Ooredoo Group leads way in developing agile digital working culture to create competitive advantage

Fatima Sultan Al Kuwari, Chief Human Resources Officer, Ooredoo Group

Ooredoo Group has confirmed a raft of changes to its working practices that will be in effect from September, in a move that continues its recent pilot initiative to adopt and support a more agile digital corporate culture. Results of the trial will be evaluated by the end of the year when Ooredoo's management will decide if these changes will become permanent. This comes as part of the company's continuous efforts to reinforce and live its core values of caring and connecting, which are guiding every initiative across all the group's operations. Having carefully analysed the impact of workplace changes enforced by the pandemic learned from the invaluable experiences gained, and listened to feedback from Ooredoo family members, the company made the strategic decision to continue the pilot initiative with the aim of leveraging insights gained to further develop a more agile, modern digital working culture and create greater competitive advantage for the group. A leader in technology and innovation within telecommunications, and an employer of choice in the industry, Ooredoo Group is one of the first in Qatar to implement such changes with the aim of permanently changing its working environment. The planned changes include an option to work from home two days a week, flexibility in daily working hours, and the opportunity to extend working hours at the start of the week to enable a shorter working day on Thursday. With the group’s headquarters in Doha and its 10 operating companies spread across its global footprint as far away as Algeria and Indonesia, a key factor driving the changes was a real need for flexibility due to the diverse time zones. Differences of up to four hours could previously mean potential issues with the alignment of working hours, and the group’s decision to implement greater flexibility is intended to facilitate more effective operations and enable a better work/life integration and balance. Fatima Sultan al-Kuwari, Group chief human resources officer at Ooredoo Group, said: “While the pandemic situation necessitated many of the changes with which we are now working, the extension of our pilot initiative is driven by overall market and industry development and our aim of capitalising on recent experience gained to create greater competitive advantage for our business. “The adoption and development of a more agile, modern, digital working culture align with our strategy – a forward-thinking, future-proof strategy devised long before the pandemic hit of complete digitalisation and of ensuring our organisational culture is fast-moving, innovative, efficient, and imaginative enough to stay ahead of the demand curve.” The changes to working practice will continue until the end of December, when the impact will be reviewed in order to decide on further implementation and permanency.