Jobs galore: Mena companies gear up for more hiring in 2017

Dubai - LinkedIn's Mena Recruiting Trends 2017 report indicates that talent acquisition will continue to be a key priority for Mena companies in 2017

A majority of corporate talent acquisition leaders across the Middle East and North Africa region (Mena) have revealed that they are preparing for an increase in hiring volume, and that jobs pertaining to operations, sales, and engineering will be the highest priority roles to fill in 2017.
LinkedIn's Mena Recruiting Trends 2017 report indicates that talent acquisition will continue to be a key priority for Mena companies in 2017. According to the report that took into account the survey responses of over 170 corporate talent acquisition leaders across Mena, over 81 per cent of talent leaders feel that talent is the number one priority in their organisation and in 2017 this will gain even more prominence.
While over 60 per cent of the surveyed teams say that they will be witnessing an increase in hiring, 29 per cent feel that it will decrease, and 11 per cent feel budgets and recruiting team headcounts will stay flat.
"The recruiting organisation is not the flashiest department; it doesn't directly bring in revenue or create game-changing products. Yet, it is the quiet enabler behind company successes and this has not gone unnoticed. In recent years, talent and HR leaders in Mena have gained a prominent spot on the C-suite table, driving decisions about the future of the company. Talent leaders feel confident that their department is helping define the future of their company," said Ali Matar, head of LinkedIn Talent Solutions for growth markets, Southern Europe, Middle East, and North Africa.
"The demand for operations, sales and engineering talent is so prevalent that recruiting teams in Mena have to start thinking more strategically about how to find and recruit these talent pools. Relying on data to pinpoint locations where the supply of talent is higher than the demand is a crucial first step. Another successful tactic is targeting each of these functions with highly customised employer branding content," added Matar.
According to LinkedIn's research, Mena business will continue to use social professional networks such as LinkedIn to identify and hire new talent, further strengthening the reign of social media. Since referred employees are faster to hire, perform better, and stay longer in the company, employee referrals as well as third-party website/online job boards will continue to be used to facilitate better hiring.
Despite talent leaders sharing that employee referrals are one of the top sources of quality hires, most of them barely invest in building out a strong referral program. Also, the report found that 22 per cent of hiring teams will continue to invest their budgets in job postings and recruitment agencies in 2017.
In addition, if money weren't a constraint, talent leaders would invest in employer branding and training for recruiters; almost 52 per cent say they would prioritise investing in long-term strategic plays like employer branding; 51 per cent would invest in upskilling their team, and 37 per cent would look at new technologies instead of some of the short-term needs that they currently resource.
Automation, customer relationship management tools for recruiting, and soft skills assessments that predict job success are the top trends that will shape the recruiting industry in the next few years. Given that recruiters report limited headcount and budget, while hiring demands are growing, automation is top of mind for the industry with 38 per cent of companies considering innovative interviewing tools for hiring, followed by customer relationship management tools at 36 per cent.
- rohma@khaleejtimes.com