DHL Express UAE - Young Customer Service Professional of the Year

Company: DHL Express, United Arab Emirates
Company Description: DHL Express[2] is a division of the German logistics company Deutsche Post DHL providing international express mail services. Deutsche Post DHL is the world's largest logistics company operating around the world. Headquarters: Bonn, Germany Founded: 1969, San Francisco, California, United States CEO: Ken Allen (2008–) Number of employees: 325,000
Nomination Category: Customer Service & Call Center Awards Individual Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Young Customer Service Professional of the Year - Other Service Industries

Nomination Title: Shahidah AbdulSalam - Certified International Customer Service Advisor

Shahidah joined DHL Express in 2017 at the age of 18 as a temporary staff, within the same year, she received the Excellent Execution Award for providing the Highest First Time Business Growth for Quarter 3 in 2018, later she got promoted to an International Specialist Customer Service Advisor in DHL in 2019.

Shahidah demonstrated her influential artist talents within DHL when participating in brand image competing with the support of Customer Service Senior Director and won best logo & office award design for “The Gathering”, the project aimed to build an environment encouraging open engagement between management-employee.

While Shahidah received multiple appreciations from customers and management for achieving 97% in her overall KPIs as top quality scores, she continued her higher studies by attending evening classes and graduated with distinction in 2020. However, Shahida’s joy for her success was mixed with sadness as her mother was diagnosed with stage 4 bone cancer early 2020, and she had to step up to take care of her mum and family. Someone would wonder how such young sensitive girl is able to handle such challenging circumstances, but the support given from her friends and DHL family has helped her to keep going.

Outline the nominee's achievements since July 1 2019 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):

Shahida truly lives the DHL philosophy of Insanely Customer Centric Culture. In APR 2020, she was offered the Energizer Top Performance award in DHL UAE for her efforts in handling huge increase in calls and stepping up to support the team in spite of the challenges she was facing, and demonstrated an outstanding customer centricity. “Thank you for saving my day” that’s what a customer wrote to her thanking her for delivering her long waited medical shipment on time and going the extra mile. Shahida mentioned that she kept thinking of her ill mum and how she wanted to make a difference in someone’s life.

Believing in supporting greater cause, Shahidah also volunteered and encouraged her family to be a part of the MENA Health and Wellbeing Virtual 3 KM run to help raise funds for those affected in Lebanon explosions this year.

Shahida has also participated actively in organizing for Customer Service Week, a yearly global event involving the whole Customer Service community celebrating the success of CS team in this special 2020 year for the response to Pandemic and how they helped saving people lives.

Today, 21 year old Shahidah, has graduated with a First Grade Degree in Business Administration in HR and Logistics in 2020. She won the Happiness Ambassador Award Twice in DHL UAE in 2019 and 2020 for spreading happiness in the organization, and was nominated for the MENA Regional Energizer Top Performer Award for achieving high quality scores in NOV 2019.

Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the nominee's past performance (up to 250 words):

Something about Shahida story makes this Stevie article different than others. Shahida, defied life struggles and came out as one of the most influential personalities in DHL in 2020. During her speech in townhall meeting, Shahida describes how her life journey evolved from being the youngest female working among more than 1000 colleagues to becoming high performer, an artist and sadly care giver for her mum diagnosed cancer, all of this while living the pandemic ups and downs.

Shahida continued to be on list of high performers in the team, 97% across the year, high engagement levels, extremely supportive and empathetic approach towards her customers and colleagues while providing care to her ill mother and her little brother and following her evening/week-end classes. Sadly, Shahida lost her mum day before Christmas in 2020, but she was surrounded by the love and support of her friends and colleagues whom she shared love and kindness throughout the years.

Shahidah has always spread smiles and fun at work with a very positive attitude and proactively takes on new projects. She is a perfect example of someone who works hard simultaneously to grow professionally and academically and we are happy to have her a one of the youngest yet most efficient member in the Call Center team.

This story of a brave young professional will only receive an international exposure through a prestigious award such as the Stevies for Women in Business, echoing the great success in business accompanied with life time achievement.