Becoming a pioneer in leading initiatives for the progress of our society is no easy task, but it’s doable! Nobody showed us how possible that is more than Zain Bahrain.
How do they do it? Well the answer is simple, we can sum it up in two words. Ready for it? Well, they care. Zain cares about the people under their roof, and the ones who aren’t but that’s something to speak about another day.
While businesses do follow general rules for the wellbeing of their employees, there is no such thing as a perfect environment (Zain comes close though!) and everyone could learn to do more. Employees carry the vision of the company and transform it into a reality, so why not learn from the best and cultivate that ambiance of support and motivation?
That’s why we’re here to help! Zain is known for taking the lead in creating a culture of diversity and inclusion, so we’ll list a few of their initiatives to make it easier for you to implement such things in your business and thrive too!
- WE – Gender Diversity & Inclusion
With the gender D&I initiative, WE, Zain has been working on narrowing the gender divide in leadership roles at the company. With the development of a year-long middle management succession program, Zain is looking forward to drawing a closer percentage of its leadership consisting of women. Through this pillar, they are also working on bridging any gaps between both genders in terms of skills, experience, and opportunities.
Plus, Zain provides specialized training and development plans for the Women in their organization, and they focus on women succession planning and promotions by increasing the number of women in leadership positions. With that said, female leadership grew last year as 50% of promotions went to women. (yes, you read that right!)
We can clearly see the effects of their approaches, as efficiency and productivity within the workplace has increased as well.
Having a child in this day and age is a challenge for every parent, especially for working ones, yet Zain has taken it upon themselves to implement procedures to ease the transition to parenthood. New mothers are guaranteed four months of paid maternity leave, offered flexible work schedules and extended designated childcare hours for the first four years, as well as reduced working hours for nursing. Zain was even awarded the Bahraini Women Empowerment Award in 2020 by the Supreme Council for Women for integrating its policies to support women in their careers.
Every business should include a few solutions to help new mothers whether it’s decreasing their work hours or offering an extended paid maternity leave. In cases where that would be too difficult, businesses could provide a work daycare for children or offer to pay partial tuition. All these features would increase productivity and make new parents feel more comfortable and thus, more efficient.
- E-Waste
It’s no secret that Zain is incredibly passionate about sustainability and the environment. They’ve been working hard to educate their customers and spread that awareness by having a drop box in their headquarters where you’d be able to dispose of any old electronics. (We’ve been there, it’s great, quick and easy!)
Every company should take some measures in fighting pollution and waste. After all, we are all part of it. The slightest of changes make a difference and it attracts a wider customer base because it’ll make the customer feel like they are contributing to something beneficial to the environment!
Businesses could do a similar approach by planting a tree or donating every time a customer recycles their old goods/products. There are many different incentives a business could take to promote sustainability. It just happens to differ depending on the type of business you are in. It’s extremely important that bigger companies take those kinds of measures to encourage small businesses to do it even if on a smaller scale.
- ZAIN Youth
A wonderfully named empowerment program where they train young Bahrainis with opportunities to gain early work experience. Zain’s program reinforces responsibility and desire to contribute to the community in young adults. They also aim to teach them the latest skill sets which include: problem solving, social & emotional intelligence and communication skills for the future market. Businesses can also take inspiration from this program and create their own. The program has been running for years now and so far it impacted and trained more than 2000 students!
- ZAINIAC
There is a specialized platform for Zainers to learn more about innovation and entrepreneurship. Through this program, Zainers can submit their innovative business ideas by simply uploading them onto the Zainiac platform, and if they get selected, they receive full support (be it space, consulting, and training, etc.) from Zain HQ to develop a business plan, find funds and launch a related business. (They’re truly an-all hands-on deck crew).
- WE ABLE
As the name suggests, this program represents differently-able employees currently working in Zain Bahrain and people the company is looking to recruit.
To achieve an inclusive culture, Zain launched several awareness sessions about communication with People with Disabilities (PWD) such as Arabic sign language training that is attended by all staff! Not to mention the process of preparing and equipping the office building for PWD. We’d like to see more of this in every work environment, (Can Zain just, like, have its own country?)
- BE WELL
Or dare we say, 5alik Zain? *wink* We sense a theme here, as this addresses Zain Bahrain’s wellness and wellbeing umbrella that a lot of their internal processes fall under, and are designed to achieve the ideal harmony between work and life. Therefore, BW advocates for the care of physical, mental, spiritual, and social aspects by implementing the following:
- Weekly morning show on Instagram that tackles topics related to wellbeing.
- Wednesday meditation where all Zainers who have a free membership in Headspace App are encouraged to disconnect and recharge.
- Free therapy & counseling sessions provided to Zainers by Kuwait Counseling Center.
- Celebrating world mental health day on OCT 10th by officially announcing it as a holiday.
- Two breaks to meditate during working hours each for 15min.
- Running monthly educational sessions with specialized Doctors under DR@zain.
- All BE WELL giveaways are eco-friendly, sustainable and directed towards impacting zainers, such as for world mental health day; giving them mental games to enjoy during their breaks.
- Live awareness session with external experts on mental wellbeing on a monthly basis.
And that’s just to name a few! Zain is committed to the values they stand for and they show serious dedication by following up their words with actions. (Many of us can learn a thing or two from them, tbh.)
In conclusion, all these programs and initiatives are just means of understanding their employees and cultivating a positive atmosphere of encouragement, whilst keeping a keen eye on our beloved environment. Zain’s approaches should be taken into consideration by businesses to emulate the kind of surroundings anyone would feel safe and happy in, a work environment people would naturally gravitate towards and give more to. #HealthyCommunicationIsBetter
You know Zain got the Zain for you, right? Let us know what you think, get in touch with us on our social media platforms through Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. We’d love to hear from you!
