Dubai, UAE, 17 July 2016: Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has implemented 99 ideas submitted by its staff as part of the Afkari (Arabic for My Ideas) internal programme. Since the beginning of this year, staff submitted a total of 2,317 ideas through Afkari, which encourages innovation and creativity among DEWA’s employees.
“DEWA takes priority in involving staff in all initiatives and projects. We listen to employees’ ideas and suggestions, study them, and implement the innovative and constructive ideas that contribute to developing the services we provide to our customers, partners, and staff. As His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and Ruler of Dubai once observed, ‘Thinking collectively and having open dialogues with the team at work create new ideas and bring us closer to success.’ The Afkari portal encourages creativity and innovation, and enhances communications among staff employees, while providing a platform that facilitates studying and discussing their suggestions and ideas. The portal allows staff to collaborate and vote on the best ideas submitted, similar to social media sites,” said HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA.
“Our staff’s positive reaction to the Afkari portal underlines their understanding of their responsibilities as well as their commitment to enhancing government services and their work environment. It also reflects their support to this excellent initiative and their willingness to share their ideas and suggestions to achieve more successes and accomplishments, and develop the services provided to customers, partners, and employees. This contributes towards achieving DEWA’s vision to become a sustainable innovative world-class utility,” added Al Tayer.
Ideas submitted by DEWA staff include embedding Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in 132 kV cables, forming a team to tend to the Information Technology (IT) needs of staff with disabilities, launching the Hayakom (Arabic for welcome) initiative for DEWA’s added-value services to its customers, the Happiness Inspiration initiative to promote positive energy among staff, and raising internal awareness on sign language to achieve the happiness of people with special needs.
Afkari is the first creativity programme in the Government of Dubai where employees are actively encouraged to vote and comment on other employees’ ideas and to collaborate and share best practices. The programme enables DEWA to capture employee driven ideas, providing a central repository to manage innovation, and ensure continuous improvement and development. Afkari uses HYPE software, which enables staff to comment and vote on ideas and suggestions submitted by their colleagues.