Preventing the crisis

Industry professionals repeatedly bemoan the reality that staff are turning their backs on relocation to the Middle East, prompted by booms in their home countries, particularly India and the Philippines, yet new source markets are now starting to emerge in force.

Stepping up first with investment in its people is Dubai-based restaurant chain Hotbrands International. The company intends to open 400 quick service and casual dining outlets by 2010, the same year in which its CEO Avinash Bal expects the onset of a recruitment crisis in the region.

In a bid to find staff for upcoming openings at locations across the region and beyond, including Qatar, Oman, India, Saudi Arabia and Oman, pull factors will be presented to possible candidates including 12-month management training programs, computer training, driving lessons, English and Arabic language programs and most importantly, progression opportunities.

With numerous entertainment projects of Dubailand's magnitude just around the corner - incorporating the food and beverage divisions at Dubai Sport City, Motor City, Falcon City of Wonders, Al Barrari and Mall of Arabia - the removal of training programs as prehistoric as The Restless Planet and providing smooth service are essential in the region's highly competitive dining destinations.

Spending money on lavish interior design and top international chefs might mean enormous kudos for restaurants, but investing in honing talent among service staff will result in a better end product, and in turn repeat business.

Emiratisation efforts could also be bolstered in the restaurant industry, hot on the heels of well publicised, positive results in the UAE's hotel industry, and local talent is in fact currently the focus for head hunters in markets such as Oman. However, attitudes in society might need to change first and further efforts will need to be made to promote hospitality as the professional career to qualify in.

Bal made an important observation on how chains should strive to maintain staff within their companies if they decide to return home, yet others are anxious to witness their teams go on to bigger and better things.

Stephane Buchholzer, chef de cuisine at Tang in Dubai - widely renowned as the only chef practising molecular gastronomy in the region and often subject to poaching attempts by new openings - told me recently that his staff are encouraged to leave after two years after having improved in confidence, and they typically move two or three positions higher elsewhere.

From across the globe, Indonesia, Burma, China and South America have been pinpointed as the next lucrative source markets, according to industry experts.

Recruitment director of M/Brazil, Marcelo Toledo - who oversees 22 offices across Brazil - predicts the country's low basic salary and labour pool of 96 million will encourage hundreds of Brazilians to come to Oman, Jordan, Qatar, Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi this year.

Natural smiles, an eagerness to succeed and impressive educational backgrounds are among the merits for UAE businesses, Brazilian Marcela Bizachi, sales coordinator of MICE business for Rotana Hotels told me recently, while the provision of meals, accommodation, insurance and higher salaries are the main attractions here.

As restaurant chains excitedly examine the demographics of emerging markets for their next ventures, the simultaneous anxiety on HR officers' faces could be translated into joy if they realise their answers are, without doubt, not a million miles away.

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