More Emiratis seeking work in UAE hotels

The number of Emiratis looking to work in hotels in the UAE is on the up, according to HR managers in the industry.

“There are a lot of Emiratis who want to join the hospitality industry; it’s changed since four years back. There was a resistance at first caused by not knowing what a hotel is, the alcohol, certain culture barriers…” said Al Murooj Rotana Dubai director of human resources Wissam Beiruty.

Many UAE hotels have implemented Emiratisation schemes to encourage Emirati employees, offering attractive packages and training opportunities, as the government continues to push the private sector to hire more local citizens.

In February, Prime Minister of the UAE and ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said the sector has “benefited greatly” from the country's rapid growth and as a result should do more to employ Emirati citizens. Shortly after, Jumeirah Group appointed the first Emirati hotel general manager, Samer Khanfar, for Jumeirah Living World Trade Centre Residences in Dubai.

Jumeirah group director of recruitment Nadine Yetisener told Hotelier that Emiratisation was a “very strong” focus for the group: “We have a lot of [Emiratis in] senior roles within the company — mostly in the corporate office”.

She said the group was actively targeting the recruitment of Emiratis, often using LinkedIn to search for popular Emirati surnames and looking at companies where citizens typically work for potential candidates.

“We have a very clear target on number of Emiratis employed,” explained Yetisener, who declined to reveal the figure. “To drive the initiative and awareness, we’re going on career fairs; we’re out there attracting Emiratis.”

Yetesener said the biggest challenge for hotels wanting to attract local citizens to the workforce was the working hours, but welcomed government proposals to increase the number of mandatory days’ rest a week in the private sector from one to two days.

“Jumeirah has contracts that say 48 hours and we actually leave it up to the department teams to decide how many days they want to work, as long as they do 48 hours. So we have many departments where colleagues do five days [of work a week], but in many of the service departments the colleagues prefer to do six days because of the tips. If they’re off two days it means for two days they don’t get tips,” she explained.

However, other HR managers said most Emiratis seeking work in the industry would not consider service-level roles anyway. Banyan Tree Al Wadi director of training & development, human resources Brinda Murugasu called for more awareness of industry opportunities to be raised.

“The government could have more programmes aimed at helping Emiratis understand what our industry’s all about and reassure the families that the industry is a good one to develop a career in. Colleges that offer hospitality [courses] also need to communicate the reality that you need to come in at a certain level, just because you’ve done a hospitality course doesn’t mean you can bypass certain levels,” said Murugasi.

“I’ve worked in Oman where localisation is at a very high level in hospitality, you’ve got almost 50-60% locals working in the industry and there’s no difference in the salary. They’ll live at home so there will be a housing allowance, but the foreigners understand this,” she added.