The Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED) has announced that it is set to implement the first phase of its remote work initiative for nearly 180 employees operating in several sectors.

The move follows the success it has achieved in implementing this system when 100 per cent of its employees were working remotely during the peak of the implementation of precautionary measures against Covid-19 pandemic, reported Emirates news agency Wam.

ADDED employees who are selected to work remotely represent 23.87 per cent of the total employee strength, in which they are classified to be part of the first category of employees and specialise in the fields of inspection, supervision, and customer service.

Mohammed Ali Al Shorafa, Chairman of ADDED said that the positive results achieved when a 100 per cent remote work system for all employees was being applied prompted the department to continue the process especially in divisions where employees have demonstrated high productivity, quality, and excellence in their performance.

The department has continued to implement projects, programmes, and initiatives that support Abu Dhabi’s economy and has achieved as well high levels of professionalism right from the early stages of the pandemic, he added.

Rashed Abdul Karim Al Balooshi, Under-Secretary of ADDED, said: "This pioneering remote work initiative aims to provide the department’s employees with a conducive work environment and enable the staff to facilitate and speed up the completion of transactions in a flexible, easy and fast manner while ensuring quality."

He added that the first phase of the initiative focused on tasks of teams involved in monitoring, inspection, and customer service, who are carrying out their duties and responsibilities digitally to serve the business sector’s customers and complete the economic licensing transactions.

Al Balooshi further stated that a team from ADDED is currently working on studying the impact made by the 100 per cent 'remote work' system. In addition, the team is also preparing a study comparison between the two results – delivery of services while working remotely against the same period of the normal work process – and measuring the productivity rate of all services according to sectors.

Ibrahim Al Mousa, Executive Director of ADDED’s Supporting Services Sector, said that of the 180 employees, more than 66 were from the Licensing Department who work on customers’ electronic transactions and 114 employees were from the Commercial Protection Department, which comprises 90 employees from the field monitoring and inspection teams as well as 24 employees from the Electronic Transactions Division.

Al Mousa revealed that ADDED’s human resources team is currently working on identifying occupations and job roles on which the remote work system can be applied across ADDED’s various units, sections, and branches in Abu Dhabi city, Al Ain city and Al Dhafra region.

The initiative is in line with the directives of the Human Resources Authority - Abu Dhabi, HRA, which has been exploring the government entities’ views on applying the remote work system to various roles across their entities in Abu Dhabi, among which ADDED was included.