DEFINICION DEL PROYECTO.

Emiratisation policy and bridging the talent shortage

Emirati citizens are well-aware and often uneasy about the heavy reliance on foreign companies and expatriates within all sectors of the UAE economy. The UAE government proactively responded to promote and support the UAE citizens‘ national interests in view of the turmoil sweeping across the Arab

World. The government shrewdly introduced the Emiratisation policy to address the growing demographic imbalance in the labour market. There has been a

rapid growth in the number of UAE companies in recent years and there has been a greater amount of investment in the training and development of local citizens (Mohammad, ). Nationals are thought of as important assets for the development of the UAE economy; however, the continued economic growth has been heavily reliant upon a multi-cultural foreign workforce (Nadkarni and Stuart, ). It has been argued that a large number of UAE nationals have remained unemployed and so the new Emiratisation policy, introduced in the early s in both private and public sectors, was established

to counter a perceived imbalance within the workplace (Alabdelkarim et al, ). Developed by the UAE Council of Ministers since the s, the

Emiratisation process has sought to overcome any structural constraints that hampered the employment of the citizens of the UAE, as well as addressing any social issues that have become apparent as Emiratis entered the labour market (Elbanna, ). One key objective for the Emiratisation policy has been the provision of work opportunities to larger numbers of local citizens. The term ‗Emiratisation‘ is more apparent within the public sector than the private sector;

however recent government laws have sought to address this issue as well. Employers were found to have a lack of trust in the level of work readiness of UAE nationals. It was also shown that national workers have a tendency to perceive that the private sector has lower wages and fewer career type opportunities (Fox and Al Shamisi, ). So that Emiratisation policy can further help in the achievement of the UAE government vision and strategies, there needs to be a concerted effort to ensure it is implemented within the private sector, with private sector organisations being considered as major partners within the HRD of the Emirati state (Gurel et al., ).

The rationale for the policy of Emiratisation

In light of the difficulties of bringing about a reduction in the need for foreign workers, or the curbing of foreign manpower, an alternative approach is to enable national citizens to upgrade their skills so that they have a competitive edge within the job market (Harrison and Michailova, ). In accordance with

the government strategy of the UAE that was launched in April , companies established committees and teams to study, develop and implement a series of actions tailored for support for Emiratisation with the objective of having a qualified local workforce filling a variety of posts within the majority of sectors (Marmenout and Lirio, ). In launching the UAE Federal Government Strategy, His Highness (H.H.) Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice President of UAE and the Ruler and Prime Minister of Dubai, stated that a major factor for the UAE strategies would be a focus on achieving “sustainable and balanced development and a high quality of life for all UAE nationals” (Sheikh Mohammed, ).

With the launch of this strategy, great pressure has been brought to bear so that the UAE economic and political system would produce much larger numbers of Emiratis with the ability, readiness and willingness to engage in the job market (Modarress, et al., ). Ozbilgin et al., ( ) indicate that a number of institutions in the UAE have begun to research HRD issues in a variety of fields, such as employee development, labour relations, employment and market research. Key roles are being played by the National Human Resources Development and Employment Authority (TANMIA) and the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs in preparing Emirati citizens with opportunities for training and

development and, ultimately, employment, within both the private and public sectors (Rindermann et al., ; Spraggon et al., ).

Toledo ( ) has highlighted various examples of the services and schemes

that are run by TANMIA as follows:

. Advice and guidance: Local people are helped to make decisions related to

their careers through the provision of information about various alternative jobs. As such, local people are helped to make plans for the achievement of their personal goals.

. Skill development: Provision of help to Emiratis in developing the

necessary, basic skills that can help them obtain work, such as job search approaches, refining a CV and techniques to help prepare for interviews. . Identification of alternatives: Alternative opportunities such as further

education and training are explored to help give local people a range of options for their personal and career development.

. Raising awareness: A range of tools and information are imparted to

nationals of the UAE so that they can be empowered to make informed choices about their working and personal lives. Examples of assistance to help raise citizen awareness are careers library orientation programmes, summer work experience opportunities, shadowing workers in a field that interests them, occupational seminars, personal interviews and employment workshops.

The Emiratisation policy was initially welcomed as its aims were perceived as revolutionary in attempting to bring about radical change to business, employment and the economy, in general, whilst simultaneously reassuring

citizens about the future stability of the country (Vassilopoulou et al., ). However, some did consider the policy of Emiratisation as political rhetoric that was unrealistic and ill-timed (Williams et al., ). Others argued that the supposed imbalance in the workforce was partly due to Emiratis being unwilling or unqualified to do certain jobs. Overall, the policy has been considered a failure thus far (Alabdelkarim et al., ). In essence Emiratisation was implicitly and explicitly designed to protect the Emirati citizens‘ interests through

developing, training and recruiting UAE nationals to reduce unemployment and curb the country‘s dependence on an expatriate workforce (Abed, Vine, & Vine, ; Dale, ; Ingo, ). As a result the government set a Tanmia project

to specifically address Emiratisation issues by creating job opportunities for the national workforce in partnership with both public and private sectors, and addressing the talent shortage of the national workforce through the provision of learning and development interventions and resources (Tanmia, ). However, putting Emiratisation policy into practice implies restricting much of the current labour market forces to create knowledge based jobs that young Emiratis want. This is not likely to happen soon. Reducing UAE dependence on a foreign work force could lead to instability because many expatriates are working in jobs which the Emiratis simply would not do.

Potential reasons for the skills shortage in the UAE

. The motto of the majority of organisations in the UAE is ‗make profit as you go‟. There is little concern or no agenda nor strategy for people

. Management styles and approaches to people management are

predominantly traditional and as the majority of the employees in most organisations are expatriates who are employed a contract basis they are considered easily replaceable.

. The UAE economic boom is exceeding the rate of production of talent. . There is a lack of skilled and talented professionals at both the bottom

and the top of organisations (Chadee et al., ).

. All industries, especially the service sector, operates almost exclusively

with foreign manpower simply because Emirati nationals refuse to work in such labour intensive sectors.

. As there are no incentives for development, many organisations are

undermined by employee retention issues, with poaching of employees a common occurrence.