It’s show time for many recruiters around the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region faced with reduced hiring budgets, and in many cases, staff reduction orders. Executive recruiters are being told many positions are on hold across key sectors regionally; university career centers are seeing their graduates competing more fiercely than in recent years for plum entry-level and internship assignments; and even some of the highly cost-effective and leading job sites, which promise and deliver on fast, furious and stellar returns on HR ROI, may be experiencing less of a rushed hiring frenzy than a few years ago.
But all is far from doom and gloom on the hiring front. In fact, one group of people, recruiters in well-performing companies, are in very happy spirits indeed. What is the latest macro hiring outlook as per regional HR surveys? According to the Bayt.com Job Index Survey (released in February 2016), 43% of MENA companies who are planning to hire in the next three months are looking to fill up to 5 jobs, and 1 in 4 companies are expecting to fill between 6 to 10 jobs.
The Bayt.com Consumer Confidence Index Survey (released in March 2016) shows that 4 in 10 professionals expect their financial condition to improve in the next 6 months. When it comes to the economy, 16% of respondents in the same survey believe that their country’s economy has in fact improved in the last 6 months. In the UAE, KSA, Kuwait and Qatar, these numbers are higher, at 26%, 19%, 17%, and 18%, respectively.
So why are some top regional recruiters still smiling in the face of a relatively slower pan-regional economy?
Essentially, because for many top regional employers in select markets, this is one of the best times in recent history to source and retain top talent. Recruitment may be relatively more lethargic than in previous years in certain key traditional sectors across the region, but in well-diversified and robust economies, like the UAE, the pace of recruitment remains healthy, and overall consumer sentiment and outlook remain positive and promising. A marginally slower growth trajectory in some corporations in fact presents a platinum opportunity for many top HR managers in the region to step back, retrench, rethink, re-strategize, re-optimize, get the hiring equation right, and hold on to key hires.
In terms of sourcing talent, the UAE for example, is still enjoying a golden age of recruitment and top professionals with world-class credentials from the local market and internationally, continue to vie for key roles across the industry and career spectrum. As a thriving regional business hub with an unparalleled soft and hard infrastructure, an enviable cosmopolitan lifestyle and a public sector that is highly supportive of entrepreneurship and commerce in general, the UAE continues to easily attract top talent for local employers big and small. A relatively less frenzied local job market translates to reduced competition for the best talent and also allows recruiters to take more time to experiment with improved sourcing, screening and recruitment strategies as well as the latest HR management systems.
Less pressured market forces also mean that recruiters can get the hiring decision right the first-time, and can take the time to fully optimize the talent equation across the organization. In terms of retaining talent, regional employers can well remember the costs of the last economic cycle peak, in terms of employee churn and turnover.
Recruiters in all sectors, particularly in banking and finance, oil and gas, and construction, have vivid recollections of their best and brightest being poached around the clock by rival firms.
The costs of this in terms of direct recruitment and on-boarding expenditures as well as lost productivity, reduced staff morale, increased client churn and brand erosion, still leave a fresh imprint in many company ledgers. Less strain on retaining key professionals means recruiters can really invest in their people beyond the hiring and induction process and can reap a higher ROI on resources allocated to training infrastructure, as well as career development engineering, succession planning and corporate culture activities in general.
It also means companies can keep a tighter and more efficient control on remuneration structures and can base packages on competencies, performance, experience, direct role requirements and relevant regional industry benchmarks, using tools like Bayt.com Salaries, rather than fluidly re-defining them in more ad-hoc reactions to stressful market dynamics.
So if you’re a talented professional targeting a stellar career path with a top company, rest assured opportunities abound and keep your CV fresh, complete, competitive and readily parked on the top regional career sites, like Bayt.com, so employers can find you even when you are not applying or they are not advertising immediate roles. In fact, just on Bayt.com, there are currently over 10 thousand jobs advertised and a vast universe of unadvertised career opportunities typically at the more senior end of the career spectrum which you can additionally tap into by conversing, networking, sharing expertise and getting endorsed, referred and ranked on Bayt.com Specialties.
And the next time you see a smiling professional skipping happily down the street singing a merry tune, you can safely surmise, it’s a regional blue-chip recruiter, with a very exciting job role.
