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Dubai: Human capital is gradually becoming a strategic partner to regional businesses, revealed the findings of The Middle East Human Capital Survey 2008 by Ernst & Young.
The survey polled 170 CEOs and human resources leaders from private-sector organisations in 10 countries across the region.
An encouraging 55 per cent of respondents indicated that the human resources (HR) department is more involved in strategy development and effective people management in their organisations.
Last year, only 35 per cent of respondents agreed that HR was a strategic partner to business. Organisations in the Middle East have started to see real value in identifying and developing leadership, but there is still room for improvement.
Almost half of the respondents in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE agreed that they do not have a well defined training and development policy or special programmes for the development of nationals.
Omar Bitar, Managing Partner, Advisory Services, Ernst & Young Middle East, said: "The Middle East Human Capital Survey allows regional organisations to compare their practices and identify areas of improvement. As we continue to accelerate towards greater economic growth, it is becoming even more explicit that an organisation's people make all the difference.
"To maintain competitive advantage, businesses need to invest in people and adopt strategies, policies and practices oriented towards the development of human capital."
When it comes to compensation and benefits, the survey findings showed that up to 40 per cent of respondents believe that their compensation levels are not at par with market levels.
Thirty-three per cent of respondents in the UAE and 26 per cent in Saudi Arabia indicated that their organisations do not consider performance as a critical criterion for variable pay.
The survey highlighted greater involvement from senior management in leadership development, with 67 per cent of respondents saying so. However, more than half the respondents agreed that they did not have a proper succession plan for creating an effective leadership pipeline.
Findings also show that up to 41 per cent of respondents believe their organisations do not formally link performance development plans with performance assessments.
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