12/11/2017 06:43 AST
Zain Group, a leading telecom services operator in the region, has announced the launch of its all-female empowerment initiative, aimed at achieving gender equality and empowering women in the organization to act, lead, develop, and succeed.
While the program has already been running internally at Zain for a few months, it was officially unveiled at a recent event held in The Symphony Hotel in Salmiya, Kuwait, where approximately 300 of Zain Group's female employees from across its footprint gathered at a networking occasion.
Also in attendance were the CEOs of each Zain operation and their respective HR heads. This meeting is set to become an annual event, geared towards producing an annual, actionable implementation plan for the subsequent year.
This initiative has been driven by the Vice Chairman and CEO of Zain Group, Bader Al Kharafi, who pointed to the fact that today women account for less than 25 per cent of Zain's workforce; a situation that led him to conclude that decisive action needed to be taken in this area.
Leadership advisor Connie Dieken led the kickoff program. The founder of Influence 360º, Dieken was recently named one of the world's Top 10 Executive Coaches and has been honored as one of the Top 10 Female Business Owners in her region in the US.
A former newswoman on two American television networks, Dieken is a five-time Emmy Award winning journalist and the only woman to have been inducted into both the Radio/Television Broadcasters Hall of Fame and the Speakers Hall of Fame.
Dieken advises leaders at many of the world's best-known organizations on their influence strategies including Apple, HP, Nestle, and The Cleveland Clinic.
Lauding Dieken for her sound advice on leadership, Al Kharafi said: "As the topic of gender diversity has been on our corporate agenda for quite some time and yet, in this region, we can observe only a marginal increase in women occupying senior roles, therefore it is clear something is not working."
"The talent, creativity, and passion women bring to their roles is undeniable, and I believe developing a program to initiate and measure actual progress achieved in this respect over time will reap benefits not just for women within Zain, but for the organization as a whole," he stated.
"A company cannot be considered progressive if it doesn't identify and encourage all its various constituencies, and given the massive contribution that women have already made to Zain's success, I am very excited to see what more can be achieved through the establishment of this empowerment initiative," he added.
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