Definitive Guide to HR Jobs in the Middle East

Name: Nitin Sanker
Is the CEO of Middle Earth, a graduate of IIM Calcutta and IIT Roorkee ( ertstwhile Univ of Roorkee ), has been a HR evangelist for the last 30 years and has been working , consulting and teaching HR in the Gulf for the last 30 years, has been awarded for Outstanding contribution to Global HR as well the HR champion award from leading global organizations.

This article is meant to help HR professionals especially Expats who look at making a career in Middle east in the field of HR, what competencies to focus on, how to progress in your career and what to make of issues like nationalization and job loss due to corona

It was year 1993, I was going for the first time abroad to do a job so I was very excited, my company NIIT had tied up with a large diversified group of Bahrain, The Almoayyed Group and I was being sent for 6 months to help them set up their International training center, I was responsible for Recruiting, set up training standards and also to ensure that the functioning was in line with NIIT standards, it was a great experience firsthand of HR in the Middle east. At that time HR was of a pretty low standard primarily focuses on administration but I have seen it evolve over these years to a vibrant and important function. It has been a great learning journey. I have been working off and on continuously in Middle East for the last 27 years, sometimes conducting training programs for HR professionals, sometimes consulting for companies there, Middle earth did set up FZE office in Dubai around 6 years ago and that only tightened my bonds with the Gulf.

This blog will focus on 3 aspects

Understanding how HR Jobs are in The gulf
Help understand where are jobs easily available in HR for Expats
Discuss What competencies and qualifications would help you get and build a career in the Gulf

1. Understanding how HR jobs work in the gulf

HR in the gulf can be divided into the 4 sub verticals

Expats have been a large part of the workforce in the gulf countries as per the statistics you can see that a large percentage of jobs especially in countries like Qatar and UAE have been held by Expats

But in recent time in the gulf region there has been a movement towards nationalization of certain job functions in HR so that expats are not available to take up some of the jobs. These programs are formally defined as “a multi-level process through which dependency on the expatriate labor force is reduced and nationals are prepared to take up jobs performed by expatriates” Such an initiative (i.e., Emritization, Saudization, Omanization, Kuwaitization, Qatarization, Bahrainizisation, etc.) is linked to long-term national strategies and visions such as Bahrain 2030 Vision, the National Saudisation Policy, Qatar Vision 2030, Oman Five-Year Strategic Plan, Kuwait Development Plan and UAE Strategy 2011–2021 all emphasizing on human development. Let us look at some of the nationalization areas with regards to HR.

Country	Nationalization Policy guidelines	Govt position stated in
Saudi Arabia	HR manager , Recruitment Clerk , Personnel specialist , personnel clerk , attendance clerk , staff affairs clerk to be held by nationals only	Unified guidelines of the Nitaqat Program of the Govt of Suadi Arabia
Kuwait	100% of jobs in energy and Govt jobs to be reserved for nationals	Guidelines by the Kuwait govt
Oman	HR director , Training Director and Personnel director and all admin and clerical jobs in HR jobs are reserved for Omani Nationals	Ministry of manpower guidelines as per the Ministry of Manpower
UAE	MOHRE decided that all construction facilities with a workforce of 500 or more employees must appoint at least one Emirati occupational health and safety officer from 2017.	MOHRE guidelines

The gist of the situations current and future seem to suggest that for Expat they need to move away from HR clerical and admin jobs and upskill to higher end HR competencies. And the earlier they do it the better

2. Help understand where are jobs easily available in HR for Expats

From the previous discussion it is clear that standard administration, clerical and basic managerial jobs will not cut it in the middle east for expats as these jobs will be nationalized and they may need to more specialized functional aspects if they would like to build a career in the region. This diagram gives a quick glimpse of areas available

1. Learning and development ( L&D and Training related jobs ) -
with nationalization and a need to upskill there are plenty of jobs in L&D , the best jobs are in curriculum and ID designing , as a Master Trainer or as an L&D manager

2. Compensation related jobs -
A highly specialized area , in the middle east with from so many nationalities this has always a very critical and well regarded area , I have seen a few examples of people doing a certification with me in India and then shifting to middle east as there is a demand gap for well training and certified compensation specialists

3. Talent management jobs -
This is always an area which has a great deal of demand in the middle east where there has been a need to carefully manage talent within companies

4. Recruitment Consultant jobs -
with a good number of recruitment firms spread out through the gulf region a common technique especially for entry to the middle east is to take up a recruitment consultant job with one of these and then possibly shift once you gain work experience

5. Hr consulting jobs -
There is a growing need for people to take up projects like writing Job descriptions for companies, creating competency maps, helping design assessment centers and leadership pipeline planning. While the skill and competencies required are similar to the above jobs , to be a Hr consultant you need to have a certain seniority and client consulting skills especially in a place like Dubai where there are many consultants

6. OD related jobs -
There is a lot of related jobs in Organisational development, these are to conduct organizational audits especially since many of the companies are following criteria laid down by the Dubai Quality Award and similar regional awards

7. Analytics -
Jobs in analytics are coming up fast as this is a growing trend with better HRMS systems coming in companies to have an analyst to manage the data to support better HR decision Making

3. What competencies and qualifications are key to build

For each HR job having strong competencies would be critical , having a good certification which supports these competencies does help you acquire to stand out and at least get an interview call . People with certifications have been shown to have a 50% better chance of getting an interview call. I believe having a strong certification in the portfolio area of your choice may be the best. I would like to present the table of certifications which I believe may be most valuable

Job Area	Qualifications and Personality	Best Certifications I Would Recommend
Recruitment	Understanding Requirements Behavioral event and motivational interviewing Using Linkedin and other social media EEOC guidelines and following them	MEHR certified global recruitment analyst Professional recruiter certification by AIRS Linkedin recruiter qualification
L&D	Competency Mapping and ROI Competency assessment Instructional design High end facilitation skills	Certified L&D Manager Certified Instructional designer Certified Master Trainer and facilitator
Talent Management	Talent analytics Workforce planning Competency Mapping	Certified Talent Management Analyst Certified L&D Manager
Analytics	Descriptive analytics Predictive analytics Hr metrics	Certified HR metrics and analytics Professional Certified Human Capital analytics and metrics professional
OD Consultant	Culture building Strategic alignment Talent Management Organizational structuring Organisational process development Organisational auditing HR auditing	Certified OD Intervention Specialist Certified OD auditor Certified Talent Management Analyst
HR Consultant	Competency mapping Writing JDs Designing assessment centers Designing performance appraisal systems	Certified performance and competency developer Certified assessment center analyst
Compensation	Creating pay plans and job grading Writing variable pay programs Salary benchmarking	Certified Compensation and Benefit Manager

So In conclusion I must state that there is growing job pressure and a high chance of job loss due to twin pressures of COVID and nationalization but it is good time to build up new competencies by focusing on key HR aspects and building competencies early so that you can build a successful career in the middle east . The earlier you start and shift the better it may be for you.