Simon Stephens, Digby Morgan’s General Manager in Dubai, takes a look at the Middle East’s HR market.

The economic outlook in the Middle East remains relatively positive for 2009. Some states, such as Dubai, will perhaps feel the pinch more than others due to its massive exposure to the slowing real estate sector and the global reduction in lending by financial institutions but others, such as Abu Dhabi, have huge wealth funds and are able to withstand the most severe of downturns. Liquidity is less of a problem in this part of the world, and there is more of a sense that this is merely a market correction rather than the first step into recession. Overall growth remains strong and expectations are that things will pick up again as the year progresses.

The HR market in the Middle East is very mixed. Whilst some organisations have strategic departments that are key contributors to the overall success of their firms, many others are hugely administrative and much more akin to an old style ‘personnel department’. The challenge is to educate such firms in the value that HR can bring to a company and help them to transform themselves into a commercial and business-focused HR department that will enable them to compete in an ever-increasingly sophisticated global market.

In the last few years, many HR departments in the Middle East have grown into little more than huge recruiting functions in line with the rapid and somewhat uncontrolled growth experienced in the region. Now that this recruitment has slowed, many are finding that they perhaps have the wrong skills in their HR departments – this has led to job cuts and a general re-evaluation of the HR structure and the people within it. So, from a positive point of view, many organisations are, for the first time, taking the opportunity to review and re-evaluate their processes and organisational structures to ensure that they have the right people with the right skills in the right palace to withstand tougher times ahead. This will ensure they are better placed to take advantage once the market conditions pick up again, as they undoubtedly will.

Of particular demand in 2009 will be talented HR professionals with experience of working in the Middle East; those who know what a good HR department looks like and who have the ability to lead key executives through the change and transformation that such a shift will entail. Additionally, having the ability and patience to overcome the traditional view of HR in the region will be key. Culturally diverse, financially astute and well qualified HR professionals with negotiating, persuading and influencing skills are even more important in the Middle East and some in-demand roles include regional HR managers and directors, OD consultants and talent development specialists. Less in-demand roles in 2009 will probably include the likes of recruitment officers and administrators and, of course, expats without Middle East experience.

In a similar vein to the UK where the public sector is expected to prove a popular area for HR specialists, Government backed investment authorities in the Middle East are also expected to be busy recruiting talented HR professionals. A further sector expected to be unaffected by any downturn could well be the health sector which would include the region’s pharmaceutical and private hospital organisations.

Our Dubai office is now staffed with an experienced team of consultants who’ve joined us from London (Jono Venter and Laurel Wise), Australia (Heather Bowen) and our team administrator, Zahra Shaikh, who has joined us from another Randstad company in India (Emmay HR). As you’ll have read in the last issue of Human Resourcefulness, the office is now up and running from its base in the international financial free zone in central Dubai. We have been warmly received by the many organisations that we have relationships with in other parts of the world and are rapidly establishing a host of new and exciting locally-based clients.



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