If you telephone DHL Express to trace an overnight shipment or to arrange delivery of your new credit card, you might speak to one of the three dozen women who work in Al-Khobar as part of DHL Express’ Saudi Arabian team. They hold positions in the company’s services, logistics and sales divisions.
As part of an effort to localize more of its Saudi operations, DHL Express began employing women back in January 2008. Initially 12 women were hired, six in corporate tele-sales and another six at the Data Validation Center. To ensure that the ladies were as comfortable as possible in their new assignments, DHL Express set up women-only workplaces, which were expanded six months ago when the company added women to its Call Center. The female staff are networked into DHL’s global operations, with technology enabling both voice and data communications, making physical location irrelevant.
“At first, DHL Express was cautious, employing Saudi female staff only in positions where outbound calls were made – such as in following-up sales leads with corporate clients and in confirming addresses for bank customers,” explained Wadha Al-Zarah, direct sales manager, DHL Express. “I was one of the 12 women initially hired by DHL Express, and we quickly proved our worth. That led to the company recruiting more female employees and we have just learned that for 2010 the number of Saudi women working here will be doubled.”
“The investment from our side is high,” said Ali Thabet, national marketing manager, DHL Express. “Just like all new hires at DHL Express, women employees receive training before they take up their jobs. One month is spent on induction training, which is provided by our corporate training department. Then there is specific training for the job itself. The training here is the same as anywhere else in DHL Express’ network.”
The performance metrics are to DHL Express’ international standard as well.
“At DHL Express, all quantifiable actions in the workplace are transformed into a unified scoring system which is used for our teams in 220 countries,” remarked Thabet. “In tele-sales that scorecard tracks areas such as the number of calls made and the revenue generated. All the categories are compared globally and in 2009 the Kingdom’s tele-sales team came out on top.”
Getting to the top was a challenging climb according to Al-Zarah. Simply overcoming market perceptions was tricky at times.
“There were some strange conversations,” said Al-Zarah. “I’d call an office and the person answering would say, ‘DHL? Women? Is this a joke?’ He’d cut the line and call back to be sure I was calling from DHL Express! My family was proud of me when the Saudi tele-sales team came out on top in 2009.” DHL Express is currently recruiting more women in services, logistics and sales, and will also be hiring women for accounting. Thabet pointed out that the turnover among Saudi female employees is far lower than among male employees. Since DHL Express promotes from within, women see the opportunity for advancement as a bonus. The company compensates employees according to position filled, not gender, and Saudi women staff are also encouraged to participate in all DHL Express global incentive programs and community activities.
“I shortly start training to become a manager at the DHL Express Saudi Call Center,” said Maha Al-Madi, DHL Express Call Center Team Leader. “Currently I coach the women working for us at the call center on how to improve their on the job performance. Each call received at the call center is recorded and I listen to every conversation which is outside the norm as indicated by our analytical tools. Our goal is to answer every call professionally and quickly. These aren’t social calls. People want to locate their shipments and arrange delivery. My aim is to teach our staff to do that efficiently.”
For Al-Madi that may mean dealing with the occasional irate customer, but she can handle it. DHL Express has a training module on managing calls where shouting is the form of communication from the customer side.
“When an angry customer demands to speak to a supervisor, I’m the one who takes the call,” she advised. “I try not to take the shouting personally. My priority is to understand why the customer is angry and to work towards giving that customer satisfaction.”
And angry customers can be satisfied. Al-Madi recently received a letter from a customer whose shipment she tracked down and expedited in time to meet the business’ requirements. The letter was an apology for the customer’s fury and thanks for a job well done.
DHL Express conducts global audits to ensure that all customer calls are handled as per its corporate policies. The company’s staff are accepting of the scorecards and audits because they believe that these efforts are directed towards enhancing the performance of managers and trainers, and not as punitive tools.
“Team leaders have the task of motivating colleagues to do their best,” said Latifah Al-Mudahki, data validation supervisor, DHL Express. “It is proven that positive reinforcement is far more effective in terms of motivation than negative actions. I give my team small rewards to encourage positive performance. If someone doesn’t handle a call well, I let her listen to the recording of that call and then we compare it to the recording of an ideal call. Giving good examples lets people clearly understand how to achieve the task.”
The company’s personnel strategy is effective. The smiles of the Saudi women working for DHL Express, coupled with the low staff turnover and high performance metrics offer compelling evidence of its success.
“Hiring Saudi women may have started as a form of social responsibility to the local community,” said Thabet. “Now we employ Saudi women because DHL Express achieves its targets through the excellent sales, service and logistical support provided by the Saudi women on our team.”
