the treatment they deserve

Posted on March 26, 2014 Updated on March 27, 2014

Understanding Labor Accommodation Facilities Management

in the United Arab Emirates.

By Deborah Gay D. Estacio

10 Important Things That You Should Know

 

The United Arab Emirates population is hugely composed of immigrants. In the 2011 International Immigration survey; 70% of UAE population comprises migrants, 27.4% of it are women. Looking at the statistics closely; as to the estimated labor force within that percentage, 85.2% (of the 70% population share) are male laborers while the women labor force share the 14.8% (of the 27.4%). The International Labour Organization predicted or estimated a shoot up of about 1.03% growth yearly and that is interpreted as 1,183,600 labor force by the year 2030.  Abu Dhabi Region and Abu Dhabi Emirate labor force share 83% and 84% respectively, according to the 2012 AD Statistics Center survey. The numbers are growing due to the huge developments, projects opportunities, and investments advancement programs that the country planned; most of them are now on progress.

Now, the questions (aside from “where did they all come from) are; where do these laborers live/stay? Who accommodates them, and how are they taken care of?

To address the need;  the government of Abu Dhabi assigned the Higher Corporation for Specialized Economic Zones or ZonesCorp to develop several cities that aimed to home the labor force in a confined city, one of Zones Corp’s objectives is to develop labour accommodation in accordance with the highest levels of human rights guidelines and build supporting infrastructure to create worker communities.

Here is where the facility management (for labor accommodation services) companies come in:

The collaborative efforts of the government agencies managing this sector needs the full cooperation of the facility management operators to be able to achieve a common goal, and that is – to provide accommodation to the workforce/laborers WITH THE HIGHEST LEVEL of Human Rights. How is this really tackled down there? In my humble opinion, there are few basic things that these managers/operators need to understand. So I am writing these things down:

1. Understand different cultures, traditions and values.

Know the different nationalities of the residents living in your facility. Take note of the important details that each nationality requires. Know their food preferences, recreation interests, privacy standards, religious values and even their nation’s important festivity days. These details will enhance their spirit of belonging to your community. Knowing them and realizing the importance of designing a special procedure that addresses them through understanding their cultural beliefs give them a feeling of being appreciated and welcome.

2. Respect ITEM 1.

In the details gathered from Item 1, try to administer each of them with due respect. Create policies that attend to each nationality and explain the restrictions with reference to others as well. Create a balance between them. Surely no one can make everybody happy; it’s a dream of a perfect world, but you can always communicate, with high regard of respect.

Take for example the following:

• Catering service; design a set of menu that includes multi-nationality special food, festivity food and their service preferences.
• Recreation facility must be consist of various activities, one per nationality maybe, if you have 10 nationalities or more, align your activities to those that have similar rules. Invite them to participate with others so they will have the chance to learn and appreciate each other as well.
• Movie times must be scheduled systematically and try to choose their local movies accordingly.
• Festivities are very important to them; therefore, try to research more about how they do it and get them involved in any of your preparations. The National Day celebration for each country must be respected and properly celebrated. You may include them in your calendar of activities and disseminate the information on the dates and timings you wish to give respect to it.
• For religious matters; allot a place where they can practice their religious activities with high regard to privacy and solemnity.
• In announcing your company rules and regulations; do it in different foreign languages. Do not expect them to understand the common rules at once. Communicate them in such a way that they will comprehend properly and that is through their own native tongue.

3. Laborers NEED to feel welcome and at home.

A labor accommodation facility is practically a home for migrant workers. Home away from home as they call it. And the team management is not their employers, but rather they home employees. That is one reality that is missed by a lot of people assigned to manage this kind of facility. The International industry category where the labor accommodation facility management belongs is the Hospitality, Tourism and Catering Management or HTCM. In short, the residents are to taken care of like those of hotel guests. The big difference that is missed by a lot of managers is that they think labor accommodation residents are mere laborers so no special treatment is given. That is wrong. In fact, if not for the government’s legislation that they must be accommodated in a confined and controlled city; they can actually opt to stay someplace else. But since companies who hired them are mandated, compliance is a must. There is where we, facility managers come in.

The objective of management is to provide a safe and healthy environment to the residents. A kind of environment that should protect the workers’ rights and well-being should be the management’s drive. To deliver that into achievement requires formula and proper system. But to simplify; I should let the experts design the system, my purpose here is to reach the level of the day-to-day site-based legwork personnel. To simply say; the aim is to let the workers feel that they are really home. This includes services availability that a person needs as if he was in his own home. So in your management scheme; always think or imagine yourself in the scenario. If you are at home and you are tired from work; what are the things you need and how convenient would it be for you to get them, and within the same scenario on you, imagine preparing yourself in the morning before going to your daily work. Six days of work, a day off, 365 a year, what would you have to reward yourself at the end of each day? The answer is a good night’s rest, and a worry free home.

4. Listen to their opinions and get them involved.

Labor facility is managed by various organizations or companies. Some of them provides full services, some hire second and some third-party specialty service providers. Regardless of your company set-up, it is important to rule out the exclusivity of plans and methods. You must get your residents involved. Anyhow, they are the ones who will benefit from the services. In short, if your team gets too many a complaint from any of the service provider, the end bottom is that you will be forced to replace your contractor, before a riot arises. So here are some tips:

• Involve your residents. Not all of them, but choose a leader, or ask their company officers to task a representative. In many cases, workers are sent with a camp boss, or a camp supervisor which is tasked to manage the employees. The camp boss is a reliable representative of the residents.
• Since the labor accommodation facility management is composed of at least 10 major departments; enlighten the representatives of the activities according to concerned departments | services. Never call for a meeting to discuss all 10 department issues. Better to schedule them by areas of concern.
• Earlier notification of the meeting agenda is of high importance. This will save you time to gather their thoughts during the meeting itself. This idea also gives the representative an ample time to gather the suggestions and complaints of the residents under his care. It will as well help the representative to eliminate the concerns that are the same, or provide just a summary, and then he will be ready to be the voice and ears of his people.
• Open the discussion and gather additional input from other representatives. This way they know that your team is giving high respects to their opinions.
• Try to prioritize the rectifications according to need. Never promise the things that you feel are not within your capacity to decide on. Leave these items to the higher management, but commit to follow through and to notify them the soonest. Align the rectifications plan to the activities involved and to the availability of your team’s resources.
• Coordinate with the service providers, the FM supervisors and managers and have a centralized calendar that indicates the timings allotted to take the actions and expected completion.
• Always update the participants and discuss the completion of the items in your succeeding meetings. It will help everybody to realize that their participation is valued and that the concerns of the residents have been attended to.

5. Services MUST be provided at the PROMISED time.

As I have mentioned above, services are provided by different contractors. It is very important that your team analyses the timing of delivery for the required services. Your operations department and your operations manual shall indicate the schedules that must be followed. Once you have the pattern and you feel that they are doable at a given time; that is the only time you can announce the schedule. Remember always that the workers have limited time; they leave early and come home tired, so they expect that their concerns are well attended to as you promised them.

This item goes very well with:

• Catering services: meal timings are limited, and according to your villages’ capacity; ensure that everybody dines within the allotted timings only. Late services are not acceptable. It may be for some time, but it shall never be acceptable for long-term, or repeated incidents unless you are ready for a riot. L
• Laundry services: the clothes that they use for working must NOT be delivered late. You actually know what happens to you when you know you need your clothes and they’re not there, so I need not expound.
•  Housekeeping services: again, as earlier said. Treat the labors like hotel guests. Just ensure that the rooms, ablutions and surroundings are cleaned as you scheduled them to. The more organized and consistent your management is, the easier it will be. Why? –because when workers see that your team is consistently cleaning, they themselves will improve in fixing their own stuff and will be aware of NOT throwing garbage here and there. The tidier the place is the better. Consistency counts here.

6. ACT on the issues AT ONCE before they take action.

This one can be avoided if your team will do the Items 1 to 5. Always remember that the workers do not and will not at once realize that the problems might be from some failures caused by your service providers. Since you or the team, meaning the management is in the frontline, the blame is always on you. That is precisely the main reason that the residents representatives must get involved with the management-service provider-residents group meetings.

Impatience, frustration and unsatisfactory services drive the workers to rebellion and rebellion is translated by them as riot. Nobody likes that. But again, as I said; it can be avoided. Communicate.

7. Be HONEST in your limitations.

In your communication with the residents; (it is actually helpful to do this whenever a group is checking in, or during the induction period), present to them your team structure. A simple work structure with flow that they can understand will help give them the idea that the management is running with a system. This suggestion also defines in their understanding, that the management has personnel assigned to do a particular department/service, and that the help desk is their center for all their concerns. Explain the link to them so they know the limitations of each. This is not an overnight understanding for them, just be consistent enough until they get used to it. But then again, do it with respect. As they come, always remind them that their concern will be linked to:__ and that they will be notified of its progress. Ensure them that the item will be attended to, accordingly.

We human beings are very sensitive no matter what level in society are we in.

8. They are the one’s paying your salaries and wages.

They expect a good treatment.

Laborers are workers. They work on hard labor and it’s almost every time after a long tiring day’s duty that they go back to the accommodation facility; dead tired. They actually fall asleep on the bus. The last thing that they want to do is rest and in the morning they want to feel fresh for another day. This goes the same to those having night duties. While they are out, it is the best time to give your team’s best service so they don’t get disturbed. Management methodology and strategic scheduling is the key to achieving this goal. Take care of the common facilities and those areas that are utilized by many during the holidays and common day off. Give them the best service possible, they will stay and bring more people.

9. The Labor Accommodation facility is NOT a prison cell.

This item is for the management and its employee resources. Please never hire anybody whom you think will undermine the residents. The workers have had enough troubles in their own daily lives, never give them another one, by employing personnel who will discriminate them, or shout at them or treat them like prisoners.

Policies can be communicated well without having to raise voices. Residents will obey and respect if you give them the nobility they deserve and vise versa.

Penalties can be imposed well without having to be rude.

Everything inside the village can be managed in a diplomatic way, and it takes good people with good hearts to do that.

        10. Know and practice the rules, regulations, mandates and regulations.

The labor accommodation facility management is guided by legislative policies that is inspected, monitored and audited by the government’s designated agencies. Before anything else; know them and get used to the procedures. The same policies must be reflected in the step by step methodologies that your team will utilize to handle the day-to-day operations, so ensure that your strategies are aligned to them. Keep your team posted on the amendments, new regulations, and updates provided by the agencies and leave enough rooms for adjustment.

In all that you do inside the accommodation facility; always remember that there are eyes and ears around you. Non-compliance means penalty. Whether sanction or fees, they are still penalties and you would not want to be branded as such. Your team is your soldier in the field; let them be equipped and well-informed. The key to this is to understand the flow and take immediate actions before the authorities find the things unattended or ignored. Create a 10 major services/departments full control team; task them by department, each one responsible enough to handle their own section.

Develop a pro-active team. Their actions and prompt delivery of services will define your team’s unity. The results in the performance audit cycles will define your management integrity.

We FM operators must work together for the achievement of the common goal. We may have our own company goals that reflect on our cash-flows; but let us not forget the primary or basic variable that composes our cash-flows, under the equation is the Laborers. The workforce, or the labor force that put us all in this business opportunity. Let us make our efforts worthy of their trust.