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Middle East Enterprises: Need for the Great HR Digital Revolution

If IT spending is an indication of the digitisation of an economy, then the Middle East is rising forward towards a digital revolution. Gartner predicts that the IT spending in the MENA region is set to reach $171.3 billion in 2022, as businesses continue to fast-track their digitisation efforts. Many countries in the region have set mandates to create digital economies by 2030. While this might be a global phenomenon, it is important to understand how some of the unique demands of the region are dictating this revolution.

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Here are key factors driving the digital transformation in the region:

Workforce on the go

The workforce in the Middle East is highly diverse and distributed by virtue of varied nationalities, business models, sectors. In addition to it with the pandemic-induced “work from home”, grey cubicles have become a thing of the past. The region has one of the highest smartphone penetrations, a majority of the workforce is adept with mobile phones. For this young, tech-savvy workforce, ease of access and flexibility is the topmost priority in their flow of work. Additionally, the workforce here also prefers remote and hybrid working on-site. Given this context, a seamless HRMS that provides a stellar mobile-first experience and seamlessly integrates with other work apps to become a “super app” goes a long way in reducing friction between your workforce and technology.

Enhancing Employee Experience

There is a paradigm shift in the way employees view their work. Employees are expecting much more value from their work and are seeking purpose-driven work. For organisations, keeping their employees engaged is not optional, experience is at the core of everything. Be it tools for collaboration or communication, career development or upskilling, engagement, and well-being organisations are heavily leaning to HR Tech to support them. Organisations are leveraging on technology to give their employees a holistic, “employee life experience.”

There is ongoing technology innovation to include AI and ML capabilities that allow organisations to create personalized experiences, get predictive insights, increase engagement and motivation for your digital, distributed workforce. Innovations such as Voicebot, facial recognition-based touchless attendance – too are critical in enhancing EX, especially in the post-pandemic workplace.

Scaling your biggest asset — Talent

In today’s dynamic world of work, workforces need to constantly keep upgrading themselves and embrace newer opportunities. The onus also for all organisations to upskill their biggest asset, and the gains are manifold – from increased employee engagement to longer tenure.

There is great emphasis on hiring local talent and upskilling this workforce to be ready for digital transformation. Organisations are investing in a comprehensive HRMS that allows them to personalise learning through AI-based recommendations, gamify the experience while identifying and building competencies for their employees so their employee career progression is unhindered.

Like many other parts of the world, the need for digital transformation is not in the future for the Middle East, the need is in the now. Hence, organisations are prioritising investing and adapting HR technology that not only adds efficiency to their processes but empowers their people to reach their highest and most productive potential.

Darwinbox is the official Digital HR Partner at the Khaleej Times Hybrid Workforce Summit

Chaitanya Peddi is a Co- Founder of Darwinbox