Dubai Airport Freezone Authority (DAFZA) won the Dubai Human Development Gold Award at the 26^thBusiness Excellence Awards ceremony organized by the Dubai Economy. The award comes as recognition of DAFZA’s efforts within human resources initiatives and applying the best practices in the development of talent.

The winners were announced during a ceremony held remotely in the presence of His Excellency Dr. Mohammed Al Zarooni, Director General of DAFZA.

DAFZA is the first entity to win this prestigious award in five years within the gold category, and the fifth in the history of the award. It was awarded after evaluation by the judging committee, which includes senior executives working in public and private companies across the UAE.

Yousuf Behzad, Assistant Director General for People Growth and Corporate Strategy said: “We consider the Dubai Human Development Gold Award as one of the highest honours any entity in the emirate may receive in terms of recognizing its human resources efforts.It highlights the excellence in developing human capabilities as it is the mainstay of growth and development. The gold award reaffirms the efforts made by DAFZAthrough launching programs and initiatives aimed to develop competencies, leadership and preparing future generations. These initiatives have enhanced DAFZA’s position as one of the most successful free zones on local, regional and global levels as well as among the best entities to work for across the country,”

“Since the establishment of the Dubai Airport Freezone Authority, we have placed human investment at the top of our strategic priorities. We have also drawn our own model within the framework of national corporate responsibility givingEmiratisation a large share of our efforts. Today, we are proud that 70% of our cadres are among the finest local young men and women and it reaches 100% in the senior management positions. We believe that national talent will pave us the path of excellence and leadership in the future,” Behzad added.

“This honour requires us to continue to excel in strengthening the approach that we adopt, which combines confidence in young talent and their development with the provision of an encouraging environment and the initiatives that seek to ensure its comfort and ability to work optimally. This approach has helped many of our employees to be able to exceed the barrier of twenty years of service.” Behzad concluded.

World-Class Work Environment

Within DAFZA, there has been significant momentum geared towards providing working conditions of the highest standards. The free zone ensures the career and personal development of employees by developing competencies and leadership, preparing future generations, supporting youth and achieving gender balance.

DAFZA succeeded in creating the optimal gender-balanced workforce with women making up 50% of the total number of employees. As for the senior management positions at the free zone, women make up 42% of the executive-level team. The free zone is also a pioneer in adopting the proper facilities and initiatives for mothers working full-time, who make up 34% of DAFZA’s workforce.

Across the free zone, young talent represents 33% of the workforce, 61% of them are women and 39% are men. DAFZA has also been taking action to support the career development of employees by allocating a budget for training and development purposes. As per the initiative, each employee is provided with 35 hours of training annually in order to meet their professional goals, learn new skills and grow. DAFZA’s employee satisfaction index recorded an increase reaching 82% in 2019 compared to 81% in 2018, which is a direct reflection of the ongoing efforts put forth by the free zone.

The Dubai Human Development Award was launched in 2002 by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. The award aims to encourage the government and private sectors in the UAE to actively participate in the growth and development of their human resources. It aims also to reward the distinguished efforts and achievements, as well as share best practices.