ABU DHABI // Businesses are introducing non-monetary incentives and company perks to motivate and hold on to employees in times of financial challenge.
As many companies have frozen salaries and bonuses, Ambareen Musa, founder and chief executive of Souqalmal.com, said investing in, rewarding and motivating staff and being flexible helped to keep the company attractive to employees.
“There are salary and hiring freezes in the market at the moment and companies need to look for other ways to keep motivation up, especially in downtimes,” Ms Musa said. “Motivation is very dependent on the person. Everyone is different and people get motivated for different reasons.
“Our tech team, for example, love their gear and the right environment with the freedom of testing and trying new things.
“Some of the perks we have are flexible working hours, especially for those with kids, as it is the results that matter, and regular team outings to further instil the culture.”
Lisa Welsh, general manager at Hill+Knowlton Strategies in Dubai, said the company had regular entertainments to encourage staff to “let off steam”.
She said they celebrated great work by giving employees “a much-deserved lie-in, internal annual awards, a quarterly office event – most recently an evening quiz – and celebrating Ramadan together with a company iftar. It’s also important to contribute to the community, so each year we have an annual corporate social responsibility event”.
The company offers flexible working hours for mothers and holds regular training programmes – about 400 hours in the last quarter alone – to further the skills of staff.
“We have flexible hours for staff who require it and, importantly, for the mothers at H+K, so they can work around the hours that best suit the children’s school run or homework schedule,” Ms Welsh said.
Great employees need motivation, she said, but money was not always the answer. Tangible recognition for staff who consistently excel was often more important.
“The one thing that comes up every year is that people really value positive feedback and recognition through small things, like simply saying ‘thank you’,” Ms Welsh said. “Therefore, core to our culture is an appreciation across the Dubai office.”
Modern workplace pioneers Facebook and Google have fun offices in Dubai, and the international luxury hotel chain Jumeirah Group has learnt from that, said Christopher Jennings, vice president of organisational development.
“We offer competitive base salaries, benchmarked against relevant markets, and attractive benefits including accommodation and utilities, or a live-out allowance, medical cover, duty meals, discounted hotel rates and discounted food and beverages at our properties around the world,” he said.
“Social activities are planned regularly to ensure that we work in a fun environment, and we also offer outstanding learning and hospitality career development programmes that provide all of our colleagues the opportunity to continue to learn, grow and develop.”
Rachel Ellyard, Mena talent leader at Ernst and Young, said its staff had flexible working hours to fit around employees’ personal goals.
“Flexibility allows our people to manage personal and professional goals such as fitness and well-being, corporate responsibility work and study, or to juggle the demands of family and personal lives with work,” said Ms Ellyard.
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