Ooredoo Group has confirmed a raft of changes to its working practices to adopt and support a more agile digital corporate culture that will be effective from September. The efficacy of the projects will be evaluated by the end of the year by Ooredoo's management and will take the decision on whether they would become permanent feature of the Groups future initiatives.
This comes as part of the company's continuous efforts to reinforce and live its core values of caring and connecting, which are guiding every initiative across all the Group's operations.
Having carefully analysed the impact of workplace changes enforced by the pandemic situation, learned from the invaluable experiences gained and listened to feedback from Ooredoo family members, the company made the strategic decision to continue the pilot initiative with the aim of leveraging insights gained to further develop a more agile, modern digital working culture and create greater competitive advantage for the Group.
A leader in technology and innovation within telecommunications, and an employer of choice in the industry, Ooredoo Group is one of the first in Qatar to implement such changes with the aim of permanently changing its working environment. The planned changes include an option to work from home two days a week; flexibility in daily working hours; and the opportunity to extend working hours at the start of the week to enable a shorter working day on Thursday.
With the Group’s headquarters in Doha and its ten operating companies spread across its global footprint as far away as Algeria and Indonesia, a key factor driving the changes was a real need for flexibility due to the diverse time zones. Differences of up to four hours could previously mean potential issues with alignment of working hours, and the Group’s decision to implement greater flexibility is intended to facilitate more effective operations and enable a better work/life integration and balance.
Commenting on the development, Fatima Sultan Al-Kuwari, Group chief human resources officer at Ooredoo Group said, “While the pandemic situation necessitated many of the changes with which we are now working, the extension of our pilot initiative is driven by overall market and industry development and our aim of capitalising on recent experience gained to create greater competitive advantage for our business. The adoption and development of a more agile, modern, digital working culture aligns with our strategy – a forward-thinking, future-proof strategy devised long before the pandemic hit – of complete digitalisation and of ensuring our organisational culture is fast-moving, innovative, efficient and imaginative enough to stay ahead of the demand curve.”
Ooredoo Group's first half 2021 revenue stood at QAR 14.5 billion, an increase of 3% compared to the same period last year, mainly driven by growth in the operator’s operations in Qatar, Indonesia, and Tunisia. Excluding FX impact, revenue increased by 5%.
