Dubai: Dubai Holding on Tuesday announced sweeping changes in its recruitment and promotion policies as it pushes towards greater gender balance in its workforce.
Its ‘Groupwide Gender Equity Strategy and Framework’ includes the implementation of a blind recruitment process, non-discriminative promotions, enhanced maternity leaves and a framework ensuring more access to training and development opportunities for its female employees, the company said in a statement.
The group has also established a 15-member Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council that will oversee the new strategy’s implementation, measurement and reporting progress within the business.
“This strategy is not only based on regional and global research findings but is also informed by our own employees’ feedback and is a culmination of years of efforts to establish best practices in this area,” said Group CEO Amit Kaushal.
“Through our Gender Equity and Inclusion Framework, I am confident that we will be empowering women to realise their full potential, in turn contributing to the UAE’s gender balance agenda and becoming a leading example for how organisations can be agents of change to support gender equality in the UAE and beyond.”
Maternity leave benefits
The new maternity leave policy states that upon the completion of the 90 calendar days of maternity leave, female employees will have the option to work 100 per cent remotely for one month. Female employees on maternity leave will also have access to additional training and development opportunities to facilitate their return to work.
Three pillars
The new strategy comprises three programme pillars: Accelerate, Impact and Reach.
The Accelerate programme provides development opportunities to propel the careers of high-performing female talent.
The Impact programme focuses on implementing inclusive policies, systems and processes for optimal employee and business performance. The group has updated and introduced new human capital policies in accordance with the UAE gender-related laws and regulations, ranging from adopting a blind recruitment process to facilitating the return of female employees on maternity leave, which have been implemented since January 2022.
The Reach programme will promote gender-conscious stakeholder engagement, partnerships, products, and services.
