The document discusses strategies for human resource departments to help businesses navigate Ramadan when many Muslim employees will be fasting. It suggests: 1) Hosting iftar parties and community events to embrace Ramadan's spirit while boosting corporate social responsibility and local standing. 2) Managing employee expectations, as expecting lower productivity can become a self-fulfilling prophecy; with the right motivation, productivity may not necessarily decline. 3) Providing sympathetic support for employees' spiritual and physical challenges during the month.

1. 20 september 2010 21september 2010
H
Human Resources
Ramadan Project
The recent financial crisis has provided a timely reminder, if one was ever needed, that we
operate within a dispassionate business environment. The corporate world provides little
room for emotion or spirituality: achieving shareholder satisfaction necessitates that a firm
makes every effort to maintain company profitability. And as every savvy business director
knows, employee efficiency is key to ensuring that the bottom line is satisfied.
How, then, should businesses respond
to a local labour force whose members,
for one month every year, choose to
fast between the hours of sunrise and
sundown and who are accordingly
entitled to a shorter working day?
That’s a question every Middle East
business must attempt to answer come
Ramadan. The adverse consequences
for business performance are easy to
spot. Worker fatigue quickly sets in,
and employee interest – otherwise
fuelled by a habitual intake of caffeine
– now wanes as the day progresses. As
a consequence, local businesses must
make do with a set of circumstances
which their competitors in the West do
not have to contend with.
It’s here that a firm’s Human
Resources Department can come in,
transforming itself from more than the
mere recipient of sick day slips and
annual leave requests to a group of
individuals who have the important
and unique task of reconciling the profit
motive with local beliefs and culture.
As the success of Sharia’a compliant
financial products has demonstrated,
business practitioners in the Middle East
have known for many years the essen-
tiality of merging traditional practices
with modern business endeavors.
Human Resource practices in Ramadan
ought to be no different. By employing a
few careful strategies, it will be possible
for your business to end Ramadan spiri-
tually and financially reinvigorated.
Firstly, as every Muslim knows,
generosity and community fellowship
are part of the spirit of Ramadan; it’s
also something firms operating in the
Middle East should bear in mind when
engaging with their staff and the wider
community. The resultant benefits
are not simply limited to spiritual
enhancement: your business will benefit
too. So, it’s perfectly possible to combine
an Iftar party with a team building
event. AGhabga event for less fortunate
members of the community not only
allows your firm to embrace the spirit
of Ramadan, but will go a long way to
boost a business’ local standing, whilst
simultaneously enhancing corporate
social responsibility. Crucially, both
strategies can eventually work to
strengthen the bottom line: it’s perfectly

2. 22 september 2010 23september 2010
possible to merge business interests
with local cultural considerations.
It’s the role of the Human Resources
team to champion innovative forms of
cross-cultural business thinking such
as these. View the HR department as a
set of in-house consultants comprised
of individuals who best understand
the local environment and its religious
practices. Consequently, they must take
the lead when it comes to informing
the management structure of the many
opportunities for business and personal
development during Ramadan. An
integrative approach is the way to go
when it comes to merging the interests
of staff, management and the local
community.
Secondly, expectations matter: the
astute HR professional would do well to
remind employers and employees alike
that the very expectation of a Ramadan
productivity dip is in itself detrimental
to worker efficiency. Negative expec-
tations are contagious. If employers
expect employees to operate at a slower
pace during Ramadan, then it’s only a
matter before workers realize that this
is the case and, no longer encumbered
by high expectations, allow standards
to slip.
This need not be the case, however.
After all, if we see employee produc-
tivityastheoutputgeneratedperworker
per hour, the lack of habitual coffee and
lunch breaks means that each employee
could potentially complete a greater
number of tasks each hour. Certainly,
the magnitude of this effect is unlikely
to compensate for the negative impact
on output which arises as a consequence
of a shorter working day. But that’s
not entirely the point. By following
this expectations-based strategy, an
employer will ensure that staff are kept
motivated. And an energized team
can achieve a great deal. Early Islamic
history indicates that the Prophet
Mohammed’s followers trained for and
fought a defining military confrontation
against their regional adversaries during
month of Ramadan. Such fighting
spirit certainly has its place within the
business environment as well.
The suggestions thus far have
presented savvy strategies which work
to limit the impact of Ramadan on the
bottom line. But it’s also important that
during this month of spiritual renewal,
we remember that there’s more to how
a business operates than its ability to
generate income. This is particularly
important when it comes to dealing
with staff during Ramadan. Human
Resources ought to provide employees
with a sympathetic ear to which they can
voice their concerns. As a final point,
therefore, we want to remind Human
Resource teams of the need to remain
mindful of their target audience and
ensure that their interests are realized
during a month of physical and spiritual
challenges.
This article has sought to demon-
strate the importance of cross-cultural
diversity training within the local work
environment. For one thing, it can
prevent costly errors from being made.
Secondly, such training ensures the
creation of a knowledgeable and cultur-
ally-sensitive employee base. It is easy
for companies to make blunders when
they assume that they have complete
understanding of the manner in which
foreigners operate. For example, shortly
after commencing flight services to
Hong Kong, officials at United Airlines
realized to their horror that the white
carnations that they had been handing
to passengers on flights as tokens of
hospitality left travelers feeling anything
but welcomed: in many Asian cultures,
white carnations are symbols of death
and misfortune – hardly beneficial
associations for an airline. A company’s
business and human resources strategy
must therefore be re-evaluated when
operating abroad. Flawed assumptions
can have highly detrimental long-term
effects on a firm’s brand reputation. The
incorporation of cross-cultural diversity
training into your business practices
will do it a world of good and is certain
to guarantee talent maximization –
something no business can do without
given the competitive nature of the
corporate environment.
TheMiddleEastiswhereOrientmeets
Occident. What better location then
to capitalize on the synergies between
Western business practices and local
traditions? Human Resources deals with
thebusinessofpeopleandpeoplemakea
business what it is. Understanding your
staff and developing business practices
which capitalize on employee potential
is an essential task, which is made all
the more pertinent during Ramadan.
It’s certainly something which any goal-
oriented Human Resources team will
only overlook at a substantial cost to
their business.
(Isabel Carter is Managing Consultant at
Talent2 International, an international end to
end HR Solutions business that believes in
making a long term contribution to the Middle
East by ensuring nations, employers and
people achieve their highest potential. For
further information, they can be contacted on
Tel: +973 1758 0369 Web: www.talent2.com)
“Firstly, as every
Muslim knows,
generosity
and community
fellowship are part
of the spirit of
Ramadan”