Doha, Qatar,29 January2018: Nowadays, what makes a company or an organization an ideal place to work for in Qatar depends on many different elements that may extend beyond salary and benefits. Bayt.com, the region’s leading job site, explored this topic and just released its latest report entitled “The Ideal Workplace in the Middle East and North Africa” in partnership with global online market research company, YouGov. According to this report,83% of employees in Qatar say it is important that their work challenges them. Being challenged at work has ranked one of the top job attributes that Qatari professionals want to have. What Matters Most to Qatari Professionals In addition to seeking a challenging work environment, respondents in Qatar believe that the use of advanced technology is important.80% of Qatari professionals and81% of job seekers find this attribute to be of high importance in the workplace. That said, only50% of respondents agree that their current workplaces promote the use of advanced technology to a large extent. Transparent communication in the workplace is another attribute of great importance, according to75% of respondents. While less than half (45%) of workplaces reportedly promote transparent communication, this factor is also of great importance for respondents looking for a potential workplace. In fact,84% of job seekers say that their potential company should promote transparent communication. Other elements that were considered important in a workplace included work life balance (78% of employees say it is important), fair evaluation (73% of employees say it is important), and diversity (68% of employees say it is important). Besides attractiveness, retention is an element that many organizations strive to master. When asked about factors that mostly drive loyalty, the top responses were ‘training and development opportunities’ (according to38% of Qatari respondents), and ‘opportunity for long term career advancement’ (according to37% of Qatari respondents). “It is essential to acknowledge what is most important to those employed in Qatar, as well as what they look for in potential workplaces. By understanding this, organizations can work towards boosting their attractiveness, retention, and even reputation and performance, all while meeting the needs of their employees,” said Suhail Masri, VP of Employer Solutions, Bayt.com. Business values and culture In addition to workplace attraction and retention elements, respondents were asked about company culture and its impact when choosing a workplace.54% of Qatari respondents said company culture is ‘one of the determining factors’ when joining a company,37% said ‘it is important but not a determining factor’, only2% said they ‘don’t pay attention to company culture’, while the remainder (7%) didn’t provide an answer. When asked about business values that make a company more attractive in Qatar,50% cited ‘good ethics and practices’,37% said ‘friendly company culture’,28% said ‘corporate social responsibility’, and12% said ‘green consciousness / efforts’, indicating that Qatari professionals are wary of the various elements that make up a company’s mission and impact on societies. Physical attributes Not only do values and cultural elements matter to the region’s professionals, physical elements have a significant role as well. In Qatar, there seems to be a higher preference for larger companies, as73% of respondents feel that an ideal company size has more than50 employees. In regards to office layout, the opinions vary.33% of Qatari professionals prefer ‘closed rooms’,20% prefer ‘open plan’,15% prefer ‘workstations’,12% prefer ‘cubicles’, while17% have ‘no preference’ in this matter. When it came to the interior design of an office,52% of Qatari respondents said that the interior design of their offices ‘reflects the company’s brand and value’.30% disagreed with this statement, while18% were unsure. Furthermore, the majority of respondents in Qatar (83%) said they are allowed to personalize their workplace, at least to some extent. Finding the perfect workplace In order to pick the ideal workplace, professionals in the region need to access information on all the different attributes they value. When asked how easy it is to access information about company culture and work environment, the responses varied.24% of Qatar respondents said it is ‘very easy’,26% said it is ‘somewhat easy’,26% said it is ‘neither easy nor difficult’,13% said it is ‘somewhat difficult’, and5% said it is ‘very difficult’. To understand this issue further, respondents were asked about the most useful company information and the most effective ways to promote that information to job seekers. ‘Online company pages targeting job seekers’ was voted the most effective method of communicating information (31%). In regards to the type of information job seekers want to learn about the most,64% of Qatari respondents said ‘company benefits and perks’,37% said ‘employee testimonials and reviews’,24% said ‘awards and milestones’,14% said ‘company events and socials’, and9% said ‘photos and videos of the workplace’. Masri adds: “At Bayt.com, we’ve been working with over40,000 employers and over30.5 million job seekers across the MENA region for more than18 years. As part of our endeavor to provide the tools and information to all professionals in the region, we are working on making more company information readily accessible through a new and advanced Bayt.com company profile solution. As the survey indicated, professionals find online ‘company profiles’ to be the most effective for job seekers and professionals, and we look forward to rolling out this tool very soon to help align expectations and increase hiring activities.” “The ideal workplace survey allows employers to understand what they need to do to meet the needs of their employees and future talent as well as what types of information they need to make available. By doing so, companies and organizations can do a much better job at securing their talent needs and making more career opportunities available region-wide,” Anjali Chhabra, Associate Research Director, YouGov. Data for the2017 Bayt.com “Ideal Workplace in the Middle East and North Africa” poll was collected online from December6 to22,2017. Results are based on a sample of4,418 respondents. Respondents come from many countries, including the UAE, Bahrain, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Syria, Morocco, Oman, Tunisia, Qatar and KSA.