Well-Informed Employees

One of the big mistakes of management is not to make your employee aware of exactly how he/she will be evaluated, what is expected from him/her, what is his/her duties and responsibilities, and how he/she might get rewarded or punished. Despite the fact that this might sound natural and logical, yet unfortunately many managers and companies fall into this very trap.

Managing the expectations of an employee would make him/her less resentful when he/she is evaluated and rewarded or punished. A workpace where an employee does not know exactly what his responsibilities are might foster friction between employees due to taking decisions instead of others and some not doing their duties and blaming this on others.

The best thing to do is to take each new candidate through a brief orientation in which he/she gets to know the policies and procedures of the company, a clear written statement of his/her job description including clearly stated duties and responsibilities and finally the method by which the employee will be evaluated. Investing in such an orientation would save companies a lot of headaches caused by employee friction, a lot of frustration on the sides of employees due to unmet expectations and a lot of waisted energy on the side of employees who might be waisting a lot of their energy on low priority activities that do not really add to the bottom line of the company.

Branding Workshop at Zedny

I just came back from a session about branding as part of the Zedny marketing workshop. The session was really great, mainly due to the presentation skills a hand-on real-life experience of the presenter. The session was delivered by Basem Abdel Ghani, currently Category Marketing Manager - Dairy at Juhayna Food Industries.

Secretaries No More?

The role of a secretary is changing with time. The more technology evolves and spreads at our workplace, the more our work style changes and the role of the secretary in particular changes.

The role of a secretary was traditionally to do typing of correspondence or typing of reports for the manager on a manual typewriter, to sort out mail coming to the office, to answer and make phone calls and arrange appointments for the manager. Things are changing now, specially at companies that use technology more. At a software company now for instance, a manger has a computer and probably can type by himself. Most communication and correspondence takes place via email, so snail mail is limited. Appointments can also easily be scheduled via software. The only secretarial task remaining might probably be answering and making phone calls. Even this one might have been reduced due to the increased reliance on email which is by definition fast.

When I worked at Sakhr 8 years ago, they did not have any secretaries (although they had hundreds of employees). Well, actually they had a position for secretaries, but they did not call them secretaries, they called them Assistants instead. Perhaps naming is not a big deal, yet I believe that software companies, which are big consumers of technology and are staffed by highly computer literate people, are usually less reliant on secretaries.

Sure we are a long way from not needing secretaries any more. After all, there are so many companies that are run by managers who are not technically savvy. They still need someone to type their messages and will rarely use email, or even my ask their secretaries to type it for them!

Google for Education in Egypt

I am excessively excited about Google's deal with the Egyptian Ministry of Education to provide Egyptian students with Google applications as part of Google's Google Apps for Education program.

Microsoft has long known the treasure hidden in the large population of Egypt and the will of the Egyptian government since 2000 to transform Egypt into the digital economy stage. Now Google is doing the right move. Google will spread into the Arab world through Egypt. After all, Egypt is a big exporter of ideas and has tremendous cultural influence in the region.

Google Selects Egypt!

I have previously mentioned that Google has selected Egypt as the Arab country of choice in the region to open up its presence in thus creating Google Egypt. Some have questioned the validity of this information claiming that it was nothing but a hoax. To those I only point to this job ad at Bayt asking for an Administrative Assistant for the Managing Director of Google Egypt.

Resala and Dr Sherif

I remember Dr Abdel Aziz Hamuda once told us in a lecture at Cairo University that one way to know a good work of art from a bad one is that with a good work of art you can read it over and over again, each time discovering new things and experiencing the emotions once again as if you were reading it for the first time, while in the case of a substandard work you read it only once then it's 'burnt' and will never want to read it again. I remembered this yesterday when I was at Resala, Masr El Gedida branch, listening to Dr Sherif's same introductory session for the third time! Resala is an NGO and Dr Sherif is its CEO.

I told a friend of mine about Resala the day before and he expressed interest in visiting. I told him I was going to Resala the following day, so he wanted to come and see. The following day, which was yesterday, we went together to the Masr El Gedida branch of Resala and by coincidence it was the day, and time, when Dr Sherif was giving his biweekly introductory session about Resala for new volunteers wishing to get introduced to the activities of Resala. The interesting thing is that such a session provided by Dr Sherif is always more or less the same, he mentions the same stories in almost the same sequence and says basically the same things in every session, of course those attending the session are different people every time. But sometimes a person attends this same session more than once, and that was my case yesterday. It was actually my third time to attend this session by Dr Sherif, and the amazing thing was that I felt his words deeply and I was listening with great interest despite that fact that I've heard what he was saying twice before! That is what brought to my mind Dr Hamuda's words about works of art and the simple rule one may use to differentiate between a good and a bad one. Even though this sesson of Dr Sherif cannot be defined as a work of art, yet indeed this literary rule of quality applies to it.

Web Standards Seminar at OpenCraft

Yesterday I attended a seminar at OpenCraft about Web Standards. It was interesting. The point I liked most in the seminar was what Omar, the presenter and an OpenCraft team member, termed as "the zero principle" or the zero rule. He coined this term to indicate the first rule web developers (and designers) should keep in mind when making web applications or web sites. The princi0ple is: when (and where) to use what. I find it a pity that there are still many making with sites with a dreaded "Flash intro". Yes the customer sometimes insists, but in my opinion it is the duty of the developer/designer to educate him on what professional websites of good companies look like.I really loved Omar's approach of showing us a succession of web sites pointing out to us the good, the bad and the ugly. I'll learn from this approach and perhaps try to use it in one of my next training sessions or seminars. 

Google Egypt

Although I do not know him personally, yet, I was excited to know that Sherif Iskander is working as a Business Manager for Google, handling their interests in Egypt. I do hope the day nears when Google opens up a development center in Egypt similar to the one it has in India. That would result in technology transfer, more jobs in the high tech industry for Egyptians inside Egypt and better Google services for the Arabic language and Arab countries. For Google it will mean tapping into a growing pool of creative talent eager to participate in creating all sorts of new and interesting stuff.

Resala Masr El Gedida

I was at Resala Masr El Gedida branch last Friday. Dr Sherif's lecture was amazing.

Scrum Seminar at OpenCraft

Karim Ratib, Co-Founder of OpenCraft contacted me to throw a seminar at OpenCraft's premises in Dokki about Scrum. I got hooked to the idea and was really interested to know that they have gone through a series of seminars attended by IT pros from different companies. Yesterday I delivered the Scrum seminar at OpenCraft and I loved being there. Nothing more refreshing than challenging questions coming from an audience with diverse backgrounds.

Working in Dubai

I came across this interesting and informative post about the reality of working in Dubai. I believe it would be interesting and useful for any Egyptian considering to work in Dubai, UAE or any other Arab gulf country.

ITI Grads

ITI, the Information Technology Institute in Egypt, started long before FCIS (Faculties of Information and Computer Sciences) were established in Egypt. The ITI gained a good reputation that some software companies in Egypt started explicitly mentioning in their job ads they wanted ITI grads. That's quite a testimony of the quality of ITI grads. Though not all ITI grads are excellent, yet many of them are rally good. To get the 9-month IT related training at ITI you do not have to be a graduate of Engineering (except for a specific branch at the ITI) nor FCIS, you can be a graduate of any faculty in Egypt provided you pass the tests and interviews for selection at the ITI.

Establishing the ITI was a strong step by the Egyptian government towards establishing a base of software developers in Egypt. Establishing FCIS faculties was another strong step towards achieving that same goal. The third step was providing condensed IT training to Egyptian university grads through scholarships. This ambitious program aimed at training five thousand Egyptian university graduates on software development and other IT technologies. Although such a program was not a tremendous success, yet it did produce many excellent software developers from among the large numbers that have graduated from it.

Being good in software development depends on your personal liking of programming. It also depends a lot on the level of your English language proficiency. There are many excellent developers who are graduates (or even students) of non-technical faculties, the Faculty of Commerce for instance, and have not even attended any of the training programs I just mentioned. Programming is a talent and depends on ones efforts end experience. Yet, from what I have witnessed, those who have strong academic background in software development usually win over those who do not have it. Exceptions do exist but in my opinion they are exceptions and not the norm.

Recruiting Software Developers in Egypt

Recruit FCI or FCIS graduates (preferably Computer Science department) (7asibat wa ma3lomat). Recruit from Ain Shams, Helwan then Cairo universities. You may also recruit Engineering graduates (Computer Department): Alexandria, Ain Shams then Cairo University. Those are the best to attempt for. Make aptitude and English tests. If you recruit from those places and do those tests you are SAFE. You never have to worry about developing software in Egypt as long as you've used this winning formula. Then do the technical tests and interviews. This can make you bring an excellent team.

You can provide them with short training and give them books to read on the technologies you will be using. Remember, they love to learn and continuously improve their skills. If they feel at any point in time during their work that their skill-set is not going any further, that they are not learning something new or not improving their technical skills or doing the same thing again and again, be sure they'll start looking for work at some other place.

Scrum Seminar at FCI

Last Saturday I delivered a short seminar about Scrum at FCI, Cairo University. Scrum is one of several agile methodologies for managing the development process of software projects. FCI is the Faculty of Computers and Information Sciences. The seminar started at 10:30 AM and took 1.5 hours. What I liked most about the audience, who were mainly third and fourth year students, was that I got intelligent questions from them during the seminar.

I'll try to upload the video of the seminar to Google Videos and link to it from here when I get hold of it.

Orbit Channel Visits

A team from the Orbit channel visited me today for an interview. That was an exciting thing! They asked me about what a blog is and about the blogging scene in Egypt. I then made a quick demo for them to show how I write in this HR Egypt blog of mine and publish what I write instantly. I'm looking forward to seeing the program on Orbit.

IT Jobs in Egypt

A Canadian born fresh university graduate who has Egyptian parents was asking me about career opportunities in the IT filed in Egypt. She lives in Canada and is entertaining the idea of coming to Egypt to work and live here. This idea seems to have come to many Egyptians whose parents have immigrated to Australia, Canada, USA and other countries. I try to give them an idea about the IT job market in Egypt as well as the style of life here which is great switch from style of life in Western countries with all it's positive as well as negative sides. Not everyone is able to adapt, it depends on your personality and on the effort you put into trying to understand a culture you are not used to or have never experienced before. Here is part of my reply to the latest one who asked me this question:

As for life in Egypt and a career in the IT field in Egypt, it's good that you asked me. I work in the software company in Egypt, I've been delivering IT training in Egypt, and I moderate a 6400-member yahoo group called Egypt-IT-Jobs. I also made this site: Egypt IT Jobs.

There are around 1500 IT companies in Egypt (in 2005). You said training in IT is the best match for your personality. But it's good that you got in contact with me to tell you about this. Delivering training in the IT field in Egypt is not financially rewarding (any more). Delivering English language training in Egypt can be anything from 3 to 5 times more rewarding financially.

As for certificating, we've got loads of certified people here, it's not expensive (any more) to get certified and the Egyptian government gives scholarships for around 5000 Egyptians every year to get such IT certificates (not only is the training + certification free for them, but sometimes they even get a small monthly allowance too!). The certifications in abundance here are: MCSE (MCSA), Cisco certificates, also Oracle ones and MCSD (but much less than MCSA). (Also there is one called CIW which is present in so much abundance).

Forget about working with MCSE, or as Network Administrator. Your best bet is to work as a Systems Analyst or better yet a Business Analyst. Your good English and strong communication skills will give you a plus in such valued positions here as well as your Canadian flavored personality. You can also find a good job for J2EE (Java) or C# if you're into programming and like it. Companies like IBM Egypt, ITWorx and others are hiring and they focus on checking English language and aptitude first. It's a strength in a company like ITWorx for instance if you were exposed to the Western culture ('couse that's where they sell sell their software).

As for life in Egypt, you'll need a LOT of adapting. If you stay in Egypt trying to live your life as you lived it in Canada then forget it, you'll just get frustrated and will find every word that your parents have mentioned to you correct. However, if you try to adapt and absorb the style of life here and discover the ties between people and the different way by which they go about living their lives perhaps then you will find out some warm areas in Egypt which some people highly appreciate and give up other luxuries for. (Ex: Before coming to Egypt, try, at least temporarily, to wipe out the word "organization" from your dictionary. You'll notice the disappearance of this concept from all aspects of life here in Egypt. Also places are not clean here. As for the bright side, people here are warm, they'll help you when you need them and they have warm feelings.) The best thing if you have relatives here, that would be a good thing. They will guide you and make the cultural transition a smoother one.

Fuul Medammes and Team Building

In the US fast food restaurant are nothing but what their name indicates: fast food. When you are in a hurry, you eat fast food. When you don't have the money to afford to dine out at an elegant restaurant, you get fast food, when you don't have the time to cook you also go for fast food.

In Egypt however, fast food has a different twist to it. First of all, fast food here in Egypt is anything but fast. Whether you're getting home delivery, dining in or even take away, in most cases you have to wait and sometimes for a bit too long. But that's not the greatest difference between such type of restaurants in Egypt and the US. While in the US fast food places are considered to be on the lower end of the food-price chain, in Egypt eating at fast food restaurants is considered the classy thing!

At work, we ordered food, not from a US-like fast food chain, but from the traditional full and falafel type of shops. We could have used Gad, but we went for Shabrawy, a popular chain in Egypt offering traditional fuul and falafel (tameya). We did not order sandwiches like is commonly done, but surprisingly, specially for people working at a US company, we ordered fuul in plastic containers and we sent the office boy to buy bread (balady bread). We then emptied the full into a large container and started eating all together crowding around it!

By some, this might seem unhygienic, all of us eating from the same plate, and boy we were many. To the Egyptian who still views eating from US-like fast food chains as classy, this action of ours would seem not appropriate and not 'classy'. This has to do with the class structure that is unfortunately still rooted in the Egyptian culture, and how different classes in Egypt eat in different ways. But the lovely thing I noticed was not only the better taste of the fuul eaten in this way, but that our crowding around the plate and all eating from the same large plate together sparkled a team spirit which although we could not see with our eyes yet we felt with our souls.

It might sound funny to hear that eating from one large plate can be a team building activity, yet I believe one should do what it takes to promote a team spirit. It's much better to use an activity that stems from our culture than to try to forcefully inject 'foreign' objects inside the body of an Egyptian team. We should learn from the West, then adapt what we learnt to our own culture. Never should we take things as is and just apply them blindly in a forced way to our culture, because they will get rejected, not work or in best cases cause annoying problems.

US Companies in Egypt

My mom once asked if the increase in foreign investment in Egypt was good for the country. I told her yes it's good. Foreign investment in Egypt fuels the market increasing its momentum. Not only is money injected into Egypt and new jobs created but international level technology and business practices are introduced which upgrades the skill-set of the Egyptian talent pool making it more competitive on an international level.

According to the Egyptian MCIT web site, IT companies in Egypt have jumped to over 1500 companies in 2005. Many of those companies are actually foreign investment. Some are US based companies, others are companies from Germany, France, Sweden as well as other Arab countries such as UAE and KSA. The majority of those companies though are Egyptian.

Sure getting in contact with international level technology and business practices is beneficial. Many of the Egyptian software companies have been started by entrepreneurs who have originally worked at foreign companies in Egypt. ITWorx is a good example of a software company that started in Egypt by two Egyptians. Ten years later, ITWorx has grown to a $10 million annual target. Business Today Egypt magazine has an interesting article about this.

I do work at the Cairo development center of a US based software company. Sure I feel the technology transfer that takes place. Graduates of FCI, Cairo University and FCIS, Ain Shams University as well as FCI, Helwan University are among our employees. We also employ computer engineering graduates from Ain Shams, Alexandria and other universities. Those bright software developers are getting exposed to bleeding edge technologies and are developing software systems on an international level. This is what I call technology transfer. In addition, the business practices and general work atmosphere they are getting exposed to further enhances their capacity and skills.

Company Lunch

We have company lunch each Thursday. We get out all together and have lunch at some place. Sometimes we just order the lunch and have it at the company. This company lunch thing has been a strong team builder. Expenses of the company lunch are way lower than costs of turnover which this weekly event helps in reducing.

Employees Adapting

When interviewing for a vacancy, you try to pick someone who fits the profile of the job and of the company culture. However, you have to put in mind that even if the person you are interviewing does not have all the personality traits needed, he or she may still change and adapt after joining the company. This change can be affected through an induction program made for new recruits.

We once recruited a guy who had terrible communication skills and was a hard liner, yet we still recruited him because we were in need of the technical skills he had and we were unable to find such skills easily elsewhere. So we recruited him knowing his communication and other related problems. A few months later, this employee did not of course turn into a first grade communicator, but at least he changed a lot. He started to adapt slightly after a few weeks of working at the company. Gradually with time, his communication skills started to improve as well as his attitude. Again I say he has not turned into a skilled communicator, but at least his communication skills have advanced noticeably. Although we did not provide him with communication skills training, yet a weekly seminar program in which each employee has a turn to deliver a seminar helped enhance everyone's communication skills. A note is due here, this employee was aware of the communication skills issue he had after we informed him of it and accepted it. Not only that, but he did a continuous effort to improve himself in this regard.

Sure I am not asking you to recruit people with poor communication skills, yet my point is that people can change with time specially if you guide them and put them in the right environment to help them change. When conducting an interview, you should look not only for current skills and traits, but the candidate's potential to grow and change.

T-Shirts and Team Building

It's surprising how some simple things such as distributing t-shirts with company logo on employees can go a long way in building a team spirit. Today we asked our team to come pick t-shirts with the color, size and style of each one's choice. It was like a mini-party where each went through the different t-shirts checking for an appropriate size and a color that he liked. After that we all had a group photo, actually many photos together. It was very nice. Then several of us got their camera phones and kept taking still more photos of us together. When we went back to our desks, still wearing the shirts as none seemed to want to take them off even after we were finished with taking the photos, everyone appeared to get back to work with a better spirit. That's what I call team building. It's amazing how simple things as t-shirts with company logos given to employees can go a long way in inducing a team spirit.

Zedny

Zedny is one of the many entities that have sprouted quickly in Egypt over the last few years delivering human development training. Zedny is by large the most popular, and I believe, best of them all till this date.

Zedny started a few years ago by providing human development training courses such as time management, job hunting, CV writing and the like. Zedny offered low cost training sessions for a large number of youth. A training session may be attended by 200 or 400 attendees. It is more like a seminar. The large number of attendees makes up for the low cost of the 'course'. Zedny made good use of the Internet to spread its word among youth. It used mailing lists, groups and the power of forwarded emails to spread its word among the rapidly growing Internet-savvy youth population of Egypt.

Currently, Zedny is operating from the premises of Rabaa Mosqe, which is located in Nasr City, Cairo. They have an office their and they used the wide halls present next to the Rabaa Mosque. Anyone who wants to attend one of the courses pays a minimal fee, something like 20 LE or 40 LE to attend a course of perhaps 8 sessions (around 2 hours for each session). It varies from course to course but this gives you an idea of the price and time range of courses offered by Zedny. Courses focus on human development topics and topics that are of interest generally to the youth. One of the courses for instance was how to select your life partner.

If it is the first time you are attending a course at Zedny, when you go and pay for that course you fill out a form with some info about yourself (name, address, phone ... etc) and they make you an ID card which you go get it from them at a later day. If you later go and register for another course, you use this same ID card. The interesting thing about this ID card is that it has a barcode on its back, so whenever you enter a session that you have registered for, they just pass your ID card in front of a barcode reader, much like the one used in a supermarket by a cashier on a product, then you enter to attend the season. It's a cool way of keeping track of attendance in an easy way and verifying who is registered in the course, given the large number of attendees.

You can find information about courses currently available at Zedny and who delivers them at their web site Zedny (the web site is in Arabic). Those who deliver the sessions are volunteers, they do not receive any monetary compensation for their efforts. The money goes back to Rabaa for charity purposes. Al Ahram Weekly has an article about Zedny: Concept Promotion. Zedny also have a group online: Zedny Group.

The word Zedny stems from the Quranic verse "Wa koll Rabbi zedny 3elman" which means "Ask God to increase your knowledge."

Ethics 3

Dr Sherif's sessons are a model for how to deliver training, the kind of training which leaves an effect on the minds and hearts of people and moves them to positive action. It's the kind of training that not only leaves people hoping and wishing they should do so and so, but makes them go beyond that and actually move and do what they see has to be done.

Dr Sherif uses a lot of stories while he is talking, real life stories that he has either experienced first hand, learnt about through a friend or knew about through other sources. The session he delivers is composed mainly of questions he asks to the audience, stories he narrates and comments he provides on the answers the audience give or the storied he narrates. His comments comprise the smallest part of the session content, while stories and questions directed to the audience compose the bulk of the session.

Dr Sherif derives his conclusions from the voting or response of the audience and from the stories he narrates. This method of stories, audience feedback and delayed or audience-derived conclusions are what make his words convincing to the mind and soul and drive people not action. Another thing which helps produce this effect is that he does not talk in idealistic, theoretical and impractical ways, instead he talks real-live, he talks day to day events and actual scenarios.

Dr Sherif, Ethics

Dr Sherif mentioned 5 mental tests that help you find out if an action is unethical. I remember 3 of them now:

1. Put yourself in the other person's shoes. Do you find this action okay if you were in the shoes of the other person? If so, then the action is ethical, if not then it is unethical.
2. What does religion say about this action? If religion forbids it or says it is bad, then it is unethical.
3. Imagine this action is generalized and is now done by all people. What happens to the community and the world if this action is generalized? If the world falls into chaos due to this or is harmed, then the action is considered unethical.

Zedny, Training and Ethics

Yesterday I attended my first session at Zedny. The session was delivered by Dr Sherif founder of Resala, a rapidly-growing youth-fueled Egyptian charity organization. The subject of the session was Ethics. Dr Sherif used to deliver a Work Ethics course at Cairo University.

The content of the session, which was about ethics, was fine but what really interested me and was exceptional was the way Dr Sherif delivered the session. His method of delivery and the instructional tools he used were a model to learn from in delivering training.

The sessions was more like a workshop, despite the large number of attendees which was nearly 400. Dr Sherif kept relating many stories along the session, true stories that happened to him, his friends or his students. He gave a break during the session. He asked the audience a lot. He let the audience give their views. He listened. He then reached his conclusions after listening to what the audience said. He also took votes and used the whiteboard to jot down what the audience said or condense it.

Daily Scrum

Today as we were just about to start our Daily Scrum meeting, we discovered that one of the team members has switched to another team! After getting over our initial astonishment, we reassigned him to attend the daily scrum of the other team he has now joined. If it was not for the daily scrum, this team member would have been working with the other teams for several days without the rest of us even knowing about it! That's a demo of how Scrum practices lead to high visibility.

Retention of Software Developers

• Working on developing interesting and challenging software solutions.
• Using cutting edge technology, tools and methodologies to develop such software solutions.
• Continually learning new things and improving ones technical abilities (knowledge and skills).
• Getting a fair salary within the lines of the competition of the local market.
• Seeing a career advancement path, expecting promotions and reward for performance.
• Getting recognition, feeling valued by the company and having an important role in the project.
• Having a say in the design and direction of the project. Exercising ones creativity and being heard.