MEA UAE Business Awards 2017

24 MEA MARKETS / UAE BUSINESS AWARDS 2017 , demonstrated by the fact that ever since its acquisition only two employees have ever left the company for another company in the UAE. The statistics are not only a reflection of the success of the management but also bring out the latter’s determination to closely monitor the position and go the extra mile to ensure the success of a proven talent acquisition and retention strategy. In its endeavour to retain employee loyalty the Company has been striving to create a friendly, supportive workplace environment where everyone finds an opportunity for career progression. Guided by the belief that people with fewer worries at home will be able to focus better at work, executive-grade healthcare is provided for all employees and their families. Beyond this, there are the small touches: for example, when new staff are coming from overseas, not only are all costs paid but they are greeted at the airport by ‘marhaba’ attendants and escorted to their hotel. Peer mentoring through the buddy assignment initiative and provision of a welcome pack, Big Bus Tour and interest-free house rent advances etc. The formal induction process too has been refined over time to make it more interesting and meaningful. The orientation program aims at providing the new joiners with a general introduction to the Group, the Company and the various departments and exposes them to the important policies and processes in structured sessions. The formal program is followed by on-the- job training by superiors and peers thereby facilitating quick integration, establishment of an internal network and build-up of knowledge specific to the job requirements. Within the workplace, it is an unofficial motto that the only correct response to someone asking for help at work is “yes” and ‘friendly’ is the most common adjective used in all post-on boarding surveys. In another development, the management has decided to empower employees to be creatively involved in owning and defining the workplace culture directly. So now all social activities and workplace perks are managed by the Employee Engagement Council (EEC), a four-member body elected by the employees themselves through a secret ballot following a lively campaign. The EEC is given a substantial budget and entrusted with the task of coming up with novel ideas and organising inclusive activities in line with employee preferences. Some of the activities organised over the last few months included Archery, Badminton, Birthday cakes, Bowling, Cricket, Desert games, Football, Holi celebration, Iftar and Christmas parties, Painting, Paintball, Squash, Table Tennis, Yoga and participation in the Standard Chartered Marathon. The sense of involvement and bonding with the organisation is palpable and the spirit of the place can be sensed from the art adorning the office that has been painted by the employees and their families. Further, the latter’s contribution is acknowledged by the Company by making it a point to invite them for cultural festivities e.g. Holi, Eid and Christmas that are hugely popular with the employees. Integral to the Company’s HR strategy is a well-defined training policy aimed at professional development of employees and leveraging their potential for mutual benefit. Various in-house and outsourced programmes are conducted that focus on strategic areas of interest to the Company and are tailor- made to ensure employee development and integration into the decision making processes. Train the Trainer is the guiding philosophy of the Company’s HR development program and helps in building up a pool of key resources with the right skill set to impart technical training to the new joiners as well as existing staff who have not been introduced to certain streams of work. All this focus on workplace culture is actually part of a hard- headed approach to competing as a disruptive technology start- up. In return for the opportunity, benefits and respect that they are shown, the employees are dedicated and accustomed to doing whatever it takes, day or night, so that they can feel proud of their work, their team and their company. The upshot is that the Company has swiftly acquired a reputation for operating as a centre of excellence. A fairly large budget is allocated every year to internal and external audit, with the management welcoming any opportunity to find out ways of doing better. These activities have the unstinted support of the Group which has heavily invested in infrastructure and adopting the latest available tools and industry best practices for 24x7 monitoring, vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, incident management, process automation and 3DSecure/ multi- factor authentication. The result is that the Company is proud to offer its clients the assurance of comprehensive geo-redundant and professional PCI-DSS 3.0 and ISAE3402 compliant services at par with the best in the world. Additionally, the Company is on target to achieve ISO22301 and ISO27001 certifications for Business Continuity and Information Security Management Systems respectively. Over the years, the scope of offerings has widened from pure vanilla products/ services for acquiring processing (PoS, e-commerce and MOTO) and issuing processing and card management (across debit and credit portfolios) to value-added services e.g. switch integration, internet banking, ATM & PoS management, merchant billing, loyalty and couponing and cutting-edge mobile/ digital payment solutions. Indeed, Wirecard is today the partner of choice for pre-paid issuance by the leading European TELCOs Deutsche Telecom, O2, Orange, SFR, Vodafone etc. and in the local and other global markets is closely working with the likes of Etisalat, Airtel and MTN. The Company has been quick to embrace the latest developments in digital payments e.g. Near Field Communication (NFC), blue-tooth low energy (BLE) technology, barcode solutions, mobile point of sales etc. and has pioneered Host Card Emulation (HCE) issuance. The qualitative offering of the Company with a wide array of end-to-end services makes for a compelling proposition especially in view of the value-for-money pricing made possible through volume handling and leveraging of in-house expertise and technology. An example is the use of the Group’s Indian arm to ensure full support and coverage for clients through a 24x7 service desk and extended availability over weekdays through suitable personnel placement. Another distinguishing feature has been