Today, as we help expats and locals find new jobs in locations across the world, I have had the benefit of living in Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. All offer wildly different experiences and opportunities. Covid has turned the expat landscape on its head, and Dubai has seen this as an opportunity.
Dubai typically fought a hard battle when it came to attracting and retaining talent with both Hong Kong and Singapore, but for now those hubs are more or less gone when it comes to attracting foreign talent and many have left.
Hong Kong has been unable to open its borders due to its draconian Covid laws following suit with the mainland’s zero policy and Singapore is now largely focussed on employing Singaporeans and only attracting and keeping the super skilled (and wealthy) expat talent, with the visa process long and complicated.
The window for opportunity has opened, and Dubai is making it clear that it is very much open for business.
The UAE Golden Visa program reminds me of the Permanent Resident System in Singapore which many took advantage of (when it wasn’t so hard to obtain), and having lived in that country, I saw the impact it had made on attracting great businesses and attracting and retaining great talent to the island.
The Golden Visa program will bring the best of the best to Dubai, of that I have no doubt. It has already been discussed in previous articles the positive impact it will make on not only the talent market, but also the real estate sector, as well as the overall positive economic impacts.
That said, the key to this working from a talent perspective, is making sure the experience in the UAE is as good as it sounds.
I frequently post on LinkedIn about the talent industry and its clear from the response of followers in the MENA region that many aspects of the talent attraction and retention process in the UAE are broken.
Too many people have a poor first experience, companies don’t know how to run an interview process, nobody gets any feedback and often when people arrive, the companies aren’t looking after their people, and the talent moves on.
Little to no value is placed on mental health and some companies can still get away with not paying staff monies they are owed and get away with behaving in an unprofessional manner.
My expertise is in recruitment and recruiters, be they in-house or agency are on the front line. We provide many with their first flavour of the region, and for many that experience is below expectations.
We need to look at recruitment standards.
For example, in Singapore, where we also have offices, we have to jump through multiple hoops to show we are a credible firm and pass exams to have our recruiting licence, the barriers to entry when it comes to recruiting is actually quite high.
I truly believe the new visa laws will prick the ears of the right talents.
Now we need to make sure that the recruiters that are on the front line to help bring these people into our shores are the best of the best and help deliver on the experience.
Justin McGuire is the co-founder and CEO – APAC and MENA at DMCG Global.
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