Plugging the brain drain in Gulf businesses

Engaging key personnel through executive education courses could be a solution

Employee turnover is one of the most persistent problems in the UAE and the broader Gulf region. This solvable issue costs organisations millions of dollars annually in recruitment and onboarding costs, as well as in lost productivity and lower levels of employee engagement.

According to MetLife’s 2017 “UAE Employee Benefits Trends Study”, 59 per cent of UAE employees hope to work for a different employer in the next year. That’s an increase of 21 percentage points over the 2014 study. While the drivers of the trend are multifaceted and require an equally multifaceted solution set, the challenge includes how HR departments can better engage their employees and increase employee retention while reducing workplace stress and the negative financial impact of high employee turnover.

Challenge

One strategy that firms should utilise to meet this challenge is to invest in result-driven, employee-focused, learning and development programmes. Organisations that send their employees to high quality leadership development programmes secure a competitive advantage within their specific industry. Simultaneously and continuously enhancing knowledge and skill sets encourages growth, advancement, and a sense of value and opportunity for employees.

Learning and development opportunities must focus on development of the individual employee through a structure and curricula that intentionally links the learning and development experience back to the employee’s function and business.

Content should be forward thinking and take into consideration continuously evolving international trends, such as the global shift towards work that requires more social skills, emotional intelligence, and logical reasoning.

Today’s leading executive education programmes recognise this importance and tailor their curricula accordingly. For example, the principles that guide Drake’s Leading Others programme are a direct response to the challenges of an international workforce that demands leaders understand more about their own leadership style and how to adapt that style to their colleagues, to their organisation, to their stakeholders, and to the diverse markets they serve.

It is almost impossible to overemphasise the importance and benefits of problem-solving, interpersonal communication, cultural sensitivity, and other soft (really “hard”) skills. Those skills boost productivity among employees at all levels, increase employee retention, and set organisations up for sustainable, long-term, success.

■ Marty Martin is President of Drake University.