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The fast-paced business landscape brings many HR challenges for companies headquartered in
Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
The
HR & Salary Report 2015
reveals that
increasing workforce productivity is the biggest challenge
faced by HR departments.
Rising infrastructure projects are creating a ripple effect across multiple
industries as numerous planned projects come into operation.
Advice on effective ways to meet challenges ahead, for example by selecting and hiring qualified
staff, as well as retaining key talent and succession planning, will be provided on the following
pages.
HR management challenges
Increasing workforce productivity
Driving culture and behavioral change in the organisation
Succession planning
Retaining key talent
Building leadership capability
Acquiring key talent
Encouraging organisational innovation
30%
24%
23%
19%
16%
15%
14%
HR management challenges
(Multiple answers were permitted)
Unsatisfactory cooperation with headquarters
was cited by 44 per cent of respondents, and this is
directly related to the challenge of driving cultural and behavioural change in the organisation (24
per cent). The specific country conditions where subsidiaries are located, such as the UAE, are often
not taken into account in headquarters’ operations, which leads to
25 per cent of HR
decision-makers requesting more independence
from the head office.
The very fact that
only 20 per cent of the questioned HR decision-makers emphasised the im-
portance of personnel development
in their work underlines its subordinate role in the UAE. It is
therefore no surprise that developing leadership capabilities turned out to be among the biggest
challenges (16 per cent).
Hiring qualified personnel appears to be one of the biggest challenges in the UAE. Even though the
employment market is stable, it is also highly competitive among GSA companies. In addition to
focusing on the organisation‘s core competencies, it is necessary for the management to select and
hire the right workforce in order to respond effectively to current market conditions. The research
indicates that HR managers face considerable challenges in hiring personnel in a diverse market
such as the UAE, where employees‘ qualification levels are not comparable to Germany, Switzerland
or Austria. Employers need to better understand and compare the qualification levels of different
countries and different education and training systems.
Selecting and hiring qualified personnel
Limited availability of qualified staff
Budget
Recruiting capacities
Unforeseen economic conditions
Government / Visa regulations
45%
23%
15%
10%
7%
Most challenging factors in hiring personnel
A significantly high number of respondents (47 per cent) say that the
salary budget at their dispo-
sal does not allow them to take appropriate HR decisions
. The situation is complex: experienced
staff members, who have a solid knowledge base in their field as well as a deep understanding of
the local market, demand a higher price on the market. Due to the relatively small number of emplo-
yees in German-language subsidiaries in the UAE, tasks and responsibilities are assigned to a small
number of people. Therefore, companies require employees with an open mindset and “all-round
skills” to manage various tasks and responsibilities at the same time.
As HR departments often remain located in the headquarters, many companies have no capacity
to take on time-consuming HR work. Fifteen per cent of HR decision-makers surveyed indicated
that
limited recruitment capacities
are one of the most challenging factors when it comes to hiring
staff. For instance, the resources required to conduct the selection and pre-qualification stages for
the often high numbers of candidates, as well as employing supporting measures such as active
sourcing, exceed local capacities.
HR & Salary Report 2015