Dubai - MENA Herald: The Department of Economic Development (DED) in Dubai has received the ‘Gold’ accreditation for at the International Conference 2016 of ‘Ideas UK,’ on account of its suggestion scheme and innovation management.
The Gold accreditation is granted top ideas that make a demonstrated impact on improving organisational efficiency as measured against more than 80 parameters, including legislative aspects, finance and legal procedures. The idea should be well-adapted to the organisation’s structure, undergo continuous improvement, and should contribute to the achievement of organisational goals across areas such as communication, publication, information management, staff training, performance indicators, bonuses, and incentives.
The accreditation was awarded during the closing ceremony of the conference where a number of professionals and leaders from public and private sector organisations around the world came together to share innovative ideas and excellence solutions. DED was represented by Ali Habib, Director of Partnerships & Innovation Management, and Nouf Al Falasi, member of the Innovation Team.
Commenting on the accreditation, Mr Ali Ibrahim, Deputy Director General of DED said the suggestions scheme is an essential part of DED’s efforts to promote sustainability and institutional innovation and linked to the eSuggest programme of Dubai Government, which enjoys the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince and Chairman of the Executive Council of Dubai.
“The Innovation Team in DED along with the suggestions scheme supports the development of strategies and methodologies while also promoting an entrepreneurship culture among employees and encouraging them to put forth creative ideas for performance improvement,” Ali Ibrahim added.
“Proposals and suggestions from our employees and customers are extremely valuable in our innovation programmes as they originate from first-hand experience at their daily work. Our experience proves such feedback actually contribute to better quality customer service and help reinforce excellence in Dubai, and across the UAE. Hence, we motivate our employees to submit their ideas in the eSuggest programme, and ideas found to be feasible are implemented,” Ali Habib said.
Ali Habib added that winning the Gold accreditation will support DED’s efforts to achieve government excellence and consolidate the excellence culture. “It reminds us that employees need to contribute to improving government performance and support the leadership team to take such improvements to higher levels, and share our experience in this area for the benefit of other organisations as well.”
Nouf Al Falasi while addressing the conference said the suggestions scheme covers the systems and regulations adopted in administrative development across DED, providing the various departments a clear view of the needs to reach the desired goals, drawn from the experiences of employees and customers. “The Department of Economic Development appreciates and values innovative thinking that improves performance and the working environment, and enhances the quality of services offered to the business community.”
DED entered a number of its innovative schemes into the Ideas UK awards, including the Auto Renewal, which reached the final stages this year and also won in the Customer Service category last year, as well as Dubai Logistics Cluster Platform, a first-of-its-kind initiative aimed to create a public-private partnership platform to enhance the emirate’s competitiveness as a global supply chain link.
Ideas UK is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to supporting and promoting innovative employee-focused initiatives around the world, and encouraging organisations providing such initiative through knowledge exchange and updates on best practices in employee participation.
