Middle East human resources strategies 'imperative'

"The global economic crisis may ease the bottleneck of available overseas talent for organisations and companies in the region, but effective human resource strategies are now an imperative, not a choice," said Michelle Boyd, Executive Conference Director for the Middle East HR Summit which takes place at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Dubai, from 26-30 October.

"There are remarkable opportunities in this part of the world and the region can potentially benefit from the global financial crisis which is resulting in thousands of people being laid off in other parts of the world. However, those dynamics will take time to trickle down and experienced, qualified personnel are still much sought after and a real skills deficit will prevail for the short to medium term,"

she added.

The Middle East and North Africa needs to create 54 million jobs over the next 15 years, according to the World Bank.

To create these jobs, the region has to maintain average annual GDP growth rates of 6-8% between now and 2020, whatever the world economic climate, heaping even more pressure on regional human resource professionals.

A key driver is the growing diversification away from oil for Arabian Gulf economies.

But, according to the International Labour Organisation, in spite of massive regional growth, productivity in the GCC actually fell in the non-oil sector between 1997 and 2007.

"Senior decision makers who understand the value of human capital and will be taking part in the Middle East HR Summit to ensure they are armed with the latest thinking on meeting the enormous challenges faced in the region. It's now not just a question of recruiting suitable applicants, it's also an issue of motivating those already employed to perform more effectively," said Boyd.

The five day Summit programme features a Guru Day, plenary sessions each morning and specialist streams on the key themes of talent management, performance management and reward management each afternoon.

There will also be Summit Master Classes tackling topical HR issues such as emotional intelligence, employee relations and situational leadership.

In addition, there will be a Middle East HR Summit Excellence Awards gala dinner to honour outstanding achievements in the management and development of human capital.

The awards will be for Outstanding Contribution to HR, HR Professional of the Year, Young HR Professional of the Year, HR Initiative of the Year, and Employer of the Year.

Industry bodies providing sponsorship for this year's Middle East HR Summit include FranklinCovey Middle East as diamond sponsor and the Hay Group as platinum sponsor.

Premium recruitment sponsors are MonsterGulf.com. Gold sponsors are Leadership Training and Consultancy, Forum, and Zurich International Life.

Silver sponsors are Recruitgulf.com, Ascent, Stanton Chase International, Naukri.com, Jerry Varghese, Careertunity.com and Focus Learning.

Precision Employment Services are also a sponsor.

The awards are sponsored by the Society for Human Resource Management, Hay Group and SHL Group.