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Mowatt: “It’s a free market for a national, but when you’re an employer of choice you keep them.”

Retailers in the UAE are under pressure to reach the quota set by the Ministry of Labour to have at least 4% Emiratis among their employees by December 31.

The Retail MEHNATY program - launched by Emirates National Development Programme (ENDP) and The Emirates Academy in March this year - has lifted Emiratisation on the agenda and enhanced retention levels.

Designed to help UAE National job seekers to develop skills in the sector through classroom-based and on-the-job training, the initiative has been integrating young men and women into the workforce.

"We started with our pilot program focused on the Al Tayer Group in March, which seen 100% of participants employed, and other companies came on board including Jumbo, Chalhoub Group and Azadea Group," recalls John Mowatt, head of department, Centre for Tourism & Hospitality Emiratisation Research, Training & Consultancy, The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management.

"We developed the final version, which finished on November 7 and trained 138 people, which achieved a retention rate was 88%. Companies are now very serious about Emiratisation," he adds.

Mowatt says the Academy anticipates a much large volume of students in 2008, as companies show greater than ever interest in the scheme.

"The ENDP is including more retailers in the scheme, and these big names create a lure factor. Emiratis see the retail industry as a great opportunity as it has become more appealing, providing good jobs and good incomes."

According to Mowatt, "Everyone is competing for nationals as it gives you a competitive advantage, as a lot of people coming to shop in the UAE are Gulf nationals, so sales could pick up at these stores by employing nationals."

The program is run over nine weeks; Mowatt explains, with the first fortnight devoted to learning the basics of retail, such as training in how to sell and how to deal with customers, and a series of workshops including personal empowerment, personal success, and Retail English.

"We show students how the industry is growing in Dubai, how it is linked to tourism, and from the very beginning they see retail as a career in which one can move up the ladder or take on a wealth of positions from design and store display to manager or CEO."

The typical graduate position for students is sales-related roles, Mowatt says, and a central aspect of their introduction to the sector is a series of field trips in the initial weeks to look at how retail stores operate and what they do.

Having tasted the reality of working on the shop floor, students return to the Academy for its Passport for Employment checkpoint, in which they are questioned about their attendance, punctuality and interest during their two placements.

"We ask them if they have showed initiative and if they are genuinely interested. In retail, you have to be very independent to make sales and commission, so it's not for people who are shy. They will get the job as long as they attend the program and have a good attitude."

The program has witnessed an almost equal interest among men and women, and the Academy is now set to kick start its fourth and fifth instalments.

"We need to make sure that store managers and supervisors know how to coach a national and also how to develop good on-the-job training, and also to ensure mentoring occurs," he says.

Mowatt says that this coaching is critical when a national joins the team at a store, and it is vital that managers take an interest and encourage them by meeting with them at least once a week.

"The different brands have a certain view of how stores should be operated. The transition to becoming a good salesperson is not always easy, so you have to encourage people, so managers should be meeting with other members of the store to advise them to help the national" he advises.

"In the retail environment, stores should prioritise cooperation among colleagues. It is a free market for a national, but when you're an employer of choice you keep them," he adds.

Mowatt says that after ascertaining retail qualifications, nationals become "more marketable", yet ultimately graduates are attracted by "good benefits and an opportunity for development, not just after money which people seem to think."

Emiratis are encouraged that "attitude is the key", and to deal with other nationalities as customers and as colleagues.

"People want to help you, but if you don't appear to want to be helped then they won't. Retail professionals are busy, and if someone tells you to come back later, then as a national you say when later?" he urges.

"We visit the employer and make sure things are happening and that counselling is in place during the placement. There is nothing like it elsewhere in the UAE."

The programme was originally developed on the request of the ENDP, which is responsible for funding and marketing, and participants to date have come from across the UAE, as far as Sharjah, Ajman, and Ras Al Khaimah.

The Academy has also conducted specific programmes for retail companies in the region, including Dubai Duty Free, whereby 40 people undertook training before employment.

The ENDP would like us to run more of these programmes, up to five by the end of this year," he reveals.

It is not just the client base that is set to expand in 2008. Mowatt says the centre's three-strong team - made up of himself, Ophelia Gokoyan and Sarah Shaw - will expand as vacancies have opened up.

"Next year there will be more positions, as the formula is there," he adds proudly.

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