Dubai Economy is set announce the winners of the 27^th Business Excellence Awards(BEA) in an online ceremony to be held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, on the 28^th of June 2021.

The prestigious awards, which recognise outstanding efforts and commitment towards adopting best practices and achieve excellence in diverse disciplines of business, are being announced virtually for the second consecutive year in view of the precautionary guidelines against COVID-19.

Overall, 26 winners in various categories of the 2020 cycle of the Business Excellence Awards (BEA), including the Dubai Quality Award (DQA), and the Dubai Service Excellence Scheme (DSES), will be announced at the ceremony this year.

BEA remain a major component of the initiatives Dubai Economy has launched to date to promote quality and excellence as a catalyst for further growth and development in the business sector and contribute to the aspirations of the Government of Dubai to encourage global best practices across the emirate and the UAE to strengthen competitiveness and sustainability.

The Awardshavealso continued to expand each year to recognise exceptional efforts of industry sectors and businesses to support strategic initiatives aimed to elevate quality standards and enhance customer happiness across Dubai and the UAE.

The 2021 Awards has ‘Smart Services Sector’added as a DSES category to evaluate social media channels, mobile apps, contact centres and websites for their efficiency in view of their role in the digital transformation of services across Dubai and the UAE.

Shaikha Ahmad Al Bishri, Director of the Business Excellence Department in Dubai Economy, said: “The Business Excellence Awards and its affiliated programmes have a major role in promoting a culture of knowledge-sharing and capability development within the business community and across services in Dubai and beyond. The Awards have successively developed a team of assessors and businesses capable of extending the excellence momentum into the future and sustaining it.”

The COVID-19 phase have seen all programmes and processes associated with BEA moving online. The Business Excellence Department conducted five online workshops for applicants in the 2020 cycle and also trained over 100 delegates in various sectors and categories of the Dubai Quality Awards.

The year 2020,also saw 100 assessors, including 40 new entrants, trained online on the Awards criteria and processes. The assessors conducted hybrid site visit assessments, combining both physical and virtual visits as required, for all the Dubai Quality Award categories, and 31 feedback reports outlining areas for improvements were sent to applicants in various DQA categories.

“The Business Excellence Awards and the BEA online portal have evolved into an engagement platform and reference point for businesses keen on adopting global best practices and growing sustainably. Satisfaction rating on our online events was above 80% in the 2020 cycle of the Awards and over 90% of the businesses participating in the Dubai Service Excellence Scheme showed 90% compliance with the precautionary guidelines against COVID-19,” added Al Bishri.

Over 8,000 Mystery Shopping and Brand reports highlighting key improvements were sent to DSES members in the retail sector in the 2020 cycle of the Awards and the Mystery Shopping programme has now been expanded GCC-wide.

“In addition to the new e-Services award category, we have also introduced new programmes to support DSES participants improve their service quality,” Al Bishri said.

A 20-hour course certified by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) on dealing with people of determination was offered to 1,500 DSES members in the 2020 cycle. ‘DSES Tweets’ also have been launched as part of BEA to share information among members. Every quarter the top three brands in each sector identified on the basis of the Mystery Shopping reports are announced to encourage retailers.

The Dubai Service Excellence Scheme is a one-of-a-kind initiative that aims to gain customer confidence and to make the experience of shopping in the UAE a pleasurable one. Participants in DSES are honoured in two main categories: the Best Outlet, and the Best Brand.

Since its inception in 1994, the Dubai Quality Award has received the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum who has been instrumental in driving the quality movement across the private and public sectors in the emirate. DQA encourages and motivates companies and institutions to adopt a policy of excellence, provide the best services, and recognise best practices in performance excellence.

The DQA winners are honoured in four categories this year – the Gold Category, the Dubai Quality Award, the Dubai Quality Appreciation Award (DQAA) and the Dubai Quality Global Award (DQGA). The awards will be distributed in key sectors – government, manufacturing, finance, professional, tourism, services, trade, construction, education, healthcare, freezones, transportation, logistics, media, leisure and entertainment, real estate, retail and representative entities.

For more details on the Business Excellence Awards, please write to bec@dubaided.gov.ae or call+9714 4455833.