. Through my employees I can become an engaged manager according to the upper management and other managers. If I am an employee in a disengaged environment and there is no hope, I should first define my talents and analyze other opportunities elsewhere. Before leaving my job I should act an as agent of change, I should be proactive and suggest my solutions and practical ideas. If the manager was disengaged this will automatically transfer to me, and a smart manager would notice that and try to resolve the problem before he/she start losing their talented employees. This is a real case, many employees are put in this position, and thus they start working on a low profile, doing only what is needed from them without extra effort, while on the other hand they start taking courses and enhancing their profile, and with the first good opportunity they will leave the company. I have dealt with MR. Ahmed Badr, I have dealt with him before as a consultant. He has high integrity and as a consultant if he was unable to do something he would admit it, and would not give false promises. Therefore he was able to build trust. I think what also makes him special as an instructor that he is a practitioner, he has a diverse profile, he has the know-how, he travelled a lot, and he dealt with different levels of employees, he also has a special legacy.”
Ms. Yasmeen El Zouka – HR Coordinator in Lecico – summarizes the day in one direct sentence, “The instructor is knowledgeable, able to deliver using real life examples, he gets attention, and he keeps things interesting, the course is a mind opener and helps in connecting the points, therefore understanding what happens inside the working environment.”
Mr. Ahmed Badr emphasized that engagement is something that also exists in our subconscious minds and it can be implanted in children. As an example he spoke about the “Musical Chairs Game” and how this game builds in the children the concept of there is only one survival, and he gave us another example that the same game is played in Japan but the idea is not to kick a player out, on the contrary the idea is that all 10 players would be able to sit on 9 chairs, then 8, then 7, then 6, and so on, so it is more of a team work rather than a one survival/monopolist game.
Mr. Ahmed Badr also spoke about the different generations and how each generation has a totally different approach regarding management, careers and work, “The problem with HR and management in Egypt is that the manager and the employee are from 2, and sometimes 3 different generations. The newest generation has different goals and needs than ours. Most organizational charts now in organizations are rigid; they do not contain mobility for employees to have more job rotations and quicker promotions. The HR should be ready for welcoming this new generation. I believe that the most suitable chart for the new generation is one that allows employees to grow in a horizontal form and not in the traditional vertical one. Meaning, the fresh graduate can spend some time working in the operations for instance, then the next phase he/she can work in the marketing and so one. This way we will be creating a cross functional career for our employees and give them the change to move horizontally and upwards, like climbing the stairs. If HR could implement this approach I believe the youth will find it much more interesting and they will complete working in the same organization. Another important aspect is that the new generation has learnt to use technology from a very early age, therefore if the organization is not using an up-to-date technology the employees will eventually lose interest in this working environment. Last time I came here, 2 years ago, most of the attendees were my age and beyond, but now most of the attendees are the youth, and this gave me a lot of hope for Egypt’s HR future.”
Mr. Mohamed El Derwy – Founder of AHRA & the CEO of Target for Recruitment – speaks about AHRA’s activities in 2016, “This course is also useful for employees because it makes them understand the different kinds of stress their manager goes through. Last month AHRA hosted Dr. Khaled Habib, and we are willing to conduct a monthly workshop or a course for the members of AHRA and for any HR professional, line manager, and passionate employee.”
About the Instructor: Mr. Ahmed Badr is an internationally certified Organization and Management Development Consultant working in the fields of Organization re-structuring, Management Training and Human Resources Systems Development for companies since 1993.
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