UAE businesses see employees as their ‘greatest asset’

According to a study, around 92% of UAE business leaders see their employees as their greatest asset, and 51% of IT leaders say their organisations know how to digitally transform their workforce.

However, many employees are now challenged to keep pace, according to a new breakthrough study from Dell Technologies. Additionally, more than half (57%) of UAE business leaders out of 10,500 respondents from over 40 countries believe that their organisations underestimate how to properly engage with their employees when planning transformation initiatives.

The study noted that around 73% of respondents in the UAE are looking forward to learning new skills and techniques to help advance their careers.

charging time

The results highlight how recent rapid transformations have left businesses and their employees needing time to recharge, reflect, and refine before embarking on a new or iterative project. Despite tremendous progress and efforts over the past few years, the study highlights the potential for transformation to stall, as 57% of Emirati respondents believe their people’s resistance to change could lead to failure.

Walid Yehia, Senior Director and General Manager, Dell Technologies UAE, said: “Technology is an enabler of human capabilities. To enable this human-machine partnership, businesses need to understand people’s behaviors and mindsets towards technology and change. They must empathize with them Applied to everything from responsive and trustworthy technical design that puts end-user experience first, to thoughtful transformational change plans that drive excitement and purpose.

“Our mission at Dell Technologies is to create technologies that advance human progress, and in today’s ubiquitous world, we believe the future belongs to those who have the ability to adapt and thrive whenever new opportunities arise.”

Now is the time for organizations to assess before embarking on a new digital transformation project to ensure their employees are supported and have a clear understanding of the next phase of implementation.

the way forward

The research paints a path forward. It offers businesses the opportunity to focus and keep up with transformation, with breakthroughs occurring along three fronts at the intersection of people and technology:

connectivity: During the pandemic, businesses have made great strides in connecting, collaborating, and doing business online. But they’re not done yet.

Nearly three-quarters (71%) of respondents in the UAE say they need their organisation to provide the necessary tools and infrastructure to work from anywhere (and the autonomy to choose their preferred work model). In fact, they worry that their employees may be left behind because they don’t have the right technology to move to a highly distributed model (in which work and computing are not confined to a central location, but everywhere).

Technology alone is not enough. Businesses also need to make work fair to people with different needs, interests, and responsibilities by focusing on the following factors that ultimately lead to business success.

Define the company’s ongoing commitment to flexible working arrangements and the practicality of making them work, enabling leaders to effectively and equitably manage remote teams, and empowering employees to choose their preferred work model and provide the necessary tools/infrastructure.

productivity: People’s time is limited and there are too few candidates for vacancies right now. To address these pressures, businesses can delegate repetitive tasks to automated processes, freeing people to focus on richer, higher-value work.

Currently, 32% of people in the UAE say their work is stimulating rather than repetitive. With the opportunity to automate more repetitive tasks, 73% of UAE respondents look forward to learning new, sought-after skills and technologies, such as leadership skills, machine learning courses, or focusing on more strategic opportunities to improve their Role.

pity: At their core, businesses must build a culture modeled on empathic leaders who see people as their greatest source of creativity and value.

Research shows that there is still work to be done and empathy must inform decision-making, from simplifying technology for the half (51%) of UAE respondents who often feel overwhelmed by complex technology, to tailoring change plans to individual skills, with almost Half (48%) of employees surveyed in the UAE believe their leaders do the same. — arab trade news agency