Oman Economic Review’s Finance & HR Summit 2019, a flagship event by the Sultanate’s premium business magazine, will take place at Sheraton Oman Hotel, on Tuesday, April 23.

Over the last three years OER’s Finance & HR Summit has emerged as the most coveted platform, bringing together corporate leaders, senior executives and global experts to share insights on how to thrive in times of change; and this year’s edition promises to build upon that experience and legacy with incisive discussions, case studies, presentations and peer-to-peer interaction.

Oman International Development and Investment Company (Ominvest) is the Strategic Partner of the summit. National Training Institute is the Training and HR Partner while United Securities and Muscat Eye Laser Centre are the support partners. Insurance partners are Takaful Oman Insurance (Islamic Insurance Partner) and Dhofar Insurance (Conventional Insurance Partner). RAB is the Knowledge Partner and Times of Oman and Al Shabiba are the Media Partners.

The third edition of OER’s Finance & HR Summit will focus on negotiating disruptive forces in the financial services industry and driving transformative change in human resource management with globally successful models and case studies.

The finance session will focus on ‘Negotiating Disruption in the Financial Services Industry’. The financial services industry – banks, NBFCs, insurance companies, brokerage houses etc. have been buffeted by multiple disruptive forces such a challenging economic environment, regulatory changes, fed tightening and a strengthening dollar, digital and technological changes, rising interest rates and the need to raise capital, debt recovery, cash flow management, ratings pressure, changing customer expectations, data-driven marketing and the rise of personalisation. The session will also focus on attracting projects and clients for FDI; recovering money from the market for better cash flow; planning expenses and financial resource allocation; successful project financing models and making a PPP model work.

The HR session titled ‘Workplace of the future – recent trends’ will focus on current trends in HR transformation. HR departments are always inundated with routine paper works. A closer look at these functions reveal that a great chunk of them are consumed in repetitive, mundane and transactional activities. Technology is an enabler that can simplify complexity of HR functions and remove non-value adding chores. The HR session at the conference is meant for all HR practitioners and professionals with interest in people development at all levels and will focus on practical aspects of HR transformation and technology rollouts.

The panel discussions and paper presentations at the summit will feature HR, finance and insurance experts from across the globe; case studies from Oman and Qatar; post conference workshops on workplace mental health as well as employee engagement and HR digital footprint research study.

The workshop on  ‘Boosting Employee Engagement through Mindfulness & Happiness’ will be presented by Zhuldyz Koshpanova, an international speaker and chief happiness and mindfulness officer of Happy Minds Life. The session will cover five interactive ways to achieve long lasting employee’s engagement through finding meaning at work, building resilience with mindfulness, cultivating compassion, empathetic listening and appreciation.

The highlight of the event will be the presentation of OER Excellence Awards 2019, for outstanding achievements of institutions and individuals in banking, finance, insurance and HR sectors.