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80pc top SMEs plan to hire new staff

Dubai, October 13, 2013

About 81.5 per cent of top SMEs in the UAE plan to hire additional manpower to support growing operations in the next six months, said a survey.

The survey, which included the top 50 SMEs in the UAE, also revealed that the remaining 18.5 per cent are not hiring, although half of this group had already hired earlier in the year.

SMEs belonging to the construction sector and in IT and project management are the ones most in need of additional manpower, it said.

According to Dubai SME, the agency under the Department of Economic Development mandated to develop the Dubai SME sector, small businesses would do well to implement retention and development strategies for existing employees.

“While many enlightened, willing and able SMEs realise the need to attract, retain and develop good employees, there is still a long way to go. Through the Dubai SME100 initiative, it will work with the top SMEs to create more awareness of human capital development, and showcase good SME role models for other SMEs to learn good practices of their SME peers,” said Abdul Baset Al Janahi, CEO of Dubai SME.

Although overall the respondents had a positive outlook on their recruitment plans in the coming months, a little over 60 per cent of the SMEs expressed some concerns over the costs of recruitment, citing visa expenses as the biggest challenge.

Other challenges confronting SME owners include the lack of potential candidates with specialised skills in IT or finance.

Meanwhile, in its first ever survey on human capital, the World Economic Forum ranked the UAE 24 out of 122 countries in terms of its ability to tap human capital. This new index measures countries’ ability to develop and deploy healthy, educated and able workers through four distinct pillars: education; health and wellness; workforce and employment; and enabling environment.

The report pointed out that a nation’s human capital endowment – productive skills and capacities – could be a more important determinant of long-term economic success than virtually any other resource. - TradeArabia News Service




Tags: UAE | SME | Manpower | hire |

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