My comments in last month’s issue on the pressing need to push forward with nationalisation policies sparked discussions in several subsequent interviews with high profile hoteliers.
If you thought I was passionate on the matter, take time to meet with industry stalwarts Ahmed Ramdan and Selim El Zyr, founders of Roya Hospitality and Rotana Hotels respectively — while they have different opinions on the solutions to the problem, these gentlemen both agree on one thing; current strategies are failing completely.
El Zyr is blunt when he states that nationalisation is “the biggest challenge we have ever had and will continue to have”.
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He acknowledges that Rotana itself has not yet made enough progress in this area, but rather than blame hoteliers, he apportions responsibility to local populations.
“I think, first of all this has to start from the schools, from homes. You create a country...with a culture of service,” says El Zyr.
However, according to Ramdan, neither governments nor hotel groups are doing enough to encourage nationalisation. “Governments should be more forceful and hotel operators should have some moral obligations to nationals. I am a little bit disappointed with international operators... they are not developing UAE or Gulf nationals as they should. Sometimes to pay lip service, they hire a PRO or fill a very junior level job, but never will they work genuinely hard to hire at the managerial levels or give [national staff] proper training and a career path.”
Ramdan points out that to tackle unemployment, governments will eventually enforce recruitment of nationals. Judging by the impact of quota systems in some GCC markets, he says hoteliers “are in big trouble” if they don’t start this process now.
“You might have talent sitting here; encourage them, promote them, create awareness, go to the university and give a course, sponsor some classes,” he suggests.
These comments were echoed by UAE lawyer Habib Al Mulla, chairman and co-managing partner of Baker and McKenzie, at a recent Arabian Business Forum. Al Mulla revealed that with 28% of the UAE’s one million nationals being unemployed, current policies were not working.
“Imposing quotas is an easy solution to the problem of unemployment. However, it’s temporary, impractical, and a deceiving solution,” he said.
“It does not deal with the roots of the problem. Rather it provides for a cosmetic touch. In my view, the worst result of imposing quotas is that it leads to disguised employment. The government is trying to impose something the private sector is resisting; the natural result is that the private sector will try to circumvent that.”
It’s disheartening to think of such a people-focused industry as the hotel business being resistant to recruiting from a particular pool. Considering the constant need for talent in such a booming segment, hopefully it will be this industry that eventually sets the standard for the private sector.
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