Page 221 - Aamir Rehman - Dubai & Co Global Strategies for Doing Business in the Gulf States-McGraw-Hill (2007)

Building Your Team: Human Capital Strategies for the GCC 203

members and institutional salespeople can be crucial for
understanding the best way to approach clients and to close major
deals. With regulators, they communicate your firm’s sense of
commitment and belonging. 24
A few years ago, I met with a prominent UAE national (from
Dubai) who was a lifelong employee of a major multinational
corporation. Having reached a very senior role, much of his work
involved interfacing with public officials and external stakeholders,
representing the multinational on public initiatives. As Dubai was
booming and opportunities for senior executives like him were
both abundant and lucrative, I asked him privately why he was still
with the multinational. The firm, he replied, “was my school. When
I came to work here [decades ago] I could not read or write. The
[firm] taught me.” This senior local felt a great deal of loyalty to the
company that had shown its loyalty to him. This loyalty was a huge
asset and testament to the firm’s local commitment.
One challenge for global firms regarding their local staff, is
that of ensuring they acquire adequate global exposure. Unlike
expatriates who transfer to the GCC from other offices, local staff
usually do not have much experience working abroad. Receiving
training in the firm’s global standards and norms is essential. Also,
for high-potential hires, rotational exposure to other offices can be
tremendously valuable. This exposure will allow them to experi-
ence international practices firsthand, for application in their home
market later on. And unlike rotational programs for high-potential
staff from other emerging markets, GCC-country nationals are far
less likely to switch to another employer in order to stay in the
OECD market they rotate through—their quality-of-life and career
prospects at home are usually too promising to pass up.
The most difficult aspect of local hiring, as mentioned before,
is finding and attracting locals to join multinational firms. Local
educational facilities have been of variable quality, but recent initia-
tives such as Dubai’s Knowledge Village and Qatar’s Education
City are increasingly bringing world-class academic institutions
into the region. These ventures bode well for the medium and long
terms, but are less helpful immediately. Multinationals must also
compete with public-sector jobs, which tend to offer significantly
lighter hours and more days off per year. Public-sector jobs
promise stability and pensions that few multinationals want to