Country report: Supervisory Skills Training Program for SMEs in Egypt

GFA developed and implemented the highly successful C³ Supervisory Skills Training Program as part of GIZ’s Labor Market Access Project (LMAP) in Egypt. The program supports the Federation for Economic Development Associations (FEDA) and its member associations in developing a sustainable service model. Its overall purpose is to improve job quality in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) of the manufacturing sector in the Suez Canal region. More specifically, it aims at helping supervisors better understand their roles and responsibilities when leading production teams. The program focuses on good communication and workplace dialogue that can eventually result in a changed organizational culture on the job floor, and help prevent abuse and harassment of workers. Ultimately, this should increase worker retention and productivity.

GFA C³  trainings use a special methodology so that participants are stimulated to learn more through

• action and experience-based learning, and
• job related activities as an integral part of all courses.
  

This C³ training approach shares new and different concept with participating supervisors, supports them to apply these concepts at work, and encourages them to share and discuss their experiences and concerns with peers. This provides opportunities for ongoing learning and links training goals to supervisors’ own practices, and the company's corporate culture. The impact of GFA training has proven clients' expectations as a success story from Suez may show.

Plaza for Ready-made Garments specializes in outerwear and focuses on exporting its products to Germany, the UK and the USA. Plaza had a major problem: At 90-100 workers leaving per month, its worker retention rates were extremely low. This mainly had to do with bad relations with superiors whose prevailing culture entailed shouting at staff to keep production lines in check and to ensure production at full capacity. However, neither production rates nor worker retention were regarded effective.

It all changed for the better when some Plaza supervisors attended a GFA C³ Supervisory Skills Training for improving job quality. Safaa Attia, Plaza’s Human Resources Manager, confirms that merely six months after the training, the company had just 29 workers leave in comparison to more than 100 before the training.

Statements from participants:

“My production line was collapsing. But now my line is stable and our production numbers grew by 20%, from 1,050 pieces to 1,250 per day. The GFA training helped me identify each of my team member's strengths and how best to utilize this, and to understand that people are different and respond to different approaches.” Eman Galal, Supervisor, Plaza for Ready-made Garments

“If relations are good among ourselves and with supervisors and managers, then we'll all care more about work and we’ll achieve better results.” Kalthum Mohamed, Worker, Plaza for Ready-made Garments

>> Here you can read about some more success stories and  company stories (PDF)

Photo: © 2016 GIZ