MEA UAE Business Awards 2017

52 MEA MARKETS / UAE BUSINESS AWARDS 2017 , Al FuttaimReal Estate (AFGRE) is the Real Estate armof Al-FuttaimGroup - a trusted, privately owned conglomerate representing an inspiring portfolio of leading international brands and offering exciting career and professional development opportunities. We invited Raghda Fatme – Director HR for the Real Estate business to tell us more about their HR practice. Most Renowned Real Estate Development Company for HR Excellence 2017 Al Futtaim Group is one of the Middle East’s leading enterprises employing over 42,000 people in diverse sectors. Within these sectors, the group operates a number of major subdivisions; Al Futtaim Group Real Estate (AFGRE) - one of four mega divisions of Al Futtaim Group. AFGRE has several projects throughout the Middle East and North Africa, either under development, in operation or at planning stage. AFGRE has established a market niche mainly in three market segments which we intend to continue to excel in, namely “Mixed Use City Developments”, Festival City Malls and Engineering and Technologies integrated solutions. As a diversified organization operating in 4 geographies, UAE, KSA, Qatar and Egypt; AFGRE HR consists of a team of 18 dynamic and forward thinking HR professionals spread across the 4 locations to focus on partnering with the business leaders to drive business growth, develop performance culture and build a talent pipeline. Raghda talks us through the firm’s approach to supporting clients and attracting the best talent to their organisations. “Here at AFGRE, our agenda is to attract, retain, develop and engage talent, which is driven from group level and is customized for the business need. This is a different decade and employees are no longer only looking for a job that brings or increase earnings, the Z generation and Millennials are smarter, they have a see through eye. Employees have choices, and they are seeking to build their careers in companies with healthy cultures. “In the past decade, we used to track issues such as revenue, profitability, productivity, and customer satisfaction. In today’s journey, we realized that the world is so interconnected through social media channels, competition and market demands. Evolving our HR strategy and practices were a must have approach to remain agile, competitive and create a long term sustainable growth. This was the mindset and the starting point of AFGRE HR evolution. Along with our leaders, we developed a long term strategy supported by our Al-Futtaim group agenda. We worked closely with our leaders aspiring to build a culture that can transcend the limitations and standard practices. We focused on building values-based culture of Respect, Responsibility, Integrity, Can-Do and Profit. “Inspiring a values-based culture was not an easy journey; something you learn from reading a book or through conducting a diagnostic assessment. It is a true well and a team bound effort, a well-designed framework and common defined language and commitment by senior leadership. The output of the framework and initiatives implemented drove a behavior change. We created the platform and road map for leaders to build the values culture. Constant development is crucial to success, therefore we survey our clients and candidates regularly and ensure that they are satisfied.” This innovative process is implemented internally and has proven results, as Raghda is eager to highlight. “On daily basis the AFGRE HR team including myself strive to embed the values in our existing employees through practical and tangible examples and interventions. Whether our discussions are with individual contributors or leaders, the topic is organizational design, performance or career development we integrate values by demonstrating them more than talking them. Our initiatives focused on empowering managers to act as culture exemplars and ethics envoys to their teams. They were the best element of the journey to build and promote a stronger ethical culture and breed greater trust amongst their teams.” Our Real Estate HR team will continue to set the benchmark for excellence and talent innovation in this market. As the best of breed Real Estate organisation, we look forward to unveiling in the coming months our exciting development projects that will allow it to build upon our current success, as Raghda concludes. “Looking ahead, our latest expansion plan was the announcement of the breaking ground of our fourth mall, which is the second in Dubai. Soon, we will be sharing the expansion on other mixed use projects.” Company: Al Futtaim Group - Real Estate Contact: Raghda Fatme Website: www.alfuttaim.com UA170097