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GCC nationals get ‘much support’ from government

Dubai, May 12, 2013

GCC residents feel that they are given generous support by their governments, a ‘Nationalisation in the GCC’ poll conducted by Bayt.com, the region’s number one job site, has revealed.

The general perception is that national citizens are given “very much support” by the government as far as job search is concerned as stated by 42 per cent of respondents, with only a quarter (26 per cent) claiming they receive no support, according to the poll.

About 35.6 per cent claim that they believe the government does in fact intervene in the hiring of local talent within their company, however, 42 per cent state the opposite, where they claim the government does not play a part in that respect.  

With regards to talent availability and ease of sourcing and hiring, almost half of the respondents (52 per cent) feel it is easy for employers to source national talent. Moreover, when compared to expatriates, respondents believe that national citizens receive better pay (46 per cent), receive more support from the government (23 per cent), and are promoted faster (11 per cent).

Only, 11 per cent believe that local talents are paid less than their expat counterparts. Most local talents are employed in sales and marketing (33 per cent) or IT departments (21 per cent), with the majority holding supervisory (31 per cent) or managerial (25 per cent) positions. Twenty-two per cent occupy entry level positions, and 5 per cent are in their company’s C-level roles.

Over a third of the poll’s respondents (36 per cent) believe that the best way to find national talent is through dedicated regional jobsites. Social media is also a popular method for finding national employees (24 per cent), as are university career fairs (12.3 per cent).

On the other hand, newspaper ads (7 per cent), alumni centers (6 per cent) and local job fairs (7 per cent), as well as some of the dedicated local government sites are seen to be relatively less effective for discovering local talent.

“At Bayt.com we have been assisting corporations in the GCC large and small, both local and international, to meet their nationalisations targets for the better part of the last decade,” said Suhail Masri, vice president of sales, Bayt.com.

“Most of the region's top employers whom we liaise with on a daily basis are already actively mobilized to source, attract and retain national talent across career levels and job roles and this initiative should serve in effect to give their nationalisation targets and activities extra impetus, momentum, direction and drive.”

“In the GCC in particular, Bayt.com's online recruitment platform has facilitated the entire process of meeting nationalization objectives and targets pan-industrially by making it faster, easier and more efficient to source top national talent across career levels.”

“We liaise very closely with each country's universities and top employers alike to ensure our recruitment platform readily accommodates local recruitment targets from the internship and fresh graduate stage through to mid-management and senior managerial level roles and requirements.”

More than half of the companies based in the GCC (52 per cent) have firm policies for hiring nationals, as opposed to the 32 per cent that do not (16 per cent of respondents did not know whether or not their companies have firm policies).

Yet, the results of the poll show that the number of nationals working in companies varies widely, with 37 per cent claiming that local talent makes up 0 to 5 per cent of their workforce, and 18 per cent stating that their company comprises of 75 to 100 per cent nationals.  

The biggest issues relating to hiring local talent are seen to be perceptions they may want less hours or more pay (39 per cent); and perceptions they may be relatively less competitive when it comes to training and experience (14.5 per cent), as well as perceptions they may favour a select few limited industries for employment purposes (10 per cent).

When asked whether they believe that the current workplace localisation policies in their country are effective, half of polled professionals think they are effective indeed: 22 per cent responded with ‘yes, very’, and 28 per cent stated ‘yes, to an extent.’ However, 14 per cent claim that the policies are ‘not effective at all’, and 16 per cent believe that they are ‘not very effective’.  

Respondents feel that hiring levels for national talents could be most improved if nationals had access to better educational and vocational training facilities (24 per cent), if there were better coordination between the government and the private sector (22 per cent), or if there were better incentives for the private sector from the government (16 per cent) and better coordination between educational institutes and companies (15 per cent).

Data for the Bayt.com ‘Nationalisation in the GCC’ poll was collected online from March 15 to May 2, with 2,213 respondents covering six GCC countries. – TradeArabia News Service




Tags: UAE | Dubai | GCC | Bayt.com | nationalisation |

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