E-recruitment increases employment opportunities for UAE nationals

Online recruiting offers choice, speed, and cost-effectiveness, which are essential to effectively manage the drive to localise.

Across the region, government organisations and corporate customers with requirements for GCC nationals are turning to Bayt.com for their recruitment needs. One such employer in the UAE is HSBC, a global brand in the financial industry.

Mr Fouad Shaiban, HR manager of HSBC in UAE, said: "The minimum target for the banking industry in the UAE is four per cent but HSBC has increased its own target to eight per cent for this year. It is an existing, long-term objective to increase the number of Arab nationals, and Bayt.com is one of our main resources for reaching that target. Bayt.com offers a large database from which we can easily filter and find the right candidates."

In the Saudi market, where legally mandated Saudisation rates are as high as 75 per cent, Bayt.com is successfully assisting hundreds of leading Saudi employers in the placement of Saudi nationals. One example is the National Commercial Bank, the leading bank in the region, which has used Bayt.com's technology to attract and recruit top Saudi talent since 2003. More than 20,000 Saudi nationals have applied to NCB jobs using Bayt.com's career engine during this timeframe.

The growing rate of Internet penetration in homes and offices is one reason why the e-recruitment platform has developed as an indispensable human resource tool. Bayt.com has a massive database of more than 970,000 professionals, over 10,000 corporate clients and is still rapidly growing.

Bayt.com is also proactive in targeting and encouraging the registration of GCC nationals through grassroots campaigns. These have included university outreach programmes, on-campus presentations, and participation in local careers and training events.

One such initiative is the Graduate Recruitment Opportunities Website - GROW, with Zayed University. The recruitment website was created exclusively to match Zayed University UAE national graduates with employers looking to hire high calibre university-educated female nationals. The project is a success with more than 1,200 registrations to-date.

Bayt.com is attractive to national jobseekers, according to CEO Rabea Ataya. "Online recruiting appeals to the cultural sensibilities of the region. For men, Bayt.com provides an avenue to market one's skills while maintaining confidentiality. For women, Bayt.com offers the ability to find a potential job and communicate with an employer from the privacy of the home. For regional employers, Bayt.com offers a database of more than 65,000 GCC nationals who are easily accessible and searchable."

The 19 filter criteria which form part of Bayt.com's proprietary online search tool enable employers to search and filter resumes for specific job requirements. Therefore recruiting time and cost efficiencies are greatly increased.

According to Ms. Marie Francoise Lauga, the Abu Dhabi Retirement Pensions and Benefits Fund's HR Manager: "Through Bayt.com, recently we were able to hire a UAE national for one of our major positions here at the Fund. Hiring through Bayt.com has proven to be fast and cost effective due to the search and filtering tools which make it possible to find the right talent immediately."