After years of break-neck growth, some property developers are trimming their recruitment budget as global economic conditions and a potential slowdown in their home market force them to take a more cautious approach to hiring new staff. The UAE's major developers have increased staff numbers by about 100 per cent year-on-year since 2004, when a slew of major projects started to come on stream, according to estimates from the property recruitment firm MacDonald & Company.
In the past year alone, Nakheel almost doubled its workforce from 1,800 to 3,500, while Dubai Properties, which had about 600 staff in 2006, now has 1,500. But while the market is expected to remain buoyant in the long term, recruitment specialists have said global economic uncertainty has led some property firms to scale back their recruitment needs. "It depends on the company and where their money is coming from, but there's definitely been a slowdown in recruitment among certain developers," said Duncan Murray, a consultant at Talent 2, a recruitment firm. "Staff are still needed for projects that are ongoing, but on the development front a couple of large developers have slowed up regarding bringing more people on board."
Nakheel is one such company that has trimmed its previously ambitious recruitment campaign. With a portfolio of projects under development estimated to be worth Dh404 billion (US$110bn), the company has been on a massive recruitment drive in the past few years, locally and internationally, to serve the needs of major projects such as Palm Jebel Ali and Palm Deira, Dubai Promenade and Waterfront. Although the company has identified human resource requirements for future projects, it is now being more prudent about its staff needs across the entire company.
A recruitment officer at Nakheel said: "We have slowed down on hiring. This is something that has come from the management. It applies to positions across the company." In a statement, Nakheel said it was assessing its resourcing needs. "Nakheel has gone through a period of unprecedented growth. In line with this phenomenal rate of expansion and the predictions of a downturn in the global economy, we are naturally being prudent and looking at resourcing across the entire company."
Another recruitment expert said developers were more cautious about recruitment because of a potential slowdown in the market. "They're definitely taking a more cautious approach and hiring less people than they used to. But they're thinking more about what they need in the long term, rather than just hiring to fill a space." Other developers, while still on the hunt for talent, have said the impact of the global economic slowdown on recruitment might not be felt for some time yet.
"We're still looking for talent," said Mounib Hammoud, the chief operating officer at Solidere, the company building Ajman's Dh220bn Al Zorah coastal development in a joint venture with the Ajman Government. "But this news is only a few weeks old - it might be different in a few months." According to Shafqat Ali Malik, the chief financial officer at the Abu Dhabi-based Aldar Properties, current market conditions have not affected the company's recruitment strategy.
"We have our short-, medium- and long-term plan for recruitment, which is continuously reviewed," he said. "It has not changed as a result of current circumstances." Developers in Qatar are also steering ahead with recruitment. "We're still on heavy hiring duty here because of the boom, things in Qatar are still moving fast," said Victor Orth, the managing director of Saudi Arabia's The Land subsidiary in Qatar.
Meanwhile, the country's construction firms are making the most of slumps in markets such as the UK and US to source skills needed for their projects. The Dubai office of Parsons Brinckerhoff, an engineering and construction management company, has ramped up its recruitment campaign to actively find staff whose prospects are limited elsewhere. "The economic slowdown in other parts of the world has opened up other avenues for recruitment," said Mary Anne Horner, the head of human resources at Parsons Brinckerhoff. "We're seeing more CVs coming through from people in countries that have been affected by the global fallout. People are now realising that opportunities in their home countries are limited."
Grahame McCaig, the general manager of Dutco Balfour Beatty, said his company had not felt the need to curb recruitment because of a number of confirmed contracts in the pipeline. "The huge injection of cash into the banking system from the central Government is ensuring that access to cash is being maintained, and as a result you will probably find that the majority of present developments will continue, and confidence and commitment to the ones that are on the drawing board will improve," he said.
Recruitment firms are also seeing a surge in the number of applicants for construction jobs from the UK and US, although the local job market has become more competitive. "In construction, for example, they're still expecting above market rate salaries, but companies here have a bigger pool of talent and can be more selective nowadays," said Mr Murray. @Email:agiuffrida@thenational.ae
