DM begins remote administration system

Dubai Municipality has begun experimenting with remote administration system in order to develop work in the Municipality and introduce all that is new among successful administration practices, and supporting the trust between management and staff to supplement productivity.
Abdullah AbdulRahman, Director of Human Resources Department said the civic body began working on spreading the culture of remote administration and the promotion of this system among employees who have been provided with this system, for which introduction and coordination sessions will be held with them.
He added that the human aspect is one of the most important resources of Dubai Municipality in achieving success and implementation of its objectives and particular interest here is to build an organizational culture based primarily on the resource and, in turn, recognize excellence and achievements in order to pilot the introduction of global best administration practices in the management of this component.
"The Municipality has focused on building a new administrative system that serves several purposes through the remote administration and take advantage of electronic facilities in the management of the office in a flexible manner to achieve several objectives. These objectives include retention of qualified staff who are in need of flexible work arrangements, especially for people who suffer from physical disability, to make services available to customers after the official working hours, reduce the waste of staff time, which requires the submission of their reports on field work to the head office, reducing absenteeism and delays and improve employee productivity by providing a suitable environment to work, in addition to providing office space to other staff, raise the level of satisfaction and make staff more loyal and faithful to the Municipality, achieve some of the rare skills that do not allow circumstances to come to the Municipality," said AbdulRahman.
Qamar Redha Fadhlani, Head of Policies and Studies Section said that the system contributes to increased employee autonomy, freedom in decision-making and opinion, and to avoid some non-stimulating situations at work such as the direct relationship between superior and subordinate, which may occur by the collision.
"It also helps in reducing the cost, the stress, movement process between home and Municipality and provides an appropriate method of work focused on results rather than the form of performance. There is a kind of balance between work and leisure-time for the employee, who gets increased amount of time to devote to home and family. It also provides job opportunities for residents of remote locations without the need to physically move to the office. The system helps in raising the productivity of the employee, and for society, the system contributes to reduce crowding, especially in the Central Business District area where the Municipality is located as well as minimizing the use of motor vehicles and reduce the proportion of the exhaust in the air. The system also allows for greater decentralization in the performance management, activities and tasks," he said.
"To customers the system implements the principle of paperless administration relying on e-mail, e-archives and voice mail, and the realization of the principle of administration without place by the practice of working outside the Municipality from a preferred location of the staff member that supports his or her performance. It also helps achieve the principle timeless administration by working for longer periods of time preferred by the employee as long as the results were consistent with the objectives of the system and the provisions of the contract between the employee and the Municipality. It also achieves the principle of a moving and non-rigid administration in work through smart networks without the presence of the employee at the office inside the Municipality," said Fadhlani.
He pointed out that there are many fields of application in the area of information technology in the Municipality, especially the entry of data in the computer, web-page designing, programming and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), work associated with the intellectual and creative activities such as translation, research and study of all kinds, drawing and engineering design, engineering and legal consultation, and accounting, in particular for the auditors outside.
"This system is based mainly on the law of the Human Resources Department of the Government of Dubai No. 27 of 2006, Article 79, which focuses on performance and alignment of individual goals with the objectives of the Municipality staff and also of the Strategic Plan of the civic body for 2007-2011," said Fadhlani.
He said that official policy will be determined at the Municipality level to give the right of option to the departments to implement this system in all parts of the Municipality, and the selection and testing of employees who will be subjected to experiment the system, including the requirements to have the ability to accomplish the work without contacting others face-to-face and be capable of measuring their work, and they should have maturity, trustworthiness, self-discipline, communication skills, self-esteem, and hard work.
"Arrangements will be made for granting the employees, who will apply the experience of appropriate technology, to work outside the Municipality, and to raise the level of the staff who will be subject to this experience through training and guidance. A coordinator will be appointed for the implementation of the system, who will bear the responsibility of the extending the departments the technical guidance for the success of its implementation and addressing emergent problems and evaluating the outcome of the application.