Dr. Tamer F. Elewa has over 15 years of work experience in the field of HR. He heads the HR teams across 74 countries including those in Africa, Middle East, Turkey, Russia, Levant and CIS for one of the leading and most successful Pharmaceutical and Chemical organization in the world. Along with his extensive experience, Dr. Elewa has a vast knowledge-base in his field of expertise. Dr. Elewa holds a masters degree in “Change Management in the Middle East’s context” from Aberdeen, UK. For his doctorate degree Dr. Elewa conducted research work on organizational behavior, focusing on cross-cultural barriers in staff engagement, attempting to solve the myths of over- globalization.
Dr. Tamer F. Elewa will be part of the panel discussion on ‘Employee Engagement: what it really is, why do it and how to get it right in the Middle East’ at the IIR HR Summit and Expo 2012 – the definitive must-attend event for every HR professional in the Middle East to be held from the 18th to the 22nd of November 2012. For more information on this event and to register click here https://www.iirme.com/hrsummit/home
1. How do you like living and working in the UAE?
UAE is a cosmopolitan country with people living and working from around more than 200 different countries. For me this place is a big learning school in terms of business in a multi-cultural environment.
2. What is your average day at work like?
HR is a continuous and exciting area of work. Every day is a new day, with so many changes occurring now in the business world, HR plays a very active role in anticipating those changes and responding to them when they occur.
3. What is the biggest challenge you face in hiring talent?
We focus on hiring the right attitudes, then developing skills. The biggest challenge we face is diversifying talents to reflect the market dynamics, while maintaining harmony and engagement among team members. We need to continuously study our workforce dynamics and fine-tune our internal and external communication tools to ensure our manpower remains strong.
4. What is the most important thing you look for in new hires?
The right values.
5. What is your advice to someone looking to work with Merck?
I would advise them to pay a visit to the workplace and get a feel of the environment. We hire people who are on top of their game (skills, education, and business mentality). People who join us should be able to deal with the diverse workforce and demonstrate cultural sensitivity and emotional intelligence.
6. What changes in your industry (bio-pharmaceutical) do you most look forward to and are most excited about?
With more people joining this field of work, as well as, the increase in number of organizations operating in this field, it is interesting to look at the effect this might have on the human capital investment, in terms of personnel deployment and development. The role of employees as partners is further gaining emphasis, and organizations in the healthcare industry need to genuinely approach this sector in the same way.
7. What has been the highlight of your career in HR?
Every day is a learning process for me; however I am proud to say that I have been successful in breaking the status quo globally on how organizations look at employee engagement. I have introduced a unique concept on furthering employee engagement for MNCs operating in the Middle East and African region specifically, and it has proven success for years. It has being tested and operated in several Pharmaceutical as well as IT organizations.
8. What do you read to keep abreast of industry developments?
Data from business figures, industry and country economic performance figures are extremely important for HR, as they play a major role in anticipating human capital performance metrics as well as directing future investments in terms of their deployment and development.
9. How do you see the Middle East evolve as a place to practice HR?
Over the past few years, there has been an increase in the number of educative forums, HR meetings, and conferences, which have played a big part in knowledge sharing and promoting best practices. The great leap in HR practices across the Middle East for me would be in the shifting of perception of HR as a "Personnel Management" department rather than a "Human Capital" division, and this will require a lot of effort, specifically in recruiting people with the right competencies. I feel positive about this taking place, however; I am concerned about the speed at which it will happen.
10. Anything else you''d like to share with the community of Bayt.com Employers?
Be the change you wish to see in your industries.
