Working from home dream turning into reality for Qatari women
Qatari women will be able to work from home under a new scheme promoted by the Supreme Council of Information and Communication Technology (ictQatar) and Qatar Telecom (Qtel).
“The pilot project offers jobs that women can do from their homes. The purpose is to empower women who often face challenges in balancing the competing demands of professional aspirations and family life. The new initiative with the partnership of Qtel will help ensure women can remain committed to their family obligations while still being an effective part of the workforce,” ictQatar sources said.
The initiative, “Working from Home”, launched this month, will be piloted over a six-month period with women working for Qtel in the Business Solutions directorate.
“Their responsibilities will include customer contact, data entry and word processing. The team will be linked to Qtel through a special application on their web site in which their work will be assigned and monitored,” officials said.
For Khalid Abdullah Al Mansouri, executive director, Business Solutions, Qtel, technology can play a huge role in empowering people and transforming their lives. “This project will help demonstrate the potential of a work-from-home model for the employees involved, for the organisations that recruit home-workers and the wider social value of encouraging everyone to get involved,” he said.
According to Reem Al Mansoori, e-Inclusion Manager, ictQatar, the work-from-home model has been successfully implemented in several organisations around the world.
“I am certain it will be very viable here in Qatar. By using the latest information and communication technology, we will be able to empower women to work in new ways, creating benefits for both the women and their employers,” she said.
A comprehensive field study will be conducted as part of the project in order to produce a work-from-home model that can be used in other organisations in Qatar.
The field study will be benchmarked to other international experiences of similar scale and focused on producing a blueprint for three of Qatar’s major sectors – government, health, and oil & gas.
“The true measure of success of this programme will be the creation of a sustainable model that can be replicated at other organisations in Qatar, bringing even more skilled women into the workforce,” officials said.
According to the Labour Force Sample Survey, issued in January by the Qatar Statistical Authority (QSA), 36.1 percent of the total number of Qatari women have a job. Around 71 per cent of all Qataris worked in government departments.
