About Emirates Nature in Association with WWF (EN – WWF):
Emirates Nature in Association with WWF is a non-for-profit, non-government entity charity that has been created under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan dedicated to the legacy of the history between Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founder and late President of the UAE, who has been awarded by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in honoring his integral work in nature conservation and preservation locally and globally.
We create, manage and implement projects in the UAE to ensure sustainability, environmentalism and conservation is practiced by the individuals across all demographics, the private sector and the public sector through not just funding, but through training and development, ideation sessions for solutions for nature, incubation sessions to turn these ideas to life, and through participating with us on the ground as volunteers to create a mass transformative impact at scale, as nature is our lifeline and the key to safeguarding our present and future resources.
Why is EN – WWF committed to being a parent-friendly workplace?
We believe that creating a core value system that matches the essence of philanthropy is essential to what our organization stands for – giving back to our natural ecosystems and the community. In as such, one of our values is integrity. We want to be able to practice what we preach, and a key to that is creating a workplace environment that allows our team to thrive. Our team is comprised of Emiratis and residents that have dedicated their lives to our vision, of whom all call the UAE their home for themselves and their families. A majority of the team, being parents, need to have the support system that enables a flexible workplace that allows them to be happy in their personal lives as well as their work life, making sure that they, as parents, can excel and feel fulfilled through providing their children with the key foundations for love, support, and physical presence. Much like nature, children need the utmost nourishment, as they are our future and our legacy, not just for each member, but our country.
Share a parent-friendly workplace initiative that EN-WWF excels with and the impact it is having on the workplace culture.
The organization is blessed to have leaders who have always been pioneers, providing essential support and policies to give the team the key essentials such as a healthy maternity and paternity leave, family sponsorship, golden visa support, amongst numerous others. We also enjoy a flexi-work environment working from the office once or twice a week, flexi-work hours (with core working hours), where we encourage parents to spend quality time with their children, introducing travel over the summer months as a family creating valuable experiences and memories that mould our children (assuring the digital infrastructure for working remotely globally during that time,). We all vividly remember our ‘Bring Your Panda Cub to Work Day’ where the organisation offers a full day of entertainment for children at the office, while their parents are able to work and during their breaks enjoy time with their little ones. This initiative has allowed children to get an understanding where their parent is during the day, what they do, and by whom they are surrounded by. The feedback of parents was very appreciative, as children then understood the concept of work, and were less apprehensive towards their parents leaving for work.
What are some of the business benefits you see from being a parent-friendly workplace?
In the philanthropic world, our entity, much like others in the field, wants to be able to have team members that are focused on being a part of instilling and protecting wellbeing of any kind, which is a foundational element of parenthood. Having a parent-friendly workplace allows the organization to showcase and communicate to its members and potential future colleagues our value system, hopefully attracting people who share and cherish the same, creating a culture of like-minded individuals who support one another and the organization collectively. In addition, having this culture of inclusivity not just in our conservational efforts, but in our team, created trust amongst our partners, resulting in increasing further partnership opportunities. Contentment attracts further investment by other parties who share your beliefs and invest in the vision you strive to achieve. In addition to this, we are able to observe that parents are producing higher quality work outcomes, as childcare is something they can actively influence and take part of, as a result of our work from home and flexi-hours policies.
