Bayt.com Inc.

Hot on the heels of our latest blog entry on jobs in Dubai, Bayt.com released its latest Middle East Consumer Confidence Index research report, conducted in conjunction with YouGovSiraj.  The Bayt.com YouGovSiraj May CCI study showed a drop in confidence across the region dipping by 7 index points in Qatar, 3 points in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and 9 points in the UAE as compared to January 2008 levels.  In the UAE, 61% of respondents maintained salaries have not kept pace with inflation and 46% maintained they are unhappy with current compensation levels.  Moreover there was a significant drop in the propensity to consume in the UAE with only 19% of consumers considering today as a good time to purchase consumer durable goods and 29% considering it a bad time.      

The question on jobseekers minds today is does the UAE and the GCC in general remain an attractive place to live and work despite rampant inflation and declining confidence levels – and the answer is an unequivocal yes!  The reasons for our optimism are manifold.  Firstly, despite the inflation that is being felt across the region thanks to booming economies, burgeoning demand and a weaker dollar, across the region 34% of respondents to the survey indicated their current financial situation is actually better than it was a year ago and only 26% said worse; in other words more people are better off than are worse off this year relative to last year.  In the UAE, 30% of respondents indicated their financial situation was better than last year and 25% said worse, again indicating more people are better off than worse off.  Moreover when we asked people about their expectations for a year hence, 50% of regional respondents said they expect their financial situation to be  better in a years time and only 9% said worse (14% thought it would remain the same) so there is a great deal of optimism still across the region.  In the UAE alone, 54% of respondents expect their family’s financial situation will be better in a year’s time and only 8% think it will be worse.

There are more indications of the general robustness of the UAE economy as evidenced by the survey.  When asked in what way they think the country’s economy would change n a year’s time the survey answer was overwhelmingly positive with 40% of UAE respondents indicating they think the economy would be better and only 28% indicating they thought it would be worse.  Moreover, when we asked people in the UAE “In what way do you expect availability of employment to change in a year’s time?” 51% of UAE respondents said there would be MORE employment opportunities available and only 15% said there would be fewer employment opportunities available.  Clearly a healthy level of optimism prevails vis-à-vis the availability of jobs in the UAE and the attractiveness and robustness of the economy in general even if consumers are feeling the pinch of higher prices.  The dip we we are seeing in CCI levels in relative terms is in all probability an indicator that the Index started off at extremely high levels of consumer confidence but we should not be misled into thinking these are despondent times for the UAE; far form it; there is a great deal of optimism still in the UAE economy and job market and the survey clearly supports this.

Is the UAE still an attractive proposition for expats as it become more expensive to live and work in or will they leave is a question we are often asked at bayt.com.  Again, our polls, repeated research and market intelligence are clear on this (see Human Resource Overview 2008, a Middle East salary survey).  The UAE maintains its allure as a highly attractive place to live and work and is no danger of losing its global standing as a leading commercial and economic hub and a beacon for ambitious career-minded professionals anxious to make their mark in landmark ground-breaking projects with world-class local and multinational blue-chip organizations or the pioneering public sector.  Today at a time when many other economies are grappling with recessionary prospects the UAE and GCC in general are enjoying boom times and many projects seeking world-class talent in the UAE and region at large are unprecedented in ambition and scope on a global scale.  The UAE will remain for the foreseeable future in our opinion a winning haven for competitive top-class professionals who take their career progression seriously and want to participate in making business history.

Talk in the workplace cafeteria today is largely about the new visit visa fees just announced in the Dubai newspapers and whether these will have any impact on the attractiveness of Dubai as a work destination of choice for skilled professionals from around the region and beyond.  The new fee approved for the six-month multiple entry visa is UAE Dirhams 2,000 however under this category visitors would not be allowed to stay for more than 14 days in the country on each visit.  The new visit visas will be of two types: the long stay (three months) that would cost UAE Dirhams 1,000 and the short stay (one month) that would cost UAE Dirhams 500. 

Speculation is rife about whether this will have an immediate and adverse impact on the competitiveness of Dubai as a workplace of choice particularly as many jobseekers initially come to Dubai on visit visas to search for jobs in Dubai.  In all likelihood it will not.  Dubai has emerged as a global business hub and a nucleus of regional commercial/economic activity.  The attractiveness of Dubai as a place to live and work is as robust as ever and the demand for top jobs with Dubai’s leading employers shows no sign of abating any more than does the race for top talent that is competitive by global standards to fill the ranks of the prospering local success stories.  Long gone are the days when companies had to pay a hardship premium to attract seasoned professionals (its hard to believe that these days even existed); today salary premiums are dictated by the ambitious standards the local corporations have set for themselves in terms of required minimum qualifications and expertise as well as the fierce competition for top talent. 

Despite the well-documented recent increases in the cost of living in the UAE (see the Loyalty Survey and Human Resources Overview on www.bayt.com) repeated polls and research conducted by the Middle East’s #1 job site Bayt.com confirm that Dubai shows no signs of losing its unique appeal as a destination of choice for career-mined individuals seeking to participate in a regional success story.  In Dubai today, seasoned professionals with top qualifications from all over the world realize they can take part in making history and partake of an economic boom that is not being enjoyed at the current time in many other places.  In the Spring 2008 Bayt.com YouGovSiraj Loyalty Survey 80% of UAE residents indicated they feel fully engaged in the work they do and 81% of residents indicated their loyalty to their current organisation is high.  Previously this year, the Bayt.com YouGovSiraj 2008 Human Resource Overview, a Middle East salary survey, showed that residents of Dubai were far more likely to respond to increases in the cost of living in Dubai by switching to higher paying jobs or industries than to leave Dubai for their home countries or other countries in the region and beyond.  The appeal of Dubai Inc for employers and professionals alike seems robust as ever (leading pan-regional jobsite like www.bayt.com are posting around 6,000 fresh jobs in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Saudia Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, North Africa, the Levant and beyond on an average day) and the unique rhythm, pace and flavour of working in Dubai is likely to continue to attract many more ambitious, highly qualified applicants from around the globe.

According to the 2008 Human Resource Overview, a Middle East salary survey conducted by Bayt.com and YouGovSiraj, Middle East salaries have struggled to keep pace with local cost-of-living increases to varying levels over the past year.  More people in the GCC countries of the UAE, KSA, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman expressed high to medium levels of satisfaction with their current salaries than those expressing low levels of satisfaction, however generally, the perception was that there was room for improvement in salaries across the region.

The Middle East Salary Survey revealed that across the region, professionals in the Pharmaceuticals, Travel & Transport, Government Sector and Education/Academia sector were least satisfied with their current salaries while Oil, Gas & Petrochemicals professionals were the most satisfied.  The survey also indicated that Banking/Finance professionals and Retail professionals received the largest proportion of household income in the form of bonuses, commissions and incentives.

Raises received across the calendar years 2006 and 2007 were seen to be fairly consistent. However, the general feeling was that salary scales need to improve further to come in line with inflation, depreciation of the dollar & economic growth in the home countries of expatriates.  With regard to raises received over the 2007 calendar year quite a large number of people across industry segments indicated they were unhappy with their raise or didn’t receive a raise at all.

 Despite the general feeling that increases in the cost of living are eroding the purchasing power and real income of consumers across the region, the attractiveness of the GCC as a place to live and work does not appear to be waning or in danger of being eroded.  The Salary Survey clearly indicated that people were far more likely to consider moving to a higher paying industry or to a different company within the same industry or even to a different country within the region as an expat to improve their quality of life than they were to return to their home countries.  The appeal of the GCC as a booming hub of new business continues to appeal, inflation notwithstanding, and the region shows no sign of losing its competitive edge in attracting top talent and retaining them.

Detailed results of the Middle East salary survey can be found on www.bayt.com 

In keeping with Bayt.com’s pioneering spirit, the Middle East’s #1 job site will be hosting the Middle East’s first Virtual Job Fair from June 15 to June 19 2008. The main sponsor for the Virtual Job Fair is Emirates Group and a number of other top employers have already committed to participation in the Fair paving the way for what promises to be one of the most exciting events in the summer’s regional HR agenda. Employers participate include local players, regional players and multinational corporations.

The first of its kind careers event will effectively connect qualified job seeking candidates from across the region and the world with gainful career opportunities with top employers. Candidates will have the easy and unique option to `attend’ the job fair from any Internet-accessible computer and submit their resumes to participating companies of interest at all times, while enabling local, regional and international employers to establish an active talent-seeking presence through a customized, branded virtual `Booth’, without having to physically be in a location.The Virtual Job Fair is completely free to jobseekers, and employers are free to select from a variety of sponsorship opportunities all of which are priced significantly below the price of a regular brick-and-mortar career fair. The primary benefits to employers are that they save the time, hassle and costs associated with event management for brick-and-mortar fairs while optimizing employer brand awareness and reaching the maximum possible audience. No need for travel expenses, printed branding collateral, physical booths, business attire and expensive give-aways . . . . employers simply divulge information pertaining to their corporate culture, recruitment requirements, objectives and policies online and receive the traffic of Job Seekers interested in their particular jobs and employer brand. Cost reductions for employers vis- -vis traditional job fairs are estimated at a minimum of 50%.To jobseekers the benefits of the Virtual Job Fair are also manifold. First and foremost they have the opportunity to interact real-time with a variety of top employers looking to fill hot current jobs and ask questions and enquire about positions. Secondly, they can maintain full confidentiality as unlike the case with brick-and-mortar job fairs, no-one can actually discern their `attendance’ at the fair and their existing positions are therefore in no way compromised. Thirdly they do not incur travel or commuting costs, jobseekers can simply log onto the Virtual Job Fair site from anywhere in the world and participate in the event’s proceedings. Fourthly they save precious time otherwise spent commuting, traveling, wandering the halls or waiting in lines in traditional fairs. Finally, jobseekers have a plethora of top jobs and employers to select from all in one convenient, easy-to-access location.

Other features of the innovative virtual job fair include a CV drop option for job seekers to directly submit their CV to the booths of their choice and directly apply for advertised jobs; and an option for employers and job seekers to interact in real time via either online or video chat. In addition, a series of links will enable job seekers to connect to a directory of current vacancies in a particular company, avoiding the hassle of having to root through various job postings.

On-line recruitment has made tremendous in-roads in the Middle East in the 8 years since Bayt.com more or less introduced the concept to the region with the first fully-functional bi-lingual Arabic-English job-site. In a recent online poll run by Bayt.com 34% of polled employers indicated they favour regional expertise and reputation over other criteria in selecting a jobsite, including costs, size of jobseeker databases and size of employer databases. Bayt.com’s unparalleled regional commitment, expertise and track record in addition to its pioneering platform, award-wining technologies and leading databases have contributed to the jobsite’s tremendous and unrivalled success since inception. The Bayt.com Virtual Job Fair promises to be another coup in the winning streak this pioneering company has enjoyed and a landmark event in Middle East HR history.

Steve Siebold once said: The great managers and leaders of the future will know more about their people than ever before. They’ll know their emotional hot buttons as well as the essence of what makes them tick. Through facilitated introspection, these leaders will create a competitive immunity for their companies by reigniting the flame of loyalty that burns within their people.Moreover, Herb Kelleher, CEO, Southwest Airlines famously states, An organization bound by love is more powerful than one bound by fear. So what drives employee loyalty in business and how loyal is the workforce in the
Middle East today?

With the economies across the Middle East either booming or improving, and more opportunities opening up, the temptation for employees to transition to new opportunities could become strong. What safety nets do organizations have in place to prevent workers from straying? Keeping the lines of communication open and promoting a culture of mutual respect and loyalty could be the glue that reduces turnover and helps keeps the workforce in place.

According to the last HR Research Study Employee Loyalty in the Middle East™, conducted by the Middle East’s #1 job site and leading HR consultancy Bayt.com in conjunction with YouGovSiraj in March 2008, employee loyalty is closely tied to employee satisfaction and overall where employee satisfaction is high so is loyalty. Another key finding from this survey reveals employee happiness has a direct impact on loyalty and productivity, job turnover and economic growth for businesses. Of those who are satisfied with their current employers, 93% feel fully engaged in their work and 92% feel motivated to perform well. Teamwork, effective communication & interaction with the line manager scored high in terms of satisfaction levels across the region. However rewards, training opportunities and career development opportunities scored lower with the incidence of dissatisfaction almost as high as the incidence of satisfaction in these categories. Overall, 80% of employees across the region indicated I feel fully engaged in what I do with 76% indicating I feel committed to the organisation for which I currently work, 74% indicating I feel motivated to perform well in the work I do and 74% agreeing I would speak highly to people outside the organisation about my organisations products/services/brands.

What came out very strongly in the HR survey is that an employee’s satisfaction and loyalty to their work and organization are very closely tied to various factors including perceptions of the management, training and recognition, performance measurement, team work and working environment to name a few. These in turn strongly impact retention, the stability of the organisational environment and the stability, productivity and welfare of the economy as a whole. Given this, employers should try to work towards greater levels of satisfaction and loyalty by working on each of these individual factors.

Given a good working environment and enough career development and enhancement opportunities, this survey as well as extensive previous polling exercises run on the Bayt.com website indicate that employees may not necessarily be looking for a company that pays them top dollar in order to stay and maintain lucrative loyalty levels.

Are salaries in the Middle East keeping up with inflation? According to the January 2008 release of the quarterly Consumer Confidence Index Study conducted by the Middle East’s #1 job site Bayt.com and market research specialists YouGovSiraj, they have emphatically not. 61% of respondents to the extensive survey which spanned both employers and jobseekers in the GCC, North Africa and the Levant indicated that salaries did not keep pace with the cost of living compared to their situation last year. These countries were led by Jordan and Syria where 79% and 70% of respondents indicated that salaries had not kept pace with the cost of living and only 2% and 3% indicated it had. In the GCC, Kuwait led the countries suffering from perceived erosion of real income with 67% of respondents indicating salaries had not kept up with inflation followed by KSA at 65% and Qatar at 56%. The UAE registered the most upside with 11% of UAE residents indicating that their salaries have increased more than the cost of living, 27% indicating salaries have increased commensurate with the cost of living and 51% indicating salaries have not kept pace with increases in the cost of living.

However, despite salaries not keeping pace with inflation according to the Bayt.com YouGovSiraj study, 33% of respondents around the Middle East feel their financial situation has improved since last year with a further 36% reporting it has stayed the same and only 23% claiming their financial situation has gotten worse. Kuwait led in the GCC with 40% of respondents in Kuwait asserting their financial situation has improved since last year, followed by the UAE at 35%, Qatar at 32% and KSA at 28%. Only 19% of respondents in Qatar reported that their financial situation was worse than last year vis-a-vis 20% in Kuwait, 23% in the UAE and 33% in the KSA.

When asked how they rate the current period in terms of business conditions, the optimism was again evident with 38% stating it is a `good time’ versus 20% selecting it is a `bad time’. The optimism was most evident in Qatar, the UAE and the KSA with 51%, 51% and 48% of respondents in these countries respectively stating it is a `good time’ and only 7%, 8% and 16% respectively indicating it is a `bad time’.

The robustness of the GCC employment market is well evidenced in the responses to the CCI Study with 56%, 45% and 36% of respondents in Qatar, UAE and KSA respectively stating that there are `plenty of jobs’ available versus 9%, 9%, 11% and 11% in Morocco Tunisia, Algeria and Syria responding in the affirmative to the same question. In fact in the North African countries of Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria 51%, 51% and 55% of respondents respectively indicated that there were very few jobs available.

More on salaries in the Middle East and cost of living across the region can be seen on www.bayt.com in the Bayt.com YouGovSiraj Human Resource Overview 2008.

What colour is my parachute is a question many a talented jobseeker in the booming GCC market is asking him/herself as the regional job market continues to boom, employment opportunities abound and key employers continue to vie for top talent across industry and geographic lines.In this era of high opportunity and flux, regional employers are largely aligned on the need to actively and creatively engage their talent to maximize retention and dampen volatility and attrition rates.

To what extent have regional employers been successful in raising engagement levels amongst their employees? A recent poll on Bayt.com, the
Middle Easts #1 job site indicated that a surprising 63% of respondents considered themselves fully engaged in their jobs and another 17% considered themselves moderately engaged.Only 20% considered themselves not at all engaged or actually hated their job.Interestingly when we asked employers what percentage of their staff they considered to be fully engaged in their jobs over 27% responded that over 61% were; 24% responded 41-60%; 21% responded 21-40% and 27% responded 1-20%.

Probing deeper, Bayt.comasked jobseekers what factors would cause them to become more engaged at work and learnt that higher salaries (28% of the vote) followed very closely by more training and development opportunities (27% of the vote) and following that by better management (25% of the vote)were the key determining factors.When employers were asked in parallel what factors they think would cause their staff to become more engaged in their jobs, the majority, 37%, interestingly selected better management as being the key factor, followed by better salaries at 30% and more training and development opportunities at 20%.

However when we asked jobseekers the question What factor most causes you to be disengaged at work? the answers were somewhat different.The overwhelming majority, 52% indicated poor management followed by 27% indicating low salary and only 4% indicating poor training.Long hours were chosen by over 6% of the jobseekers as the factor that most contributes to their disengagement and the long commute to work by as many as 3% of the 2,900 jobseekers polled.

While the polls evidenced that employers are not too far off the mark in gauging the level of employee engagement in their organisation, it appears that they do not fully understand the factors that drive engagement.The remedy employers favored with disengaged staff according to the Bayt.comemployer poll is indicative of this disconnect.38% of employers favour giving employees clearer job roles and responsibilities and 17% favour sending them to external coaches while 15% favour mentoring them internally.Only 13% favour giving them added salary albeit with added responsibilities and a minority of 7% favour firing them.

An increasing number of employers across the Middle East are turning to the Internet for their human resource requirements, according to a new poll by Bayt.com, the
Middle Eastâ’s number one job site.

The Bayt.compoll, conducted throughout November and December 2007, attracted respondents who answered five basic questions regarding their recruitment procedures. When asked what method was employed to source professional candidates, 63 per cent said online job sites, while newspapers came in at a distant second with only 15 per cent.Approximately 6% of employers still rely on networking/ word of mouth to source the bulk of their professional candidates.

Online search tools have been developed extensively over recent years, an advance which has enabled employers to swiftly and effectively meet their specific criteria when searching for potential candidates. I believe this is why we are seeing a surge of interest in the field of online recruitment, said Rabea Ataya, CEO, Bayt.com. Employers and human resources departments are increasingly demanding a system that is both time-effective and user-friendly to meet their recruiting requirements. They are now able to fulfil their requirements online from the comfort and convenience of their own offices while enjoying the confidentiality and control the online process allows.

Some 75 per cent of respondents said they believed that Internet recruitment was faster than traditional methods with 42% of respondents indicating that internet recruitment has speeded up their recruitment activities by as much as 81-100% .

Thirty seven per cent of those polled believed the biggest advantage of online recruitment was the speed of the whole process, while 16.3 per cent credited its ease of use.

The results showed that there was an overall feeling that online recruitment provided a complete and timely solution. Many of those polled credited the size of the jobseeker database as another reason to search online, while others were pleased with the disintermediation and the control it allowed.

When asked what employers looked for when choosing an online jobsite, 33.8 per cent cited regional expertise and reputation to be a priority, while 20 per cent looked at the quality and quantity of the regional employers already listed on the site. These statistics bode very well for the specialized regional job sites such as Bayt.com which have firmly committed themselves to maintaining a specialized regional platform and to remaining unequivocally from the region and for the region.Bayt.comis the first and largest Arabic-English bi-lingual jobsite in the region and prides itself on the depth and breadth of its regional resources and databases as well as its pioneering state-of-the-art technologies.

The prevailing wisdom is that around this time of year, important books have been closed, critical decisions have already been made or deferred to the New Year, key people are already on holiday or planning their prolonged winter hiatus and hiring activity, in solidarity with the weather, is at a freeze.

Little could be further from the truth this holiday season in booming Middle East economies, particularly around the GCC, where hiring managers are recruiting aggressively and appetite for talent is at fever pitch. With newly released regional macro-economic indicators all pointing in favor of sustained growth, consumer confidence levels robust and expectations for increased job creation next year high (please see Bayt.com October Consumer Confidence Index Survey), regional corporations are busy recruiting for the growth ahead. Talent crunches in several key sectors have made recruiters even more vigilant than usual at this time of year and recently released statistics on cost increases and salary hikes across the region have augmented this vigilance as staff engagement and retention challenges are heightened against a backdrop of escalating costs. The Bayt.com Executive Search team have attested that there has been no dip in hiring activity or deferment of hiring decisions this year-end and the current on-line jobs posted on www.bayt.com, the Middle East’s #1 job site are at record highs.

For jobseekers this means this year-end is a perfect time to roll back their sleeves and perfect their on-line CVS. There is generally less competition for jobs at year-end as many jobseekers wait for the New Year or occupy themselves with holiday planning activities and HR departments as well as hiring managers often have more time to meet with candidates as the general pace of activity slows down towards year-end. Moreover, many employers have budget surpluses for headcount at year-end which they may prefer not to defer till the next year which creates ample opportunities for appropriate talent.

Fortunately the New Year looks as promising as 2007 in terms of job creation and employment opportunities in the Middle East and if you are a skilled professional in any of the fields in much demand currently, including IT, financial services, hospitality and engineering, this December is a great time to get a head start in your job search and set yourself apart from the fray.

Once again, a recent poll run by Bayt.com, the Middle East’s #1 job site, which received 3,376 votes in November 2007, showed that `opportunities for growth and advancement’ by far outweighed `higher pay’ as an incentive to join a new job. 41.5% of respondents voted that opportunities for growth and advancement were more important to them as a motivator to join a new job than `higher pay’ which received 29.5% of the vote, `a better company’ which received 11.8% of the vote, `a more interesting job description’ and `a better position’ which both received 7.1% of the vote, and `flexible hours’ which only received 3% of the vote. Clearly immediate pay considerations are secondary to career development potential for today’s professionals and interestingly company quality considerations are more important than position considerations probably also lending support to the theory that professionals are taking a longer-term perspective to their career development.

In a related poll, where we asked respondents what the most important aspect they look for in a job is, the overwhelming majority (59%) cited `opportunities for growth and development’ far exceeding `well defined roles and responsibilities’, `friendly team’, `pleasant environment’, `cordial and professional boss’ and `proximity to home’ as deciding factors. Interestingly, `friendly team’ at 8.8% received exactly double the votes of `cordial and professional boss’ at 4.4%. A third poll asking employees what their favorite part of the work day was, saw `working on important projects’ receiving 52.5% of the votes followed by `meeting with clients’ at 16.7%, `meeting with team’ at 14.4%. `meeting with boss’ at 4.1% and `the daily repetitive tasks’ scoring the lowest popularity at 3.7%.

Another poll of 3,884 professionals also run in November 2007 indicated that almost 32% of candidates still see themselves staying with a company indefinitely while only 17% of respondents hope to stay with a company 2 years or less. 19% of respondents hope to stay in a job for a maximum length of time of 3-4 years and another 16% hope to stay with a company a maximum of 5 years. Interestingly the Bayt.com January 2007 Salary Survey revealed that the average length of time holding a job in the polled countries ranged from 4.7 years in the UAE to 5.8 years in Kuwait and Bahrain yet in the past 5 years most people have changed jobs at least once with the average number of jobs held in the past 5 years ranging from 2 in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain to 2.3 in Kuwait and 2.4 in Qatar.