The Dubai Recruitment market - opportunities and challenges in the Gulf

Dubai is growing rapidly under the guidance of its ruler and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Given its strategic geographical and time line position between East and West, the region has a good physical position for trading links. Dubai is in a period of rapid expansion -companies are given incentives to set up offices there and the worldís major companies already have established themselves. Mindful that oil reserves are finite, the ruler has guided the region on a path of creating a new revenue stream for the region.

Recruitment is a key challenge as the indigenous population accounts for just 0.5% of the workforce, the balance will be drawn from outside the United Arab Emirates. This situation has created a strong Recruitment agency industry, scouring candidates to fill the increasing number of vacancies. Companies are very aware they need to attract the best candidates from around the world, no doubt they will aim for a balance between agency and direct hires.

Onrec is therefore holding its inaugural ëOnline Recruitment in Dubai Conferenceí in Dubai on March 3rd 2009. With recruitment crucial to the regionís success, the Onrec conference will look at the issues from both recruiters and companies, where to look for candidates and how to make sure they get the best candidate experience whilst maintaining corporate identity and employer branding. Here is an introduction to the opportunities and challenges of recruitment in the region.

Larry Cucchi Managing Director - International Operations at Peopleclick Ltd says: ìIn the last year or two, we have seen that companies in the Gulf Region are now turning to the internet to look for talent; especially as they are increasingly targeting overseas candidates. This has led to a ground swell of interest from companies (both locally based and International companies) to implement technology to automate their manual HR processes and to ensure that their career site – which is after all the virtual ëreception deskí of their companyís Recruitment department - reflects a modern and inviting image for that company. Although many locally based companies are conservative in their approach they are recognizing the need for reflecting a more dynamic image through their corporate website and the Careers section of the Recruitment portal as they compete for talent with some of the worldís most attractive employers also located in the region. Peopleclick has 20 corporate clients with many users based in the UAE and Dubai and over the last 12 months we have started to implement our e-Recruitment solutions for a number of large locally based businesses who are still looking to significantly increase their headcount over the coming months.î

Gamal Abdulla from exec-appointments.com says that it established its Middle East operation in January 2007, responding to client demand in the region, and realizing an opportunity to provide an on the ground presence to the market and to provide a service to help clients tap into global executive talent. He says: ìTwo years in, we now provide a successful, online resource to headhunters, recruitment firms and corporate clients across the GCC, Middle East and India. We have firmly established ourselves as the first port of call for senior and executive online recruitment requirements.î

Rick Helliwell, Vice President Recruitment, Human Resources, Emirates Airline & Group says: ì In the UAE many new jobsites have been set up in recent years, mirroring the expanding internet penetration in the region. In 2007 it was reported that 1.4 million (36%) of the UAE population were on-line, and in August 2008 it was reported that 55% of the UAE population is using the internet on a daily basis. Not surprisingly 36% of the users are aged 21-30, with 18% of the internet population being UAE Nationals. This rapid growth will only continue as the new generation is more ëtech savvyí than the previous.î

What challenges face recruiters in Dubai?
Currently the key challenge for recruiters in Dubai is still the tremendous skill shortage, which forces companies to look for talent abroad, says Larry Cucchi. He says: ìThe relatively slow uptake of internet recruitment in the region is a severe roadblock for them in reaching these individuals; and even though most larger multi-national companies would appear to cater for candidates via the Internet it would appear that there is still a great need to further introduce Online Recruitment technology, especially for local businesses. Further challenges arise when overseas candidates have been selected for a job, as the many practical and administrative processes involved in their relocation and introduction to the workforce are still very difficult to control. It is our expectation that the introduction of integrated Onboarding systems, that pick up where the recruitment process has stopped, will provide enormous benefits going forward.î

Gamal Abdulla believes various challenges face recruiters in Dubai today: ìThe region was once a haven for expatriates taking advantage of high, tax-free salaries, low rents, many benefits and privileges living in the region. This is no longer the case. Inflation levels are immense, and candidates who once enjoyed a lavish, tax-free lifestyle are now finding their salary swallowed up by extortionate rents and increased prices, making the prospect less appealing. This in turn affects the level of candidate resource available to recruiters.î However, reports predict salaries are expected to rise next year at the same pace in the Gulf as in 2008 – due to oil prices and talent shortages, which will help attract candidates.

From a client perspective, recruiters face the challenge of long, drawn out processes, says Gamal Abdulla. He says: ìRecruitment cycles which would take 2-4 weeks in the UK can take up to 8 weeks and more in the Middle East due to the high level of bureaucracy and generally slower commercial pace.î

One company that is already embracing technology is the Emirates Airline and Group. ìThe Recruitment team utilise on-line technology to maximise candidate reach when promoting our employment and destination brands across global marketsî, says Rick Helliwell. He says: ìWith over 1.3 billion web users globally in 2008 and internet users in the Middle East growing over 920% between 2000 and December 2007, we are exploiting on-line platforms where brand and role information can be customized, targeted and communicated instantaneously to candidates on every continent. These efforts have seen our on-line applications increase by over 30% in just the first half of our current financial year. Emirates receives around 30,000 completed on-line applications per month, with approximately 9,000 unique careers website visitors per day. Last year we received over 3 million unique visitors to the Emirates Group careers portal www.emiratesgroupcareers.com. Our ëconvergence strategyí to steer all applications through our on-line careers portal, is supported by local and international advertising across global industry and generic job boards to promote our Groupís brand and Dubai as a location to live and work. This ensures maximum reach to attract quality candidates to apply to our many vacancies.î Rick Helliwell believes talent is not ënationality-exclusiveí and using on-line vehicles to attract and hire talent is a strategy that closely aligns with Emiratesí global business focus. He says: ìThe diversity of cultures and nationalities hired brings with it new ideas, innovations and thinking styles. Our ëglobal employee talent poolí of 155 nationalities now speaks over 100 languages and this is our competitive advantage in a market where non-human assets, such as aircraft, infrastructure and technology can easily be replicated. Online recruitment is a key part of our ability to establish international talent pools and pipelines to meet the ongoing demands across our Group as we expand our workforce. We are also using virtual careers fairs for brand and role promotion, and exploring the increased use of social networking sites to reach the newer generation talent pools. ì

Stuart Mockford, MD of Kaonix, also provides a case study: ìOur client, part of a global organisation recruits staff across the Middle East and North Africa regions has recruited in excess of 1,500 middle to senior candidates over the last 18 months. Up until recently they were heavily reliant on the use of recruitment agencies to assist in this process but due to their parent company deploying technology to streamline and centralise recruitment, they investigated and selected a technology partner to provide a solution that meets their specific business needs in EMEA. As they were moving from a paper-based system, we recommended a phased implementation; this has been hugely successful with the initial phase up in running in less than 8 weeks. We are now nearing final stages which we see a thoroughly streamlined process from the point of raising a vacancy through to processing agency supplier invoices and finally integrating into our financial back office system.î

Future developments in Dubai
Larry Cucchi believes that companies based in Dubai and actually all businesses in the Gulf Region are in a position to take advantage of the latest generation of Online Recruitment technologies: ìWhile companies in traditionally strong economies are struggling as a result of the current economic climate, the Gulf Region is still growing, and this attracts great numbers of candidates looking to pursue career opportunities in the region. As the internet is the best solution with worldwide reach for dealing with the supply and demand of talent in the global talent market, we see a real potential for growth in the online recruitment market. We believe the addition of a world-class Onboarding solution will make Peopleclickís e-Recruitment solutions even better suited to cater for the specific needs of the UAE market.î

With regard to online recruitment in the region, it is as much an educating process as well as sales offering, believes Gamal Abdulla. He says: ìOnline recruitment offers a speedier and more cost-effective proposition than traditional recruitment methods but is not as advanced in the region as in the West. However, this will change and will certainly be the main form of recruitment, particularly for Corporate firms who are starting to set up bigger, in-house recruitment teams and make an association with one or two job boards, replacing the high fees of recruiters. Online recruitment will certainly continue to grow and prosper, particularly global, international sites such as exec-appointments.com, which can provide not only regional candidates, but quality candidates from all over the world. This global reach is particularly important in the region as clients are able to stipulate exactly who they want and from where.î

Rick Helliwell explains how his company are looking to the future and why; ìWithin the Emirates Group we are nearing the end of a major project that will see the launch of our new careers website in March 2009. There has been a major redesign to customise pages and content to target global employment markets, and add more visual imagery to better promote the employment brand of the group and Dubaiís destination brand to drive more quality applications. The site will also more prominently showcase careers in different business areas and corporate departments and enable us to better communicate our benefits and career differentiators from competitors. Certainly on-line recruitment has enabled us to improve the quality, service and efficiency of communications to candidates, expanding our global reach, driving down the cost of hire and raising productivity levels.î

Online recruitment and all its associated technology can certainly meet the needs of recruiters in the Gulf. Come to the Onrec Conference in Dubai on the 3rd of March 2009 to find out more!