The Forum, which was presided by Mr. Mathew Mai, the regional director of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD),hosted Mr. Ali Nimir, the Regional Director of Government Solutions- Microsoft and Mr. Richard Baker, the Regional HR Director for Boeing Company in India, Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Ali Nimir: “Dubai Infrastructure Qualifies the City for Turning Smart”

Nimir presented a paper on Innovative Cities and empowerment of cities, citizens and businesses with Microsoft CityNext solutions. He pointed out that during the last decade the world has witnessed radical changes in all fields, especially in the field of smart technology and applications, which urges all nations to keep up with these changes and contribute to these changes in order to maintain their competitiveness and theirworld standing among nations.

He praised the outstanding prestigious status achieved by the United Arab Emirates and especially Dubai in the area of turning smart with regard to the provision of services, thanks to the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, who launched the Emirati Innovation Week to be held annually. HH sheikh Mohamed Bin Rashid has declared one year ago that he wanted Dubai to become one of the best smart cities in the world within two years.

He also indicated that Dubai has developed a very clear vision and smart strategic goals regarding the process of turning smart, in realization of the vision of its wise leadership. He pointed out that the infrastructure which Dubai enjoys qualifies the city to accomplish its strategic plans and to become one of the most important places in the area of smart cities and provision of services through smart applications from anywhere and at any time around the clock. He confirmed that the realization of the smart city dream cannot be accomplished without a smart government that endeavors to keep up with the accelerating advancements at all levels.

The Regional Director of Microsoft for Government Solutions mentioned that the smart business environment in corporations requires putting in place a very clear vision on the part of the leadership and determining responsibilities and roles to be played by different members of any work team. It also involves excellent coordination and fruitful cooperation between different departments, in addition to providing necessary resources, which would contribute to the achievement of the entity’s vision and strategic objectives.He stressed the need for managers to work hard towards raising levels of satisfaction on the part of employees and to make them content and happy by meeting their requirements, as employees are the secret word for success of any entity and the employees’ satisfaction is the reflection of their happiness and satisfaction.

Richard Baker: “Successful Corporations Invest in Talents and Engage its Employees in Decision Making”

 On his part, Richard Baker, the regional director for human resources in Boeing in India the Middle East and North Africa, has highlighted the best practices in the field of human resources management and reviewed the Boeing Company experience in managing human capital and attracting talents and competences to join the company and how the company manages to retain them.

He pointed out that Boeing believes in the importance of engaging employees and work teams in the processes of decision making. The company invests in young talents and grants them the opportunity to assume leading roles and positions after subjecting them to intensive training and development courses. He indicated that the company embraces a distinct approach in leadership to enhance their competitiveness in marketsby developing a second line of leaders who are trained by senior officials in the company, and are given a lot of powers that qualifies them to take up senior positions in within the company.

He explained that " Boeing ", which is the largest aviation company around the world and employs more than 165 thousand employees in more than 90 countries worldwide,has established a specialized center for the training of leaders and talented people to develop their abilities and hone their skills. He went on to say that the center embodies the philosophy of " Boeing " and its visionbased on training, developing and empowering human capital in order to achieve its strategic goals and strengthen its global leadership.

The Human Resources Club, which was launched in 2010,is one of the most prominent strategic initiatives of FAHR. It represents an interactive platform a channel for intellectual and cognitive communication, bringing together interested and specialists in both public – federal and local-  and the private sector to interact with experts and people with distinctive experiences under one roof. The objective is to exchange ideas, experiences and solutions, with the ultimate goal of consolidating the roles played by departments of human resources, institutional services, and others in various sectors in the country.

The club aims to create a platform for intellectual and cognitive communication between human resources professionals and experts of human resources, on the one hand, andpublic administration officials in the United Arab Emirates, on the other hand. This will help in exchanging views and discussing the challenges and solutions for the various issues facing public administration and institutional services in the various work places. It also helps in the transfer of experiences and expertise between managers and specialists, experts, researchers and those interested in the development of government work and human capital development, as well as reviewing and transferring of best practices locally, regionally and internationally, and provide a distinctive and successful innovative solutions.

The Human Resources Club provides an ideal opportunity for its members, whose total number amounts to 10 thousand, to be acquainted with the best practices and success stories of individuals and corporations and networking with specialists and people interested in human resources, on different areas of specialization.