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In recent years, technology and digitalization have left a great impact on Egypt to follow the competency national model and cope with the abrupt technology changes in the market. To be listed as one of the leading game-changers in the tech world, RAYA Contact center thrived at implementing the ICT National Competency Framework (ICT-NCF) to its operations and obtaining ITIDA’s ICT-NCF Corporate Alignment Certification.
ITIDA had recently partnered with International Finance Corporation (IFC), a World Bank firm, and Aon Hewitt, a premier global HR consulting firm, to develop its ICT-NCF.
But what is ICT-NCF?
It is a tool and planning guide that specifies the competencies and skills required for performing distinct job roles in the ICT industry. NCF comprises Occupational Standards (OS), Qualification Packs (QPs), and Career Paths (CPs). In other words, it provides HR practices by utilizing the qualification packs, competencies, and career paths developed under ICT-NCF. It also upskills the talent pool by recruiting trained and certified individuals from ICT-NCF programs to be able to benefit from multiple industry initiatives. Being accredited by ITIDA means fostering a common understanding of what is essentially needed to get the job done and agree on a benchmark that aligns with the ICT industry and market standards.
Evaluation Framework & Certification Levels
Throughout the evaluation process, ITIDA had to review RAYA Contact Center’s progress on each of the action items listed. It has to establish whether or not RAYA Contact Center operations are aligned with the framework at hand.
There are four possible processes that can be aligned with the ICT-NCF:
Talent Acquisition, Performance Management, Training & Development, and Career Progression. Organizations can align between two and four processes, leading to different levels of certification, but within each process, they need to align on 100% of the action items. There are three levels of Corporate Certification:
Proficient: Complete alignment with two out of four processes.
Advanced: Complete alignment with three out of four processes.
Expert: Complete alignment with all four processes.
The certification then is awarded based on the number of processes that are 100% aligned.
Challenges
At the review process time, RAYA Contact Center had no project owner to lead the operations and finalize the required actions of meeting the ICT-NCF standards. To overcome this, RAYA Contact Center had assigned a project owner, Eslam Hammam, the Talent Acquisition Supervisor, to consolidate all the needed actions and finalize the desired outcomes of aligning with ITIDA’s SPOC. Conducting different sessions to make sure that everything is on track lead to a lot of changes in the internal processes which required aligning first with ITIDA required Actions in each pillar.
What Are The Four Pillars Reviewed by ITIDA?
Talent Acquisition
Project ownership and TA Accountability: Eslam Hammam.
1- Mapping RAYA Contact Center’s roles to the ones covered in the ICT-NCF.
2- Educate the hiring managers to assess potential candidates against the revised requirements.
3- Educate recruitment partners/vendors on designing sourcing strategies against the revised requirements.
Learning & Development
Accountability: Hoda Abdel Razek.
1- Conduct training requirements analysis based on ICT-NCF competencies.
2- Update existing training programs and design the newly established ones as per ICT-NCF standards.
Performance Management
Accountability: Rehab Abdin.
1- Align the Key Responsibility Areas (KRAs) and the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) specified for any job role with the Job Accountabilities mentioned in the respective QP.
2- Set performance goals for the employees and evaluate them considering the skill requirements specified for each job role requirements.
Career Progression
Accountability: Rehab Abdin.
1- Align the internal career progression framework to that provided by the ICT-NCF.
2- Communicate various career options to employees based on the career framework provided.
After ITIDA’s thorough review of RAYA Contact Center’s processes on all four HR pillars, we are proud to announce receiving ICT-NCF Corporate Alignment Certification with Expert Level. RAYA Contact Center acknowledges with gratitude the efforts of the participating team, Eslam Hammam, the Talent Acquisition Supervisor, Hoda AbdelRazek, HRBP Section Head, and Rehab Abdeen, Organization Development Supervisor, who consolidated all the needed actions, aligned them with ITIDA’s SPOC, and were efficacious at managing the whole process. Also, RAYA promotes its leading team’s efforts in operation and HR: Alaa ElShafei, the COO, and Sandra Fahmy, the HR Director.