The Emirates Groups’ Compliance with Labour Law Report (Assessment)

Creating a rewarding environment within an organization allows sustaining the levels of motivation in staff members and convince them to use corporate values and ethical standards when making workplace decisions. As a result, a company will thrive and evolve, improving its services and communicating with all of its stakeholders effectively. However, building an environment where the company’s members are inclined to perform outstandingly well is impressively challenging because of the urgent need to integrate all factors defining the corporate strategy into the analysis. By studying the specifics of a rewarding environment in the context of the Emirates Group, one will understand what issues organizations have to handle in the modern economic setting and what strategies can be deployed to satisfy the needs of diverse stakeholders. Because of the financial risks that the Emirates Group has been facing recently, the company will need to revisit its current approach toward encouraging high-quality performance by reconsidering the current schedule and creating a less stressful setting in which staff members have to perform.

Context of the Reward Environment at the Emirates Group

At present, the Emirates Group has been employing a rather elaborate approach that is fully congruent with its values and standards. The organization has been using a traditional system of employee encouragement and motivation by providing the standard benefits package. In addition, the Emirates Group has been focusing on the promotion of safety and the enhancement of technological progress that makes the process of data processing and sharing within the team easier. The focus on communication among team members can be interpreted as one of the Emirates Group’s key assets. Unfortunately, the current approach toward meeting staff’s needs lacks diversity and does not take the individual needs of employees into account. Combined with the lack of career options and the increasingly high rates of workload, the Emirates Group organizational setting can be described as rather tense.

The Emirates Group: Internal and External factors

SWOT

Table 1. SWOT Analysis.

As the SWOT analysis proves (see Table 1 above), the Emirates Group’s current approach toward management of operations has been very fruitful. The company has developed a significant competitive advantage, thus multiplying its strengths in the UAE market. However, the framework for addressing the needs of staff members, which the Emirates Group has been using in its corporate setting, could use some improvements. The lack of diversity can be seen as the key flaw of the present corporate environment, which means that the Emirates Group should focus on enhancing a cross-cultural dialogue with its staff members. In addition, considering the tools for meeting employee-specific needs should be interpreted as an essential step toward improving the relationships with staff members. In addition, problems with the schedule and a comparatively small number of employees imply a significant pressure on the staff members (Haak‐Saheem and Brewster 430). Thus, the Emirates Group will need to reconsider its current schedule and the approach toward distributing responsibilities and tasks among its staff.

The opportunities that the company can pursue in the current and the global markets can be seen as rather impressive. However, without a proper tool for encouraging its employees to excel in the delivery of their workplace performance, the Emirates Group may lose its position within the UAE market (Haak‐Saheem and Brewster 431). Respectively, the firm should incorporate a different strategy toward HRM processes and focus especially close on diversifying its staff.

PESTLE

The outcomes of the PESTLE assessment prove that the Emirates Group will have to rearrange its current HRM framework by including additional chances for career advancement and redesigning the existing schedule. Specifically, the UAE legal standards set the number of working hours per week to 48, which suggests that the Emirates Group should reduce the amount of time that its staff members spend working. The specified goal can be achieved by expanding the existing team by inviting more candidates and possibly outsourcing employees from other organizations (Parakandi and Behery 1372). The specified strategy will help the Emirates Group to relieve a significant amount of workplace pressure and stress from its staff.

Table 2. PESTLE Analysis.

The PESTLE analysis results also show that the Emirates Group functions in an environment of rather strict legal requirements for managing the needs of staff embers. The current labor law standards accepted in the UAE require that companies should not increase the number of working hours to more than 48, which means that staff members are eligible for one day off per week and an 8-hour working day (Younies et al. 88). Although the Emirates Group has not overstepped the boundaries set by the UAE legal standards, its current policy regarding the distribution of workload among staff members borders the acceptable limits (Haak‐Saheem and Brewster 432). Therefore, based on the results of the PESTLE analysis, the Emirates Group should reconsider its framework for assigning tasks and responsibilities to staff members. A more elaborate strategy for delegating these responsibilities, as well as a wider range of staff members, may help the Emirates Group to address the specified inconsistency in its HRM approach.

The social issues represent another point of concern for the strategy that the Emirates Group has been using to manage the needs of its staff and build motivation and engagement among them. Currently, the tools that the company uses to boost the levels of motivation and loyalty among its employees do not involve enough diversity. Although the application of a uniform approach toward meeting the needs of its stakeholders may seem as justified, it does not allow the staff members that have special needs to work in favorable conditions. To improve the existing situation, the Emirates Group should offer its staff members extra benefits such as parental leaves, as well as to create options for career development. Courses for acquiring new competencies and training new skills should be seen as an imperative step toward building engagement and loyalty among employees (Tims et al. 48). The social concerns are linked directly to the diversity issue discussed above. It is critical for the Emirates Group to increase the levels of multiculturalism within its team in order to enter the global economy and expand into new markets.

Impact of Business Drivers on Reward Decisions

Presently, there are several business drivers that define the Emirates Group’s progress in the UAE market. These factors are not homogenous to the specified environment; apart from the UAE market, they can also be observed in the global setting a well. The current dissatisfaction levels caused by the lack of focus on the capacities and needs of employees ought to be seen as the core problem that the Emirates Group will have to handle. Therefore, the Emirates Group will need to consider the business drivers such as governance, sustainability, and productivity to define the reward system that can be applied to the current situation observed at the firm.

The specified business drivers have been affecting the company’s reward decisions for a while, yet the organization has not yet introduced a framework that could satisfy its staff and be suitable for challenging market conditions. Particularly, the use of governance will define the Emirates Group’s ability to manage its resources for the creation of new career development opportunities. The principles of sustainability, which are intrinsic to the current economic setting, will determine a company’s decision to take losses in order to invest in its staff members (Tims et al. 91). Finally, the productivity rates will inform the Emirates Group’s capability and readiness to create a more favorable setting for its employees (Haak‐Saheem and Brewster 433). Thus, business drivers have a strong influence on the decisions that the Emirates Group makes regarding its HR strategies and the benefits that its staff members receive.

Examples of Different Types of Reward Intelligence

There are several kinds of incentives that staff members can receive in the corporate environment as a means of boosting their performance. Each of these techniques provides a company with roughly similar chances for success in motivating its employees. However, when applying the proposed techniques to a specific organizational setting, one should keep in mind the specific needs of its employees and the goals that they pursue.

Benefits

While any UAE company has to comply with the principles set in the Emirates’ legal standards and provide a full benefit package to all employees, including extra elements in it will help the Emirates Group to build loyalty in its staff members and encourage the development of motivation in them. For example, parental leaves, sick leaves, and reimbursement for any programs aimed at increasing staff members’ competency levels should be considered an essential component of the benefits package at the Emirates Group (Haak‐Saheem and Brewster 435). The proposed elements will help to prompt the motivation toward not only workplace performance but also the development of professional knowledge and gaining new skills. As a result, staff members may become lifelong learners by expanding the range of their skills and learning new information regularly (Petrou et al. 1769). Thus, the Emirates Group will invest in its staff members, simultaneously ensuring that their loyalty to the company should grow.

Performance Recognition

Although providing financial incentives is typically viewed as a crucial tool for boosting staff’s performance rates, vocalizing the company’s content with employees’ performance is also essential. By expressing gratitude for its staff’s efforts, an organization is likely to increase the levels of loyalty among them exponentially. Specifically, the specified strategy will contribute to building an emotional rapport that will contribute to a rise in loyalty levels among staff members. The proposed approach is also quite helpful in encouraging employees to agree with the key postulates of the corporate philosophy, values, and ethics as the platform for decision-making in the corporate context.

Professional Development Opportunities

Last but not least, the use of talent management techniques should be regarded as an essential constituent of an effective HRM strategy. By creating the setting in which staff members can improve their skills and work on developing new ones, a firm will propel their motivation rates and encourage them to gain new abilities and information. Moreover, opportunities for professional improvement will encourage employees to acquire the ability to learn independently and gain agency within the company. As a result, the propensity toward initiative in the Emirates Group will rise, which will lead to the creation of innovative ideas in the company.

Key Reward Principles in the UAE Business Setting: Overview

The opportunities for providing staff members with incentives in the workplace are truly countless and are mostly restricted only by the constraints within an organization. Therefore, the Emirates Group will need to refocus its current HRM approach to remove the hindrances on the way to managing staff members’ needs and recognizing their potential. The specified issues concern primarily the problem of diversity and the acknowledgment of the needs of diverse groups. In general, the UAE business setting incorporates three reward types that are deemed as the most common and, therefore, worth adopting in the target environment. The concept of total rewards, the idea of equity and transparency, and the incorporation of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards ought to be seen as the most promising strategies for retaining engagement rates among staff members and encouraging them to work better as a team.

The principle of Total Rewards and Its Importance to Reward Strategy

The simplicity of the total reward concept might be seen as a disadvantage, yet it offers rather impressive outcomes due to the chances for the company to show employees how much they are valued. As a concept, the principle of total rewards seems to be a legitimate tool for encouraging professional growth and the rise in motivation and engagement levels among the staff. According to the definition offered by Glowam et al., total rewards represent the sum of incentives that a company uses to show a staff member their worth for the organization (42). The phenomenon of total rewards is quite important for the development of a corporate reward strategy since it helps to allocate the financial resources to make the most profitable investment in the development of employees (Kanfer et al. 338). However, as a tool for increasing engagement levels and motivation rates, total rewards may have varying effects on the performance and loyalty levels among staff members.

Due to the specifics of the total reward principle, it may be misunderstood by employees and, thus lead to a conflict between an employee and a company. For instance, in case the total reward provided to a staff member is perceived as insufficient, a staff member may assume that the company does not value them enough (Demerouti et al. 89). Therefore, the principle of the total reward should be used with due caution.

Equity, Fairness, Consistency, and Transparency: Significance

Another element of the corporate reward policy that is typically used in the UAE organizational setting is the concept of transparency and honesty in the organizational environment. While being rather simple and often self-explanatory, the proposed technique leads to a rapid increase in engagement among staff members, as recent studies show (Petrou et al. 1770). Thus, introducing transparency and openness as the corporate policy is likely to serve as an important addition to the HRM policy utilized in the target corporate setting.

The idea of equity is a nonetheless crucial element of the reward policy that has to be included in the Emirate Group environment. One could argue that the principles of equity and fairness should be promoted at every level of a firm’s functioning as a constituent of the organizational philosophy and not as a means of boosting performance levels. While the specified observation is true, it is also necessary to place emphasis on the high transparency rates and make them evident to staff members so that managers could persuade them to appreciate the firm’s endeavors. The specified policy should be included in the Emirate Group setting as the tool for increasing the levels of motivation among staff members.

Extrinsic and Intrinsic Rewards: Improving Employee Contribution and Sustained Organisation Performance

Finally, the significance of both extraneous and internal rewards needs to be recognized as an inseparable element of the corporate reward system. To enhance the rates of staff motivation and the quality of the end results, one should combine internal rewards with external ones by both acknowledging employees’ achievements with the help of factual rewards and by expressing gratitude and appreciation for having them in the company. Thus, a manager will build an emotional connection with employees, which will allow for the further enhancement of staff-manager communication and the rise in the loyalty rates of the former. By creating an emotional link between managers and employees, one will also incentivize employees to attain better results and increase their performance levels.

Thus, reaching a balance between the emotional support of employees and the public reward of their achievements should be seen as a critical milestone in building loyalty and engagement rates within the team of employees. The ratio of internal versus external rewards may vary from company to company, yet the general idea should remain in its place. For the Emirates Group, it will be crucial to consider a framework that will enable the company to introduce diversity and create more comfortable workplace conditions for its employees. In addition, to reduce the current negative effect and the possible issues that may emerge during the transition period, the organization will have to create multiple incentives for the employees to accept the changes.

Reward Policy Initiatives and Practices at the Emirates Group

One should give the Emirates Group credit for offering its staff members a range of opportunities for training their current skills. The company has also been providing its staff members with the required minimum of benefits and opportunities to which every person is eligible in the UAE legal setting. However, the company should also incorporate additional rewards and reconsider its current system for motivating staff members since it is unlikely to yield any positive outcomes as it presently is. Specifically, the balance between the internal and external rewards should be maintained so that the target demographic could feel empowered to develop and deliver the expected results. For example, enhancing the internal incentives should be seen as crucial, yet the specified type of reward is not to be interpreted as pandering; otherwise, it will have an inverse effect on the performance levels of the Emirates Group’s employees.

Role of Line Managers in Making Reward Decisions

It is traditionally believed that the process of decision-making should be the prerogative of the HR team when it comes to creating strategies for rewarding and encouraging staff members. However, line managers also play an important part in the process which organizations such as the Emirates Group should keep in mind in order to build sensible and effective HR policies within their organizational setting. Line managers can introduce new and fresh ideas into the process of addressing the needs of staff members by creating improved reward programs. For example, a line manager can provide their opinion concerning the probable effects that the introduction of a specific reward policy will have on the production process and the quality of the end results.

Due to the focus on the operations that take place in the process of service delivery, as well as the understanding of the connection between the organizational behavior and the quality of the required services, line managers can offer a plethora of insightful conclusions that will guide the choices for the reward program. For example, an experienced line manager can advise removing particular elements that may reduce the quality of the staff’s performance from the reward program. In the Emirates Group’s setting, the specified decision may concern the introduction of the tools for reconsidering the current workload distribution, thus shaping the levels of employees’ satisfaction and helping to improve their motivation. Owing to the experience that line managers have, their pieces of advice concerning the reorganization of employees’ performance and the introduction of incentives will be priceless in improving the present levels of engagement in staff members.

Therefore, consultations provided by line managers at the Emirates Group should be seen as a key milestone in addressing some of the current workplace concerns. The problem concerning the distribution of workload and the process of assigning tasks to employees is expected to be resolved by inviting line managers to shed light on some of the issues that staff members face in the workplace. By offering their experience and giving an in-depth perspective on the key issues that employees have to address, primarily, the challenges associated with the workload and the problems concerning diversity, line managers will help the organization to evolve. The support of a line manager will allow the HR team to shape the current policies at the Emirate Group to prompt a positive shift in the necessary direction. Consequently, the company should integrate the consultations of a line manager into the framework for developing a sustainable approach for meeting the needs of its staff and building loyalty levels among them.

Works Cited

Demerouti, Evangelia, et al. “Job Crafting and Extra-Role Behavior: The Role of Work Engagement and Flourishing.” Journal of Vocational Behavior, vol. 91, 2015, pp. 87-96.

Glow, Lauren, et al. Total Rewards Optimization, 2nd ed., BookBaby, 2016.

Haak‐Saheem, Washika, and Chris Brewster. “Hidden Expatriates: International Mobility in the United Arab Emirates as a Challenge to Current Understanding of Expatriation.” Human Resource Management Journal, vol. 27, no. 3, 2017, pp. 423-439.

Kanfer, Ruth, et al. “Motivation Related to Work: A Century of Progress.” Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 102, no. 3, 2017, p. 338.

Parakandi, Mohammed, and Mohamed Behery. “Sustainable Human Resources: Examining the Status of Organizational Work–Life Balance Practices in the United Arab Emirates.” Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 55, no. 1, 2016, pp. 1370-1379.

Petrou, Paraskevas, et al. “Crafting the Change: The role of Employee Job Crafting Behaviors for Successful Organizational Change.” Journal of Management, vol. 44, no. 5, 2018, pp. 1766-1792.

Tims, Maria, et al. “Job crafting and its relationships with person–job fit and meaningfulness: A three-wave study.” Journal of Vocational Behavior, vol. 92m, 2016m pp. 44-53.

Younies, Hassan, et al. “Emirati Preferences among Material and Non-material Incentives in the Workplace.” Emerging Economy Studies, vol. 3, no. 1, 2017, pp. 86-97.