Our People

Not to be outdone by 2020, 2021 succeeded in bringing with it its own set of challenges and triumphs, with COVID-19 still impacting much of what we do and how we do it. We were challenged to think outside the proverbial box, and continue to balance flexibility, employee wellness with its many levels, and business as usual with the many meanings it now carries. And while agility and collaboration have always been key to how we do things as a firm, they have proven to be exceptionally critical during the past year.

The volatility of the pandemic and its waves kept us on our toes, unable to relax our guard. Lower infection numbers and loosening restrictions in one country did not necessarily mean the same in many others and it was up to us, in coordination with our co-workers in other parts of the firm, to stay on top of the changes and ensure we always had reliable up-to-date data we could base decisions on. Adjusting our return-to-work strategies (and everything else) to mirror each specific country’s circumstances and our particular situation in that country was key, as was how quickly we did so. Messaging continued to be critical, ensuring employees were always well informed.

We continued to keep our ears to the ground.

When we found that COVID-related hospitalisations in Egypt were mainly due to oxygen deficiency, the team immediately sought approval to purchase 8 oxygen cylinders to be made available to employees and their family members.

When we saw that schools continued to teach online, we made sure that parents- mothers and fathers alike- felt able to work from home at a moment’s notice when school closures required that; we made sure that our corporate policy was explicitly flexible and applied fairly and consistently.

When we found that managers needed help adapting to the new state of things, be it extended isolation working from home, managing remote teams, or even being unable to travel to see family and loved ones, we offered mental resilience training. And, in acknowledgement of our stoic and reserved culture when it comes to asking for help, we modified our enrollment process, allowing employees to decide for themselves whether they felt comfortable participating. The success of the programme has cemented its place on our roster of regular offerings since its benefits extend beyond the COVID-19 era.

The circumstances of 2020 pushed us to try different learning mediums and learn what works for our people, and we carried that learning into 2021, using it to further refine how we selected our learning partners, what subject matter best lent itself to virtual learning and which employee groups benefited best from this learning methodology.

When the circumstances allowed it, we gradually brought employees back to a real classroom, kicking off our in-person learning with a unique offering for our non-officer population in Egypt. Stemming from our belief that learning should empower the learner, we piloted a financial literacy programme for our most vulnerable population. While the firm will always step in and assist when the need arose, we saw it as our responsibility to create a more sustainable solution; we wanted to arm them with the necessary knowledge that would help them make informed decisions that would impact their financial well being in the long term. Employees were invited to enroll themselves and it was rewarding to see 40+ choose to attend of their own accord. This is the first time we address less traditional learning requirements, and we were encouraged by the participation to consider further roll out of the programme and other similar topics.

Work on the programmes under the umbrella of The Academy continued rigorously behind the scenes, in preparation for when we could bring together participants from across the EFG Hermes map to convene in a physical classroom once more. We’ve worked to refine our assessment and selection methodologies and revisited and reworked the outlines of some of our programmes.

We’ve been working down an ambitious tech-enablement roadmap for HR for a number of years and our 2021 milestone included the completion of our digital Promotions tool. Conceptualized to streamline the promotions process for both managers and HR, and housed on the all-new Talent Central platform, the new tool captures the entire promotions process from nomination to review to approval and cuts down the time needed for each step in the process.

We take our learnings from year to year seriously, and 2021 has added much to our repertoire. We continue our tech enablement into 2022, focusing on talent acquisition and learning, ensuring synchronicity across all HR technology tools and platforms. The driving factor continues to be streamlining, facilitating and simplifying matters for managers, employees and ourselves, leaving everyone with more time to focus on the business and more substantive activities.

Corporate sustainability is also front and center for us; Succession Planning 2.0 is set to roll out during the first half of the year. The enhanced framework is built to capture both strategic and operational roles of note across the firm and provides detailed guidance to managers on how to identify those roles and how to identify the talent pipeline for them. This is tightly integrated with The Academy and executive education initiatives, ensuring that the talent of the future is ready when the time comes.