Half of region’s firms seeking to hire scarce local talent

Almost half (49.2 per cent) the firms across the Middle East and North Africa region are planning to hire more local talent in the coming months, the results of a latest survey reveal.

The ‘Localisation Hiring Policies in the GCC’ poll, conducted by regional jobs site Bayt.com, also showed that a staggering 47.5 per cent admitted that their company had a hard time recruiting local talent.

A large number of regional respondents (48.5 per cent) acknowledged that their company adheres to a localisation hiring policy, while one on three (34.5 per cent) said “no” and 17 per cent were unsure, according to poll results.

More than two-fifths (43 per cent) of the respondents said their company’s localisation policy was audited by a government entity a similar number (39 per cent) stated no and 18 per cent seemed unsure.

Further, 43.6 per cent of respondents said between 0-5 per cent of locals work for their company; another 13.3 per cent claimed between 5-15 per cent; 8.6 per cent said between 16-25 per cent – in effect, 65.6 per cent respondents said that locals comprise between 0 and 25 per cent of their company’s staff strength.

Another 12 per cent stated that locals represented between 26-50 per cent of their firm’s employees; 9.7 per cent said between 51-75 per cent and 12.8 per cent said between 76-100 per cent of their colleagues within the same company were locals.

The respondents were then asked about ‘the average seniority of local citizens’ working with them. One in five (20.3 per cent) said that most locals join in at an intermediate level and 21 per cent stated at a senior level, while 23.7 per cent said locals get hired at an entry level.

However, 15.3 per cent said that local employees were spread across all levels in their company, while only 19.7 per cent were certain that there were no locals working within the same company.

In terms of career trajectory, a good 43 per cent of the poll takers claimed locals get promoted a lot faster than others, while 21 per cent believed that to be untrue and stated both locals and non-locals had the same career trajectory. However, 36 per cent surprisingly said locals got promoted a lot slower as compared to others in their company.

Amer Zureikat, VP Sales, Bayt.com, said, “Localisation is a topic of much urgency in discourse currently in HR circles around the GCC, and we are pleased to have made great inroads with this survey in understanding the patterns and issues related to talent localisation and proud to provide the most effective, efficient and sophisticated channel for talent localisation activity in the GCC today across all industries, career levels and job roles.”

The online poll series partakers were then asked about the ways in which their company recruited local employees. Most respondents (41 per cent) said recruitment was usually carried out online; 15.6 per cent stated newspapers; 21.3 per cent claimed it was done via traditional head-hunters; and only 1.6 per cent said through universities. When asked what career level local talent is most in demand for in their company today, 36.5 per cent said intermediate level; 25.8 per cent stated senior level; 24.6 per cent claimed entry level; 5.2 per cent were not sure and 7.9 per cent felt that local employees get hired evenly across all levels.

“The results of our most recent poll show that there is a high demand for local employees in the region; and while some companies maintain they still have a hard time finding local talent, the majority manages to recruit local talent online, which once again reaffirms Bayt.com’s leading positioning in the region as the number one job site offering employers in both the public and private sectors immediate and effective access to the largest pool of talent from across the region including highly relevant, highly qualified and highly competitive local talent from each of the GCC countries,” he concluded.

Data for the ‘Localisation Hiring Policies in the GCC’ poll series was collected online between 29th July to 27th September, 2011, with a total of 2,294 poll-taking participants from UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, KSA and Qatar.

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