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Dubai: In order to combat the increasing global competition for skilled employees, a growing number of firms in the UAE are attempting to brand themselves as excellent places to work.
Varina Nissen, the managing director for Manpower Middle East, a recruitment agency, says many companies are trying to build their brand image by offering a supportive international culture, the chance for accelerated promotion, training, and increased benefits, such as flexible working hours.
"These do play very well to the professional who comes to the region, and is looking for an accelerated career," she says.
The need to be competitive is a result of increasing demand for skilled employees from other emerging markets and the rising inflation rate in the UAE.
"It's getting very challenging, and we're all fighting for the same pool of candidates," says Acer's J Trivikram, Dubai-based human resources manager. His company has introduced a number of initiatives for employees, including staff transportation, which has been extremely popular, he says.
But the main issue these days is rising rents, and Gus Takkale, a human resource manager for SAP, one of the world's largest software companies, says Dubai's high rents are one of the major concerns for potential employees.
"The first thing they're doing is looking at property prices, the cost of education, and then their earnings," he says.
Takkala adds that SAP has always promoted itself as a good place to work, and the company is allowing its employees here to have "flex time", which means they can set their own hours. Acer also offers that option, Trivikram says.
While the concept of flex time isn't new, it is a relatively new benefit for the region, and not everyone is willing to accept it yet.
"It's makes perfect rational sense, but they haven't managed to shift the mindset of regional managers," Nissen says.
Managers are hesitant to change because they're concerned about employee productivity, and some employees prefer to stick to regular working hours too, which allows them to network with their colleagues. That's very important considering the region's relationship-based type of management, according to Nissen.
But offering benefits instead of compensation isn't always the best way to retain employees, according to Peter Felix, the president of AESC, an executive recruitment firm based in New York.
"Compensation has always been an emotional issue. Benefits are not," he says. Although he recognised flex time as "quite important", he points out that if employees don't need flex time, they're not going to care whether it's offered or not. Instead, he says employees want to see companies increasing the compensation for travel, school and accommodation.
But increasing compensation is, obviously, expensive, and many companies claims their bottomlines are already hurting due to increased salaries.
However, Nissen says there is no good data available showing how much payrolls have risen. Even if there was, such information would become obsolete in about six months. However, she estimates that salaries have increased between 7 and 25 per cent over the last year. Felix estimates the increase to be between 15 to 30 per cent.
International companies may be able to afford that, but it's overstretching the budgets of smaller companies, Nissen says.
Competition
But as payrolls are increasing, the region is also suffering from increasing competition from the Bric countries, Brazil, Russia, India and China. Those countries have seen their economies boom over the last couple of years, and a large number of expats are returning home, taking their skills with them.
"The typical... international expat who parachuted in on a three- to five-year package is going away because of explosive demand," Felix says.
In response, a lot of companies, including Acer and SAP, are looking to hire people who are already based locally. That comes with two immediate benefits: quicker visa processing and closer culturally affinity. However, there is still a shortage in the financial and insurance industry, Nissen says, which is not being filled locally.
There is a silver-lining though. Because of the competition, human resources departments are becoming very knowledgeable about attracting new hires, she says.
"They have to be nimble. They get very quick feedback on what worked and what didn't," she says. "This region is going to be the one which figures out how to manage flexible work hours and a multinational workforce."
Your comments
Companies need to realise that "People make it happen!" and only the "right" people are assets to the company. I fully agree that restrictions and banning just make good people, who got into the wrong job through bad recruitment, leave Dubai and never return. Talented people can work anywhere in the world today and the attraction to make that place Dubai, is quickly diminishing with the exorbitant rents and other increases like school fees and general cost-of-living.
Chunga
Dubai,UAE
Posted: August 10, 2008, 11:24
I think the UAE has some very fair labour laws but it needs to do away with the employment bans as this is widely abused by a lot of employers. I think this would improve the situation for companies that are willing to invest in their employees and hit hard the ones who don't treat their staff well or fairly.
Nic
Dubai,UAE
Posted: August 10, 2008, 10:52
First the government should do is to remove all barriers and obstacles for the labors problem i.e. six month ban and quicker visa. Provide a good salary cap for the experience skilled worker, good accommodation, safety/insurance and no delay in salary.
Claude
Dubai,UAE
Posted: August 10, 2008, 10:04
Rise in house rents, increase in prices of all the products, the salary now days that companies are offering are unable to meet all these. If companies will offer good salary and a good environment it will get back efficiency and productivity. But most companies hire low paid employee, they are unskilled and that?s why good salary is important to get best skilled employ.
Kashif
Al Ain,UAE
Posted: August 10, 2008, 00:02
I think flexi timings are a good initiative to be taken by companies. This actually improves productivity of the employee, as it's his own decision to come to the office in that particular instance and work. The more freedom at the work place, the more you enjoy it and think hard before leaving the company. Also I see it as a possible solution for the current high traffic congestions.
Bekiebang
Buea,Cameroon
Posted: August 09, 2008, 13:35
For a country and business to continuously be competitive, one needs to emulate successful examples of the USA and Japan. Encouraging labour turnover - working in one company for a short period and leaving to another company) will promote a talent hunt amongst UAE companies. Over-protective rules like six month bans are hurting the good companies in getting locally experienced people. This is a waste of experience and talent as many people continue in their jobs contributing nothing to the company or the economy. Free competition between companies like in Japan and USA will lead to long term growth.
Jayraj
Dubai,UAE
Posted: August 09, 2008, 11:12
Never underestimate the power of recognition. Most employees want opportunities to be challenged. But challenge alone will not motivate for long. Employees want to know that employers are paying attention to their performance. They need regular feedback and to know they have employers? support. When employees are treated like a valuable asset they are more likely to perform at a high level
Anna
Dubai,UAE
Posted: August 09, 2008, 10:22
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