Chapter
17
Skills and employment trends in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector have continued to evolve throughout the year. The impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution coupled with geopolitical, social, and environmental disruptions globally have ultimately impacted workforces.
Some of the key findings in the World Economic Forum’s Report ‘Future of Jobs 2023’ include:
Zain’s commitment to establishing meaningful employment opportunities is centered around the adoption of new technologies in addition to inclusive access to digital services and skills. The company’s sustainability strategy is aligned to this objective, where the transition to Net-Zero and embedding environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards to the company’s KPIs are included.
This dedication is showcased by Zain’s upskilling and reskilling programs and the various opportunities the company provides its employees, which are underpinned by diverse, equitable, and inclusive principles. This alignment highlights the company’s commitment to business growth through sustainable development.
In 2023, Zain’s workforce remained stable, however significant changes occured in Sudan due to the conflict impacting part time and temporary employees. Zain will continue to monitor the safety and wellbeing of its employees impacted by the conflict.
To further increase transparency and accuracy in reporting, Zain included Zain Tech and FOO as separate entities.
| BAHRAIN | IRAQ | JORDAN | KUWAIT | SAUDI ARABIA | SUDAN | SOUTH SUDAN | Zain TECH | Bookey | FOO | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
No. of Full Time Employees |
211 |
1,227 |
1,333 |
1,807 |
1,788 |
788 |
145 |
377 |
16 |
190 |
7,882 |
|
No. of Part Time and Temporary Employees |
181 |
1,524 |
425 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
12 |
4 |
19 |
2,165 |
|
No. of Employees all contract types |
392 |
2,751 |
1,758 |
1,807 |
1,788 |
788 |
145 |
389 |
20 |
209 |
10,047 |
|
No. of Males (full time) |
150 |
884 |
929 |
1,499 |
1,439 |
427 |
119 |
270 |
8 |
154 |
5,879 |
|
No. of Females (full time) |
61 |
343 |
404 |
308 |
349 |
361 |
26 |
107 |
8 |
36 |
1,852 |
|
% of Males (full time) |
71% |
72% |
70% |
83% |
80% |
54% |
82% |
72% |
50% |
81% |
73% |
|
% of Females (full time) |
29% |
28% |
30% |
17% |
20% |
46% |
18% |
28% |
50% |
19% |
27% |
|
No. of New Hires Male |
12 |
152 |
44 |
182 |
153 |
0 |
20 |
89 |
1 |
43 |
563 |
|
New Hires % – Males |
6% |
12% |
3% |
10% |
9% |
0% |
14% |
24% |
6% |
23% |
7% |
|
No. of New Hires Females |
11 |
61 |
25 |
71 |
77 |
1 |
5 |
30 |
0 |
4 |
251 |
|
New Hires % – Females |
5.21% |
5% |
2% |
4% |
4% |
0% |
3% |
8% |
0% |
2% |
3% |
|
Total No. of New Hires |
23 |
213 |
69 |
253 |
230 |
1 |
25 |
119 |
1 |
47 |
814 |
|
Total New Hire – % |
11% |
17% |
5% |
14% |
13% |
0% |
17% |
32% |
6% |
25% |
10% |
|
Staff with disability – % |
0% |
0.2% |
0.4% |
0.3% |
1% |
1% |
1% |
0% |
0% |
0% |
0% |
|
Employee Turnover – Males |
5 |
156 |
67 |
159 |
142 |
14 |
3 |
43 |
1 |
17 |
546 |
|
Employee Turnover – Males % |
2% |
13% |
5% |
9% |
8% |
2% |
2% |
11% |
6% |
9% |
7% |
|
Employee Turnover – Females |
1 |
59 |
28 |
59 |
70 |
8 |
1 |
18 |
0 |
7 |
226 |
|
Employee Turnover – Females % |
0.5% |
5% |
2% |
3% |
4% |
1% |
1% |
5% |
0% |
4% |
3% |
|
Total Turn Over |
6 |
215 |
95 |
218 |
212 |
22 |
4 |
61 |
1 |
|
772 |
|
Return to work rate after parental leave – males |
100% |
100% |
100% |
100% |
100% |
100% |
100% |
80% |
N/A |
100% |
100% |
|
Return to work rate after parental leave – females |
75% |
100% |
100% |
95% |
91% |
100% |
100% |
100% |
N/A |
100% |
97% |
|
Retention rate after still working for Zain one year after return from parental leave – males |
100% |
96% |
42% |
82% |
87% |
94% |
100% |
0% |
N/A |
100% |
85% |
|
Retention rate after still working for Zain one year after return from parental leave – females |
100% |
84% |
65% |
73% |
71% |
86% |
100% |
100% |
N/A |
67% |
82% |
* New Hire % – Females is calculated by dividing No. of New Hire Females with Total No. of Full Time Employees
* Employee Turnover % – Males is calculated by dividing Employee Turnover – Males with Total No. of Full Time Employees
*Staff with disability are persons with disabilities who have a long-term physical, mental, intellectual, or sensory impairments, which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.
* Employee Turnover % – Females is calculated by dividing Employee Turnover – Females with Total No. of Full Time Employees
* Return to work rate is defined as employees returning to work after their respective maternity or paternity leave
*Includes full-time employees only
Zain conducts its Employee Engagement Survey every two years. As it was last conducted in 2022, this year the company focused on communicating the results of that survey and created a plan to address its findings. Human resources departments across operating companies presented the results to Executive Management and conducted division-specific sessions with the heads of departments. Due to confidentiality, departments’ specific results were provided only to teams that consisted of more than five respondents.
In addition, to ensure full anonymity and privacy, the survey was conducted using Glint’s survey platform. Glint is a company that specializes in employee engagement surveys that provide companies with valuable insights into their workforce dynamics.
Based on the outcomes of the survey conducted in 2022, Zain is establishing a newly revised reward and recognition program that is set to be launched in 2024. A specified Group-wide survey was conducted in 2023 on this topic to ensure Zain devises a recognition scheme that aligns to its employees’ values and feedback.
ZANIAC, Zain’s internal innovation platform was established in 2017. It aims to foster internal ideation and intrapreneurship for all employees, to support the incubation and development of business ideas through sprints, exchange programs, speaker sessions, and competitions.
Throughout the year, ZANIAC conducted various activities that focus on internal innovation, in which employees can submit ideas to tackle challenges and drive innovation from within.
Q1 Target: 500 users
Actual: 1,098 users
Q2 Target: 1,000 users
Actual: 671 users
Q3 Target: 750 users
Actual: 877 users
Q4 Target: 250 users
Actual: 616 users
Q1 Target: 391 ideas
Actual: 210 ideas
Q2 Target: 220 ideas
Actual: 156 ideas
Q3 Target: 180 ideas
Actual: 211 ideas
Q4 Target: 60 ideas
Actual: 32 ideas
Q1 Target: 20 ideas
Actual: 34 ideas
Q2 Target: 25 ideas
Actual: 33 ideas
Q3 Target: 30 ideas
Actual: 48 ideas
Q4 Target: 5 ideas
Actual: 8 ideas
Zain continues to place a high priority on enhancing the skills of its employees either by upskilling or reskilling its workforce in line with the company’s 4Sight digital transformation strategy. In 2023, the Zain Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion University (DEIU) was established in collaboration with the highly rated IE University in Spain.
Through the partnership, Zain is extending the opportunity to 2,000 employees to participate in an inclusive online Digital Transformation program, which also offers the possibility of attaining a master’s degree. This program is designed to provide an immersive, interactive, and engaging learning experience that aligns with the demands of the contemporary digital landscape. It will serve as a route for Zain professionals to enhance their skills in the digital transformation space.
In 2023, there are a total of 938 active students with 28% of them being female. Zain also provides an opportunity for employees to redo their final assignments, which accounts for 60% of their total grade if they do not pass the course. So far, there has been a 93% pass rate.
Additionally, the company launched PACE, a talent development program which recently collaborated with IE University and Nokia. Under PACE, which stands for Purposefully – Accelerate – Catalysis – Engage, are two programs:
ZY, another DEI pillar focuses on the development of youth employees by providing them with skills, knowledge, and resources to reach their full potential in the workplace. ZY launched various programs such as Generation Z, ZY Counsel, and ZYxGreenSkills, among others.
Through the program’s eighth cycle, Generation Z is a year-long extensive graduate development initiative under Zain Group. It selects six graduates annually who possess leadership skills to undergo various development opportunities. This year, the program focused on cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset that supports Zain’s 4Sight strategy.
Under the GenZ program the following activities took place:
ZY Counsel comprises youth employees appointed to advise, strategize, and develop concepts alongside the CEO of each operation. The counsel was created to provide youth employees with the opportunity to share their solutions and insights to their respective CEO. Each CEO poses a strategic challenge to the counsel, which then works closely with mentors and leadership team to solve the problem.
The counsel covers topics such as team dynamics, creativity, stakeholder management, presentation skills, idea generation, storytelling, and progress updates. It also includes a bootcamp with diverse activities like evaluating ideas, practicing pitches with senior leaders, interviews with Zain leaders, and exploring organizational processes for innovation. The schedule involves engaging sessions, challenges, and opportunities for participants to refine their ideas and contribute to the innovative culture at Zain. Each Operation nominated a participant for the program, selected by the respective CEO. In 2023, the pilot program for ZY Counsel was launched consisted of 8 youth across all of Zain’s operations except for Sudan.
ZYxGreenSkills focuses on the development of green skills, as the company recognizes the importance of equipping young individuals with the knowledge and tools to address circularity and the impacts of climate change. Green skills encompass a range of specialized abilities and knowledge related to technologies, practices, and solutions that contribute to environmental sustainability and the mitigation of climate change.
The program is aimed at youth internally and externally aged between 18 – 27 years, with the objective of preparing them with both the technical and soft skills that can be used in a variety of situations and work settings to improve their prospects for success.
In 2023, the program’s focus was to build awareness and establish the baseline of the program. To do so, Zain launched a Group-wide survey and conducted focus groups to assess youth’s understanding of green skills, as well as to assess their appetite and feedback on the construction of the program. Based on the results, the program’s activities will be launched in 2024.
In 2023, the average percentage of locals in senior management positions was 70%, where Jordan,Sudan and Bahrain marked the highest percentages. The following tables demonstrate the year-on-year percentages of senior management (defined as the top two management levels) comprised by locals in each operation.
The table below represents the percentage of total local employees in each of our operating markets:
| Percentage of local employees | |
|---|---|
|
Bahrain |
88% |
|
Iraq |
97% |
|
Jordan
|
99.5% |
|
Kuwait |
34% |
|
Saudi Arabia |
82% |
|
Sudan |
99.9% |
|
South Sudan |
97% |
|
ZainTech |
18% |
|
FOO |
72% |
Zain’s disability inclusion initiative, WE ABLE, launched in 2019, aims to embed disability inclusive practices in the company by 2025 across four main targets to be achieved by 2025.
The below efforts were conducted throughout the year, to achieve the targets set above:
Actual: 100% of HR employees were trained
Actual: 75%
Launched in May 2021, Zain’s BE WELL program aims to cultivate a holistic approach to DEI to support Zain employees’ well-being and mental health.
In 2023, Zain revamped its BE WELL strategy to focus on four pillars that enable the company to emphasize the importance of mental health at work and advance Zain’s objective of “Nurturing Belonging, Mindfully.”
BE WELL offers Zain employees different ways to foster a mindful and productive working environment through the following:
In addition, Zain launched various activities that fall in line with achieving the BE WELL strategy:
Established in 2017, the WE initiative is divided into different areas that include:
Activities conducted throughout the year to support the achievement of WE gender parity target of 25% female representation in leadership roles by 2023 across all Zain markets included:
WE SUCCEED: This program is an 8-month exceptional developmental journey catered to middle management employees based on McKinsey’s research into “adaptability”. The skillset developed throughout this program allows people to learn, grow and thrive under difficult and uncertain conditions. The top 50% of WE SUCCEED participants were assigned to a senior Zain sponsor, to accelerate their careers in 2023 and beyond through sponsorship meetings. A total of 17 successful promotions were conducted in 2023 under this program. Following dedicated initiatives, Zain Jordan, ZainTECH, and Zain Kuwait exceeded their target of 25% women in leadership positions, paving the way for a more inclusive future.
The breakdown is as follows:
| Operation | Zain employees (WE SUCCEED promotions) |
|---|---|
|
Jordan |
10 |
|
Group |
3 |
|
Iraq |
2 |
|
Kuwait |
1 |
|
Sudan |
1 |
The current progression of Zain’s status of its 2025 target of women in leadership positions is found below:
Zain continues to measure its remuneration ratios across its markets to ensure it tracks and manages any gaps across the different hierarchal levels in its operations.
| Bahrain | Iraq | Jordan | Kuwait | Saudi Arabia | Sudan | South Sudan | ZainTECH | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Employee Level 1 (Executive Management) |
78% |
98% |
N/A |
97% |
43% |
103% |
N/A |
78% |
|
Employee Level 2 (Senior Management) |
85% |
32% |
80% |
95% |
48% |
87% |
36% |
93% |
|
Employee Level 3 (Middle Management) |
86% |
95% |
90% |
103% |
40% |
93% |
N/A |
85% |
|
Employee Level 4 (Team Leaders) |
N/A |
109% |
94% |
N/A |
46% |
98% |
N/A |
N/A |
|
Employee Level 5 (Professionals) |
107% |
90% |
92% |
111% |
58% |
N/A |
32% |
76% |
|
Employee Level 6 (Team Members) |
N/A |
94% |
99% |
N/A |
55% |
N/A |
90% |
N/A |