Business | My Career
Candidates must keep competitive advantage
People should also be prepared to re-skill throughout their career, to address rapidly changing global employment market
- By Gaurav Ghose, Financial Features Editor
- Published: 00:00 January 21, 2012
- Image Credit: Supplied
- Alistair Cox
In what is an increasingly globalised world, the job market is not immune to its vagaries. Some geographies and sectors are better placed when it comes to providing opportunities, but the job seeker, says Alistair Cox must have the skills a company needs. Cox is chief executive of Hays, a global recruitment consultant. He was visiting Dubai last week, and he offered some tips to employees on how to make themselves competitive in the marketplace.
Gulf News: Right now, in what is still an uncertain global economic environment what are the issues freshers, mid-career and senior executives are facing when looking for or wanting to change jobs? Is it easier for job seekers in some geographies and sectors than in others?
Cox: We have witnessed a slowdown in recruitment in some markets due to a more cautious approach to hiring, but there are still opportunities in many geographies and sectors. We are currently seeing huge demand in the mining sector in Western Australia, and in Germany we are seeing strong demand in the IT and engineering sectors. Demand for financial service workers over the next 20 years is forecast to grow most rapidly in those countries that already have large financial sectors, such as the UK, USA and Australia.
For candidates at all levels the challenges will be ensuring that they have the skills that are in demand and that they have a good understanding of the opportunities available for them. Working with a recruiting expert can help to ensure that they are presenting their skills to the best advantage, and that they are presented for the most appropriate opportunities.
In an increasingly globalised world, what are the features of the job market?
Yes, there has been increasing globalisation in the jobs market, and employers, wherever they are based, will need to make sure that they have access to the skilled labour that they need to maintain their competitive advantage. Companies globally are experiencing an issue with finding staff with the skills that they are looking for, which is leading to skills shortages in many sectors and countries. We have been witnessing greater mobility of skilled workers, and many companies are looking to bring skilled workers in from abroad to fill local shortages. An example of this is the work we do in Singapore, where around half of the positions we fill are sourced from outside of the country.
My advice to employees is to be prepared to relocate, possibly overseas, in order to find the best market for their skills. There has been a marked increase in candidates' mobility in general, and having overseas experience on your CV is now increasingly valued by employers, especially large global businesses. Candidates should also be prepared to re-skill throughout their career, to address the rapidly changing global employment market. Language skills are in demand globally and adding to your skills base can help to improve your employability.
We produced a report last year, ‘Creating Jobs in a Global Economy 2011-2030', in association with Oxford Economics, and one of the main conclusions of was that the demand for specialist skills in many key sectors outstrips supply. For example, the developing world will be reliant on skilled engineers from America and Europe, while these two continents in turn will need health workers from developing countries.
It is a time of great opportunity for engineers, finance, sales and marketing experts who can command improved salaries and who can enhance their career prospects by moving internationally.
In multicultural spaces as the UAE, what could be the challenges for human resource executives of companies?
Successful companies, and their executives, are adept at hiring the very best talent available in the market at the time they wish to fill a job. The last thing that should enter into consideration when assessing the relative strengths and weaknesses of various candidates is their nationality. To do so would be to pander to national stereotyping, which in our experience, is still far too common in the region.
We have seen an increasing emphasis in recent days on the emiratisation or rather nationalisation of the labour force, which remain abysmally low in the private sector. How do you see such efforts as a recruitment consultant for various private sector companies?
The hiring of Emirati nationals in the private sector in the UAE is a very complex issue comprising a range supply and demand dynamics. Even agreeing a position on where we are right now is difficult, with ‘official' estimates of the Emirati composition of the 3.8 million workers in the private sector varying between 0.5 per cent and 7 per cent.
In our experience many small- to medium-sized private sector businesses make no particular effort to hire Emiratis, but equally very few of the Emirati job-seekers we speak to specify that they only want to consider opportunities in the private sector.
It is often thought that stricter and more comprehensive quotas applied to the private sector would solve the issue, but this is an unsophisticated tool, and at best only addresses the demand side of the equation. On the supply side is the fundamental question as to how attractive the private sector is to nationals; the reality that the private sector cannot compete with the public sector on pay and benefits; and that there are complex cultural issues to consider (how many Emiratis, particularly female, would relish being the first national employed by a ‘western' SME?). A study by Abu Dhabi University suggested that 60 per cent of all Emiratis who have worked in the private sector have resigned due to "lack of career progression".
If the government is to address this over the long term our view is that it should consider the supply side issues as much as the ‘demand' side.
One thing we have noticed here in the Gulf as a whole is the mushrooming of executive MBA programmes, mostly established by foreign schools — what's your view on such executive programmes as a recruiter?
While not wishing to dent anyone's enthusiasm to pursue an MBA, in our experience what hiring companies are placing great value on right now is a first degree (if relevant to the job role) coupled with a minimum of three years experience in the GCC region. We register few, if any, vacancies where a customer specifies that an MBA is a pre-requisite for consideration.
However we suspect that the personal qualities which give someone the drive to study and complete an MBA programme; aspiration, intellectual capability, focus, perseverance, etc, are highly sought after by employers in any case.
Business Editor's choice
-
China breaks West's solar monopoly
Some countries in the world, especially Germany and the United States, have made considerable efforts to invest in developing solar energy cells
-
Burberry store spree will cut profit
Trenchcoat maker forges ahead with investment strategy targeting emerging markets
-
Laws needed to spur region bond markets
UAE Central Bank calls for creation of a centralised Sharia board to facilitate the sale of sukuk
