Laila Yousef Al Hassan is the lead on the Parent-friendly Label (PFL), a workplace award program, the only one of its kind in the region, that recognizes and honors parent-friendly workplaces across the UAE. 

Through the PFL program, she is helping to usher in a new era for workplaces across the country where they lead with compassion and understanding for the needs of working parents of young children.

Laila has been a Senior Advisor on Organizational Culture and a member of the leadership team at the Abu Dhabi Early Childhood Authority, which is tasked with overseeing the Early Childhood sector in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, UAE. 

In that role she has focused on maintaining a unique culture at the organisation and recently earned the authority international recognition for this purpose.

During this interview, she discusses insights gained from the parent-friendly label program, noting that applicant organisations are making tangible policy changes to achieve the label's criteria. They also observed an increased awareness of the business benefits of becoming a parent-friendly workplace, with organisations viewing this as a long-term journey. 

A parent-friendly workplace is one that recognizes an individual's needs extend beyond the office, offering benefits such as fully paid parental leave, work-from-anywhere options, unlimited nursing breaks, peer-led support groups, and structured guidance for managers.

Jason Averbook, Senior Partner at Mercer spoke to The HR Observer about the importance of digital transformation in the workforce. He said that for HR professionals to adapt and shift their focus from simply counting people to making them count, they need to look at the skills and competencies within their workforce. 

Averbook explains that HR professionals lead digital transformation by looking at the role  of HR in employee care whilst understanding the importance of digital transformation, and defining success in the context of organisational changes.

He explains that many organisations struggle with outdated HR practices and the need to adapt to new strategies. He emphasized the importance of aligning HR's vision with the corporate strategy and treating employees as assets rather than expenses. 

Nathalia Klein, CHRO at Allsopp & Allsopp Group talks to The HR Observer about how her primary focus is on employee retention and development.

She believes that ensuring employee engagement and providing a good progression pathway for employees are crucial to their happiness and development; hence engagement and retention.

Nathalia also highlighted the importance of nurturing and managing the entire employee life cycle, keeping up with industry trends, and setting standards for employee practices.

She stressed the need for communication, transparency, and clarity to make employees feel cared for and valued. Nathalia also pointed out the challenges of maintaining a balance between employee happiness and business growth in a fast-changing industry like real estate in Dubai.

She is a mum to a wonderful 13 year old daughter, who she's setting some incredible examples for on a daily basis. 

In this episode, Sunita Menon, the CHRO of Data Flows Group, shares her journey to her current role at a company with a large number of employees across various locations. She reflected on her 20-year journey in HR, which spanned multiple industries and domains, and the benefits of her diverse experiences.

Sunita emphasized that integrity and ethics are key qualities in a successful HR professional. She also discussed how her varied educational background in statistics, operational research, and cyber law has helped her respond to challenges and achieve business objectives. In her current role at Data Flow, she is contributing to the creation of an inclusive and innovative mindset through their people.

In this episode, Dina Mohammad- Laity, a data scientist, shared her experiences and challenges of being a woman in a male-dominated field. 

She emphasized the importance of nurturing a collaborative and empathetic environment, having more women in leadership roles to encourage diversity.  benefits 

Dina stressed the importance of effective communication, maintaining up-to-date industry knowledge, fostering a culture that promotes creativity and problem-solving, and the necessity of avoiding competition.

In this episode,  Mohamed Zarooni, the Senior Vice President and Country HR Officer at CITI Bank talks about the best case practices of recruitment. 

Zarooni talks about the challenges of meeting recruitment targets, especially in niche talent markets, and the importance of maintaining engagement and communication with employees to ensure long-term retention. 

In this episode, Ramona Da Game, the business strategist talks about the significance of strategy within any company to achieve the required talent management. 

She spoke about the the importance of strategic planning in businesses, highlighting the need for effective leadership that motivates and values team members.

In this episode, Lutz Wilson, acting head of design at Masdar City talks about the inspiration behind building the place. Wilson talks about how people can envision their products to be able to implement them and reach their goals. 

In this episode, Beth Yoder, the Wellbeing, Diversity & Inclusion Officer at the University of Groningen discusses how can companies ensure they are both diverse and inclusive.

In this episode Farid Khan, Head of HR at Mondelēz International, explains how the company ensure the workplace practices sustainability. 

In this interview, Khan talks about the key practices that make a business unique on the front of encouraging sustainability within the workforce.