About 76 per cent of employees in the UAE have either changed jobs in the past year or are planning to do so in the next 12 months, as they seek higher salaries and better benefits, according to a new survey by Zurich Workplace Solutions and market research company YouGov.
Fifty-five per cent of respondents said higher salary packages motivated them to seek a new job, while 44 per cent wanted better employee benefits and 43 per cent sought professional development and skills growth, the survey found.
“As companies seek to attract and, importantly, retain talent in the UAE, they must accept that this is a mature job market where talent holds many of the cards,” said Sajeev Nair, senior executive officer at Zurich Workplace Solutions.
“Providing better benefits is a clear-cut way for companies to position themselves as employers of choice; yet our survey reveals that there is a mismatch in an employer’s definition of a benefit and what employees understand to be a tangible benefit.”
Statistics behind the UAE's hiring boom
The survey, conducted between September 29 and October 5, polled 2,021 respondents, of whom 1,006 are employers and 1,015 are employees.
In October, a separate study by jobs portal Bayt.com and YouGov found that 86 per cent of working professionals in the UAE have a positive career outlook for 2023.
The UAE jobs market has made a strong recovery from the coronavirus-induced slowdown, helped by the government’s fiscal and monetary measures.
The UAE, the Arab world’s second-largest economy, has undertaken several economic, legal and social reforms over the years to strengthen its business environment, increase foreign direct investment, attract skilled workers with new visas and provide incentives to companies to set up or expand their operations.
“The environment is now fertile for employers to capitalise and act to make the UAE a net importer of talent and net exporter of knowledge work,” Mr Nair said.
About 52 per cent of employers believe they are facing a talent shortage — with sales and marketing, and data science facing the biggest shortfall — indicating that organisations must readdress the benefits they are offering, the Zurich Workplace Solutions survey said.
However, 89 per cent of employees said they would switch jobs for the same pay if better benefits were on offer.
“The report demonstrates that workplace savings, unemployment insurance and education allowances are among the employee benefits most highly valued by employees,” the survey said.
In March, the Dubai government announced that non-Emirati employees working in government and the public sector can join a new savings pension plan.
The Dubai government savings scheme will offer expatriate employees a choice of capital protection investment plans, including Sharia-compliant options.
The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) was the first entity in the UAE to set up a gratuity system when it introduced the DIFC Employee Workplace Savings plan, or Dews, in February 2020.
Meanwhile, workforce sustainability to attract the talent of tomorrow is important, with 50 per cent of employees saying that improving skills is critical, alongside recognising and rewarding achievement and listening to employees, the Zurich study found.
While 82 per cent of companies in the UAE believe they offer ample upskilling opportunities, 36 per cent of employees say professional development is lacking in their workplace and 53 per cent cite unhappiness with growth opportunities as a reason to change jobs.
Employees also see a need for organisations to demonstrate social leadership. For example, 36 per cent of employees surveyed said that they believed their organisation was not doing enough to address climate change.
Socially responsible initiatives supported by employees include waste reduction programmes and flexible working, the study found.
“Companies need to build personalised, engaging packages centred on the benefits that talent really wants, and they need to communicate these benefits better, both to potential recruits and existing employees who may not be getting the full picture of what the employer offers,” Mr Nair said.
“With the UAE committed to being one of the world’s great knowledge economies, the time to address future skills needs and attract top global talent is now.”
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Squad
Ali Kasheif, Salim Rashid, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Khalfan Mubarak, Ali Mabkhout, Omar Abdulrahman, Mohammed Al Attas, Abdullah Ramadan, Zayed Al Ameri (Al Jazira), Mohammed Al Shamsi, Hamdan Al Kamali, Mohammed Barghash, Khalil Al Hammadi (Al Wahda), Khalid Essa, Mohammed Shaker, Ahmed Barman, Bandar Al Ahbabi (Al Ain), Al Hassan Saleh, Majid Suroor (Sharjah) Walid Abbas, Ahmed Khalil (Shabab Al Ahli), Tariq Ahmed, Jasim Yaqoub (Al Nasr), Ali Saleh, Ali Salmeen (Al Wasl), Hassan Al Muharami (Baniyas)
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Difference between fractional ownership and timeshare
Although similar in its appearance, the concept of a fractional title deed is unlike that of a timeshare, which usually involves multiple investors buying “time” in a property whereby the owner has the right to occupation for a specified period of time in any year, as opposed to the actual real estate, said John Peacock, Head of Indirect Tax and Conveyancing, BSA Ahmad Bin Hezeem & Associates, a law firm.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA