Bayt.com, the MENA region’s number one job site, held its “Salary Trends2011” event at the Holiday Villa Hotel & Residence City Centre, Doha. The round table discussions were attended by prominent HR executives and featured Bayt.com’s top professionals who answered the question “Where do we stand today when it comes to salaries?” and revealed informative up-to-date insights on the MENA region’s current salaries.
“At Bayt.com we are committed to sharing valuable insights and best practices that would be beneficial to the growth and development of job seekers and employers. We have a long tradition of hosting round table events with our peers to continuously add value and contribute to the betterment of the Human Resource ecosystem in the Middle East region. These unique initiatives use our expertise to proactively benefit Qatar’s companies and HR practices,” said Amer Zureikat, VP Sales, Bayt.com
In addition to gauging and analyzing salary and raise levels, this year’s Bayt.com Middle East Salary Survey also looked at the respondents’ level of satisfaction with the pay rise they received. For the most part, the region’s respondents did not receive a pay rise, with a sizeable38% missing out on a pay rise. In Qatar, just4% of professionals said they were very happy with their salary increase,7% were very unhappy,14% consider themselves as unhappy, and4% agreed that their pay rise was fair given the economic circumstances. Across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, the average monthly salary differs considerably from country to country, the survey found. However, Qatar recorded the highest number of professionals with the biggest salaries in the region, with10% earning USD $8,001 or more each month. Furthermore, the best savers were respondents in Qatar -36% of those surveyed managing to save between16% and75% of their salaries each month. However, as found in previous Bayt.com research, professionals resoundingly felt that the average salary increase did not reflect the rise in the cost of living in any of the surveyed countries. Overall, professionals across the Middle East felt that the cost of living had increased by24.6%, yet the average salary increased by just7.6% - more than two thirds less. In Qatar respondents felt the cost of living had increased by20.6%, while salaries had increased by just7.4%. “This is a clear indication as to why HR practitioners and professionals alike need firm measures and benchmarks such as those provided by the annual Bayt.com Salary Survey analysis and Bayt.com’s new online Salary tool to gauge market levels and trends before setting internal salary levels. These roundtables hosted by Bayt.com – lend themselves to being deep, informative, firmly locally oriented and to look beyond the obvious”, added Zureikat.
Zeina Kassab, HR Manager – Nestle Qatar Trading LLC said, “It was a very good opportunity to network with other reputable companies and check their way of doing business point of view.”
The event was organized in three parts. The first, Salaries: Are they the only retention factor?, was run by Ibrahim Badredeen, Unit Manager, Bayt.com – Qatar and discussed whether salaries are still a key path to employee loyalty in addition to other top employee motivators in the Middle East today including the importance of good working conditions. Next, Amer Zureikat, Sales VP, Bayt.com, discussed the satisfaction of the MENA region’s professionals with their2011 income, competitive packages and raises as per most recent Bayt.com Middle East Salary Research Survey that has just been released. Finally, Muhammed Younas, Product Manager, Bayt.com, gave an informative session on the best Middle Eastern salaries earned today and pay structure comparisons using Bayt.com’s online Salary Calculator tool which is the latest innovative technical product offering from Bayt.com and the first and only comprehensive pan-regional, pan-industrial online Salary benchmarking and analysis tool in the Middle East.
The final part of the event featured an Employers Round Table Discussion where guests were encouraged to initiate fruitful dialogues with the support of Bayt.com’s professionals. Bayt.com highlighted its latest innovations in HR research, tools techniques and technologies including its highly anticipated and widely acclaimed2011 Bayt.com MENA Salary Survey as well as its polls on workplace motivation and employee engagement and satisfaction.
“The employer’s round table event has been very informative in general and good to understand the local trend considering you had Qatari invitees,” Mukund Joshi, Operations Manager – Proscape LLC
Hiba Abboud, Senior HR Advisor – Halcrow Consulting Engineers and Architects added, “Well presented. Useful information. Healthy discussion. Very well organized and good sector representation. Would come again.”
“As the Middle East’s leading online business and recruitment intelligence platform, we welcome the opportunity to network with new and existing employers in Qatar and present an overview of what the market sentiments are and importantly promote useful dialogues that provide perspectives about the very latest pan-regional trends to proactively benefit Qatar. We received a very positive response from top employers in Qatar at this event and plan to hold many more best-practice sharing regional forums in the near future,” added Zureikat, Bayt.com.
Bayt.com is the largest and most relevant community of professionals interested in the MENA region with over5.7 million registered jobseekers and40,000 employers. Bayt.com has11 regional offices, over200 staff and a10 year track record of successfully matching the region’s top talent with top employment opportunities in every industry and at every career level.