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This smart app teaches workers to face stress with smile

Dubai - Smart Labour app has over 50,000 registered workers.

Life isn't perfect, but have you ever thought how blue-collar workers deal with life stresses and challenges?
An e-platform Smart Labour - that has over 50,000 blue-collar workers registered on it - is now using SMILE strategy to help workers deal with challenges in a positive way.
Smart Labour app was launched in Dubai a couple of years back by Indian expat Abu Muadh. It instantly made waves among the blue-collar workforce, with over 50,000 registered workers on board now. The short courses on the app - in Hindi, English and Urdu - aim to teach them life skills, generating content that can help them improve their productivity and the quality of their work.
The e-platform has partnered with life coach and SMILE strategist Ruqya Khan, who has hosted a series of sessions with workers where she introduced them to a new meaning of SMILE. She calls it a strategy to help these workers move from "stuck" to "unstuck" state using the tools of gratitude and acceptance.
"The app has started programmes and developed a curriculum for its 50,000 registered workers where they are being taught to turn their challenges into opportunities, thereby bringing joy, happiness, self worth and self-confidence in their lives. The idea about including this happiness section in the app was to take care of the mental health of these workers who are living away from their families and work under a lot of pressure," Muadh told Khaleej Times.
Describing her videos and sessions that are now part of the Smart Labour app, Khan said: "My sessions are called 'Smile to move forward' where SMILE is an acronym: the alphabet 'S' stands for - Silent the mind; 'M' - Manage your attention; 'I'- Identify the intention, 'L' - Let things go and 'E' - Energise your possibilities.
The aim of these workshops - that began in May - is to bring happiness and positivity training to the blue-collar workers in the UAE. Khan first helps workers identify where they are stuck in life in terms of life goals, finances, health or relationships and then explains them to take a different approach to it so they are able to accept those challenges and move on with them.
Talking about how she conducts her workshops, Khan said "This is done on an interactive basis. It is nice to see how conversations open up as they talk about the challenges they face, which are different yet the same."
The sessions are held over a period of 30-45 minutes - which include motivational talks, conversations and short activities like learning to 'silence the mind', understanding importance of forgiving, time management, implementing what they learn and so on.
The app rewards workers for completing simple tasks like watching an informative video or completing a short course - and these rewards can be redeemed through smart points. It even allows residents to buy goodies through an online gift store, which can later be redeemed by workers by completing short courses for points.
For this feature, private company Accenture gifted the workers with vouchers supplied with Smart Labour's innovative education app. During the live workshops conducted by Khan, they are also shown how to download the app and access the happiness and positivity video on their smartphones.
- saman@khaleejtimes.com