Right talent remains hard to come by
Recruiters report problems in finding candidates with desired experience and skill sets
Dubai: It's true that the greatest asset companies can have are their people. After all, it is employees that fuel organisations' growth.
However, despite the huge talent pool in the GCC region, many recruiters are still having difficulty finding the desired staff with the right talent, skills and knowledge base.
Recent research shows that the gap between demand and supply for qualified workers is now widening and has become a major cause of worry.
According to Naukrigulf.com, a significant number of recruiters (63 per cent) are experiencing a talent crunch and 47 per cent of them are having trouble finding suitable individuals with four to eight years' experience.
Talent search
Other recruiters (31 per cent) also find it difficult to find qualified workers with one to three years experience.
Talent search is particularly challenging for more than half of the recruiters (55 per cent) when filling positions intended for Arabs.
The talent crisis is widely felt in all sectors. "Most recruiters have said it is the middle management positions [for] which they find difficult to hire," Tarun Aggarwal, Naukrigulf.com business head, told Gulf News.
The region has a predominantly young workforce, 65 per cent of which is under 25 years of age.
Asked why the skills shortage persists despite the fact that the GCC has a huge supply of jobseekers, most experts said employers generally prefer the crème de la crème of applicants, or those who have significant experience.
Historical trend
"The GCC market has historically tended more towards experienced workforce. A move towards hiring fresh graduates requires a change in organisations' internal systems in terms of training or mentoring processes to get the person up to speed and become productive. Changes like these have a time lag and take some time to evolve," he said.
"The second reason could be a graduate's skill versus industry requirement mismatch. Another reason could be the matchmaking or the sourcing process where young graduates sometimes struggle to reach potential recruiters as they are normally dependent on the placement offices of their universities or their own attempts to apply," he said.
Opportunities
The GCC market still offers a lot of employment opportunities, with hiring picking up at steady pace in the second half of the year.
About 76 per cent of the recruiters predicted "addition of new jobs" this year, compared to 50 per cent in July 2010. The number of recruiters predicting lay-offs this year has also dropped to 7 per cent, from 17 per cent in 2010.
"The region is witnessing a positive hiring environment," said Aggarwal. "The various initiatives by the respective governments, as well as rising oil prices, have led to creation of new jobs and new job opportunities.
"We expect increased hiring from oil and gas, construction and engineering, information technology and telecom, and retail sectors. Region-wise, we see more new hirings in Qatar and higher number of replacement hiring in Saudi Arabia."
Looking up
- 7%: recruiters predicting lay-offs this year
- 65%: jobseekers in Gulf region aged under 25
Hiring environment looks promising
- The region's hiring environment is not only positive, pay conditions look promising as well.
- Naukrigulf's survey showed that organisations in the GCC granted salary increases this year.
- Among the recruiters surveyed, 38 per cent said the range of pay adjustments was between five and ten per cent. About 20 per cent of recruiters said the range of increments was between ten and 15 per cent, while another 15 per cent reported increments of less than five per cent.
