Quality and excellence remain the dominating factors at the ongoing 'Quality Activities Week' being held at the Department of Economic Development (DED). The activities during the week-long event were represented by the launch of a new mascot “ISON" which symbolized the Department's commitment to excellence as an ISO certified organization.
"The 'Quality Activities Week' has proved to be a great success as it has generated immense enthusiasm among the employees of the Department," said Mr. Ali Ibrahim, Deputy Director General for Executive Affairs, DED. "The Department has always been a quality-centric organization deeply oriented towards customer satisfaction. The events of this week have only served to highlight this commitment among our staff and encouraged them to leverage their own potential to generate greater productivity and offer better services," he added.
"The theme of this week has been comprehensive excellence and every aspect of an employee's life including personal health, family and social relationships have been affected by the activities," said Mr. Ibrahim.
The five-day quality activities week kicked off with a grand opening ceremony on Saturday, followed by a humorous play, which highlighted the essential differences between an ideal employee and an inefficient one.
The DED’s customers and their valuable opinions and suggestions have been an integral part of this event as each day five customers are approached at random to comment on the quality of services provided by the DED. They are also awarded instant prizes for their suggestions. In addition, a raffle draw each day has enabled employees offering suggestions for improvement of services to win prizes.
'Three seminars held during this week dealt with various aspects of employee excellence. These included a lecture by Dr. Ali Al Hammadi which offered suggestions for DED employees to reach to the highest potential in their careers, a seminar by Mr. Abdul Salam Darwish on "Effect of family stability on staff productivity,' and Dr. Mamdooh Mukhtar's lecture on "Dealing with work-related stress."
Comprehensive health checks including height, weight and blood pressure and sugar tests, were offered free of charge to all employees at the DED and enabled them to benefit from advice on nutrition and living healthy lifestyles.
A fun-day for the children of the DED staff complete with a magic show, face painting, jumping castle and other activities enabled the strengthening of family relationships in addition to reiterating DED's commitment to the families of its employees.
The DED also reached out to its external stakeholders by setting up an exhibition of organizations that are established quality leaders including the Dubai Quality Group, Dubai Municipality, E-TQM College, Co-op Islami and the Quality Centre at the DED.
The 'Quality Activities Week' will conclude with a grand closing ceremony on Wednesday, June 8, 2005 in which supporting organizations and employees will be honoured. In addition five DED employees who have offered the best ideas to enhance customer services at the Department will win free air tickets to the destination of their choice.
