Dubai Customs unveiled launching its newest HR initiative Al-Fanar, under the slogan Dubai Customs Excellence You make it happen!. The launch was made during a press conference held on the sidelines of the DC participation in Careers UAE 2015 at Dubai World Trade Center.
The press briefing was attended by Buti Abdullah Al Jumairi, Executive Director, Human Resources, Finance and Administration Affairs Division, and Lubna Al Mehairi, HR Director.

Buti Al Jumairi praised the strenuous efforts undertaken by the Dubai Government Human Resources Department, under the administration of H.E. Amal bin Adi, Director General of DGHR Department, to modernize government human resources and align different HR programs and initiatives with strategic objectives and priorities of the emirate. He also commended the fruitful cooperation between DGHR and Dubai Customs in this field.
Al-Fanar initiative, said Al Jumairi, primarily attempts to help employees to identify career paths, based on technical and behavioral competencies, in connection with roles, tasks and responsibilities, to create functional integration at all levels; and hence direct the employees and the entire department towards excellence.

Through this initiative, Dubai Customs aims to hit high creative and innovative levels. It had already started training and developing the skills of new employees in order to boost their competencies and promote performance levels and work standards. Besides, the department introduces its new recruits to the technical and behavioral competencies in their respective careers, as well as all knowledge, skills and behavior they need to acquire. This happens through an integrated framework that helps them plan their careers so that they can develop all needed skills.
Dubai Customs is one of Dubais early governmental departments that adopted a career system based on a competency matrix, said Al Jumairi, noting that Al-Fanar initiative is a significant step to boost open-door communication between HR units and all employees of the organization.

The new project targets to increase transparency and raise awareness of employees in terms of functional competencies, and this can be possible by revealing all maps of the career paths to them. Thanks to this initiative, employees now have the chance for career advancement both within their respective divisions and across Dubai Customs in general, being able to consider all available opportunities to achieve the targeted career progression.
Buti Abdullah Al Jumairi also pointed out that a designated Al-Fanar webpage has been created on the DC intranet, where employees can easily access the competency matrix to help them plan their career paths at their own convenience. The competency matrix lists all required qualifications and experiences for a vacancy as well as the training programs needed to have positive career progression. In line with the Smart Government strategies, a career competency-based application is about to be launched on smart phones too.