|
As the region continues to attract corporate attention, more and more skilful workers around the world are considering it for their next career move. Jeffrey Joerres of Manpower, a global player in employment services with 35,000 employees in 80 countries, spoke to Gulf News about the regional recruitment scene.
Gulf News: Is it difficult dealing with such a broad range of jobs rather than focusing on specific areas?
Joerres: Our 'book of business' is geographically diverse and based on the simple tenet that we are in the business to find people jobs.
Although we are very large, we are specialised in areas. As we look at Dubai and the Emirates, under the umbrella of professional services, we'll concentrate on finance, IT, healthcare, engineering.
We will not enter a market where we can't operate in compliance - putting workers in unsafe working environments. If you truly believe work is honourable, it becomes an easy gauge of what you do and what you don't do across the world.
After 60 years in the business, why has Manpower decided to come to Dubai only now?
We've been reluctant for many years to come to the region because we didn't know enough about it, and it felt as though there were too many hazards associated with this compliance factor. Now, many of our global clients are here and so many things are happening in this region, particularly in the UAE. With the assets and processes between the government and businesses, and the use of our capital, we can grow tremendously. What energises me is the excitement of the companies here and the passion of the companies needing to find talent.
In your view, what are the gaps in Dubai's employment industry? How can Manpower fill those gaps?
One of the gaps is the ability to have training and development, and to have a sophisticated matching system. In a go-go environment, sometimes you can take a person and put them in the environment just because they're there. And we're going to try and bring our discipline and our matching and assessment tools. We have 2,300 online courses in nine languages, offered free of charge to our employees. If a person is happy in the job they are placed in, it has a halo effect for the whole area. Dubai is a very strong brand. All you have to do is take a photo and show it to the rest of the world. But what can happen is that brand can get tarnished below the veneer if, when you get here, the experience doesn't live up to the expectations of the photograph.
The overall brand can be improved and needs to be worked on to keep the growth going. With no talent coming in, the growth gets stagnant.
With Dubai being such a transient place, does this make it harder for you to find people employment?
While there is that transient view, that type of in-out is actually how we are built. That's what we do. It does cause some challenges for clients who would rather not see that kind of turnover. But when you have that large an expatriate community, with some who love the area and never move and a large part that, from the beginning say they're just passing through, you have to adjust.
If companies can adjust to that and think about improving induction programmes and training programmes to minimise the disruption of that turn, then they can be productive.
|
