On the brink of a mass exodus?

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Many Indian nationals in the UAE are finding themselves at a crossroads: should they stay in Dubai and accept the high cost of living or go home where their friends, family and a booming economy await?

Recruiting and retaining skilled members of staff has become one of the most serious issues affecting travel agencies in the UAE, ATN can reveal.

New apartments are being filled as soon as they are complete throughout the region, forcing house prices higher and higher, and economies in Asia and the Indian Subcontinent, the main source markets for recruitment in the travel trade, continue to boom.

In addition, rising inflation in the Middle East, coupled with a collapse in the value of Gulf currencies against the Rupee is having a crippling effect on remittances to India; the main reason expatriates choose to work in the region in the first place.

The result is that people are more hesitant to leave their homes and families behind to come to a place where the cost of living far outweighs the increased salaries and zero-tax environment that workers find in this part of the world.

Consequentially, skilled workers that can earn a good wage in India tend to remain at home rather than travel abroad to pursue their careers, leaving the pool of new recruits willing to come to the Gulf bereft of any skilled or experienced workers.

For travel agencies, this means that although the barrel will never run dry, the quality of new staff may diminish.

"Paying peanuts and getting monkeys is a worldwide problem in the industry to be honest," said John Flower, product manager, Alpha Holidays.

"The sad fact is that there is no need for that given that there are people making a hell of a lot of money in this game."

Flower condemned the excuse that senior travel personnel often use to justify low salaries: ‘the margins are so low - that's why the wages are so low'.

"To maximise profits companies bring in unskilled workers, pay them a pittance and expect them to perform like the professionals in the big wide world - very unfair - then the vicious circle begins; they get into debt, they get trapped and they are stuck here at the whim of their employer," he said.

But Flower was quick to highlight that larger travel agencies, such as Alpha Tours, avoided this practice and valued its employees.

"In return it is getting substantial growth, happy staff, and most importantly loyalty," he added.

One option for larger agencies is to try to outdo the competition and poach experienced members of staff from smaller agencies by offering more competitive salaries and ultimately greater job security.

"We are trying to pick up staff from the local market within the UAE as they have the experience of the local market," said Fabian Fernandes, general manager, Alpha Travel and Holidays.

"If not from Dubai we look to the other emirates because it is easier to compete with the salaries and easier to get them to join us. It's difficult to match the salaries in India now; people don't want to come here."

This presents another problem for agencies. If counter staff do not have the incentives to stay with their company - career advancement opportunities and the prospect of pay rises or sales-based bonuses - they will be inclined to move to another agency, even if the difference in pay is minimal.

"Working on the graveyard shift and the long working hours are some of the most common complaints for travel agents," said Tawanda Kaseke, recruitment coordinator, HR department, Al Rostamani Group.

"Surprisingly some people move even when their salary is to increase by a fairly insignificant amount."

High staff turnover means a lack of expertise within the workforce and therefore poor customer service.

Since the problem shows no sigh of letting up, agencies must decide what is more important and cost effective to them - constantly recruiting new staff for lower wages and risking losing them to higher paid jobs, or trying to ensure that they retain the staff they have by offering them a reason to stay with the company and earning their loyalty.

Orient Travel general manager Asim Arshad said his company had witnessed staff leaving Dubai to return to India and Pakistan and to nip this problem in the bud the management team had implemented some meaningful incentives.

"The biggest increase in costs today is not real estate; it's loss of people. Our percentage cost for the pay role has increased a lot," he told ATN.

"We have given benefits other than salaries. We have started providing transport for our staff to take them to work. It saves them money and they also arrive less stressed."

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