Gulf ‘talent war’ looms as recruitment rebounds after coronavirus lay-offs

Since the skilled talent pool available in the region is limited – made worse by large-scale lay-offs and an expat exodus during the early part of the pandemic – it could lead to a situation where local talent poaching will become a major issue by early next year, Arabian Business has been told.

“With the advent of the vaccine becoming a closer reality and markets becoming more buoyant, organisations across sectors are gearing up to meet the anticipated rise in demand from both businesses and direct customers,” said Ashutosh Sinha, author of a recent international best seller Breakthrough and the global HR leader of a GCC-based corporate major.

“Those companies which took the short-sighted approach of looking at their talent only with a people cost lens will face the heat as talent shortage is likely to increase the hiring costs and the average compensation to acquire an external candidate,” Sinha told Arabian Business.

Companies across sectors resorted to large-scale lay off of employees in anticipation of the slowdown in the early months of the Covid-19 outbreak.

The situation has been further exacerbated as thousands of expat workers – a major part of businesses in this region – leaving for their homeland due to job losses or to be reunited with family members.

“The pandemic of course saw certain organisations lay off talent across functions – some as a result of knee jerk reactions and some because of genuine business sustainability reasons,” added Amarjeet Dutta, partner, EMA Partners – UAE, a global leadership hiring and advisory firm.

Some of the industry experts Arabian Business spoke to said businesses, even in sectors severely impacted by the pandemic, have been hiring recently in the wake of authorities allowing major relaxations in movements and activities.

“This has led to several companies already putting in place proactive measures aimed at ensuring that the talent is fully engaged through people friendly policies of well-being and healthcare,” said the HR head of a leading retail chain in GCC, who wished not to be identified.

Sources in other major companies in the region also corroborated this move.

Sinha said employers who stood by their employees during the pandemic are now going to get handsomely rewarded in terms of employee gratitude and commitment towards building the business.

Amarjeet Dutta, partner, EMA Partners – UAE

“The other challenge they are likely to face is the erosion of good talent as professionals who have been risk averse and keeping their heads down, will now venture out or be more open to explore new opportunities coming their way,” Sinha said.

Dutta, however, believed the impending talent war in the region would be restricted to certain specific sectors.

“Now, there is a talent pool out there in the market that is waiting to be hired but I don’t agree to the fact that there could be a talent war.

“While in certain sectors like retail, aviation and to a certain extent real estate, there could be a situation like a tussle for high calibre talent, but I think there are enough checks and balances that are present on either side – candidates and organisations side – to choose what is the best fit mutually,” he said.

The consultant also said smart organisations will know how to pick their best suitable talent.

“Especially at the leadership level – where EMA Partners operates – I would say the lens has become more clearer for talent hunt,” Dutta said.

According to Dutta, every organisation (in the GCC region) is at a different level of evolution when it comes to their readiness to attract high potential talent.

“Certain organisations are still at the same evolution point before the pandemic while some have matured more due to great lessons taught during the last 6-7 months,” he pointed out.

Industry experts said businesses will have to put in place long-term employee nurturing measures to avoid having to get into “tussles” for talent hiring in future.