INTERVIEWER: MAHMOUD MANSI
“Playing the piano reminds me at all times that I am still a lady away from all the HR policies, disciplinary actions I have to take, and the administrative investigations I have to carry on sometimes by myself…”
Mariham Magdy
About the Interviewee
Mariham is a passionate HR learner and professional with a 10-year experience. She is always keen to develop herself by attending HR conferences, workshops and being engaged in HR communities. She masters Italian as it was her study, she used to work as an Italian instructor as well, and she is currently attaining her Master’s degree in Italian Translation. Mariham has her own concepts in work-life balance, management, and human resources in Egypt.
THE INTERVIEW
1- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: Why have you chosen to shift your career and work in HR? What does HR mean to you?
Mariham Magdy: Actually the Human Resources Science means a lot to me and I really believe that with the HR theories and concepts we are able to change the whole world.
I do believe that the HR science must be the corner stone for the well establishment of any successful community or business.
The right & intelligent application of the Human Resources Science can really enable any business to reach out for markets & profits that can never imagine or reach with the sole application of marketing and operational activities.
In my case, I chose to extend my studies entering in the HR field because I had the ambition to grow in my job & to grow my Company as well.
Initially, we didn’t have an HR department in the Company and the traditional employees affairs were mainly managed before by the administration department. After completing two years working in the Company in two different positions and observing the opportunity & the gain we can have if we established a specialized HR department in the Company, I decided to study first HRM in the AUC for one year, and after finishing my study I designed a project of how to establish an HR department in my Company from A to Z. This was based on a realistic SWOT analysis made on the case of our Company at that time and defining a scientific and realistic order for the steps to follow for the department establishment starting from the primitive legal obligations auditing till the more advanced steps for the staff future succession planning processes.
2- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: How did your degree in Italian Language & Literature support you in your current career as an HR person directly & indirectly?
Mariham Magdy: Well, it supports me a lot really directly as I am currently working with an Italian Management, so in our daily communication, meetings, correspondences I am able to communicate well with my Italian management & staff.
It facilitates me a lot the ability to fit in the Org. culture immediately; it is more comfortable & easier for an Italian head department for example to communicate with me directly in his native language, without needing to speak another language.
I can easily understand the gaps that might happen in the way of understanding/perception of the Egyptian employee & his Italian manager, to act on solving them.
In another way, the study of literature supports me in an indirect manner as an HR person, in enhancing my ability to edit & publish for example an HR manual policies’ or an employee handbook; as drafting and editing a policy manual needs some special techniques in trying to design it & edit it in a way that can capture the employee attention, be up to his expectation, engage him & convince him of the value of applying what you are expecting as a Company.
3- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: What were the first challenges that faced you when you decided to start an HR department from scratch?
Mariham Magdy: Well, really I faced a lot of challenges for this but I can summarize them simply saying that gaining the buy-in of all the stakeholders at that time wasn’t an easy issue at all.
It can be considered one of the most difficult change management exercises one can handle throughout his career.
It is normal that when trying to introduce a new and different culture of management in a Company that has been operating before for about at least fifteen years with a totally different way of management is not an easy job.
I learnt a lot from this experience & I believe that it changed a lot as well in my character.
4- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: You have worked before as an Italian language instructor; do you believe that HR functions could be applied on students in class? How?
Mariham Magdy: Yes of course, I do believe that HR functions can be applied everywhere J.
Considering the case of students in class, I see the classroom is just a mini-example of a Company. The instructor is similarly the talent management officer responsible to optimize the students’ talents and give them all possible space for creativity in order to let them benefit the most from their course of study.
5- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: Is the common saying “Women in Egypt face problems in their work because of their gender” true or not according to your opinion?
Mariham Magdy: Unfortunately it is true to a percentage due to a lot of stereotypes have been inherited in our culture for years, seeing in many cases that a woman cannot handle certain situations wisely and strongly just like a man.
If we looked from another perspective; considering the real fact of that the majority of our current Egyptian manpower are from blue collars who can hardly recognize a woman to be their manager, we can still agree that the above common saying is true.
6- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: Do you believe that the Bible contains principles that could be applied on Management & HR?
Mariham Magdy: Sure, the principles of all religions must remain the cornerstone for all Management & HR applications.
I believe that it is my first responsibility as a manager to foster the culture of tolerance, love, cooperation, and accepting one another differences throughout my department or Company aiming to accommodate a productive working atmosphere for all, able to promote the organization itself to the maximum success.
7- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: Working in the Petroleum Services industry; how do you empower your relationship with the product?
Mariham Magdy: I just try to do my best to be involved in the operations in order to understand well from our management the requirements of our customers, how do we provide our services.
At a time I decided to read in details the quality manuals used for staff certification in order to go in deep in understanding such requirements and design, based on them, a suitable performance management system for staff.
On the other hand, I have to follow up the news posted about the new trends in the oil & gas market trying to be updated all the time.
8- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: How do your hobbies in playing the piano & tennis empower your professional life?
Mariham Magdy: Actually they empower me a lot :), as they are my first outlet to release all the stress we usually face at work.
Playing the piano reminds me at all times that I am still a lady away from all the HR policies, disciplinary actions I have to take, and the administrative investigations I have to carry on sometimes by myself. It keeps alive inside me the little girl who still wants to liberate sometimes from any managerial responsibility.
Playing tennis is another magnificent sport that helps a person to release all negative energy and thus be able to clear the mind and think in a more positive way in solving problems.
9- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: From your awareness in the HR field in Egypt how do you advise CEOs to communicate with HR leaders?
Mariham Magdy: I do advise CEOs to benefit the maximum from their HR leaders’ capabilities & perspectives, empower them, listen to them, and involve them in the Organization strategic planning process.
I believe that we as HR professionals have, as a result of our work & existence in the middle of the people, perspectives that can magnificently integrate with the business perspective realizing perfect results.
Some of the problems HR leaders face usually is that they don’t have a seat on the strategic planning & decision making table of the management, due to the stereotype thinking of some management styles that still believes that HR has nothing to do with the business itself.
If we just focus for a while on any successful Organization, and go deeper in tackling their internal processes, we can definitely realize the empowerment the management gives to their HR professionals and thus reflects on the overall success of all the Company operations, simply because the HR is the heart that shall pump blood and energy to every other department.
10- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: As a recent member in Global HR Forum, what do you think is the value added behind such initiatives?
Mariham Magdy: Sharing experience & feeling the power of belonging to such a big community is a perfect value for me.
11- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: You are always keen to attend HR conferences; does the experience gained worth the cost?
Mariham Magdy: I see that we gain a substantial experience by participating in these conferences, due to the fact that we gain the opportunity of exchanging experiences with national and international professionals, we go beyond the limits of our own Organizations’ experience and return to work equipped with new knowledge & new methodologies to apply.
We have the opportunity to listen to success stories and to the state of the art in management & HR, all this helps a great deal in energizing the participants & thus they return to their Companies more motivated for work.
The cost is a something relevant, so we just need to stress on the Organizers to do their best in choosing the conference subjects and providing the best possible quality for participants.
12- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: If you are to create your own HR conference in Egypt what would it be about and whom it will target?
Mariham Magdy: Unlike the usual HR conferences we attend I would like to target this time the Companies CEOs instead of the HR professionals.
The subject will be mainly in highlighting them how they can benefit the most from the HR departments and thus reflecting on the business overall success.
I might dedicate a part of the conference to award HR professionals who really helped in changing positively the path of their Organizations and added a lot to the business, having the opportunity to listen to their success stories showing practical examples to CEOs.
Another part could be dedicated to award CEOs who empowered their HR leaders & believed in their impact, to glow as role models for other businessmen.