GASCO - Emiratisation Strategy - Example

Emiratisation strategy Name Institution Abstract Consistent with these UAE government’s Emiritisation policy objectives, GASCO focuses on two fundamental areas. First, it aims to attract UAE talents. Second, it seeks to retain UAE talents. Overall, because of the perceived viability of the programme, the company has managed to recruit a large proportion of its workforce from UAE and will carry on its efforts to attract and retain UAE nationals to reach its target of 75% by 2017. However, the high turnover rate because of greater competition by the more lucrative public service jobs and multinational companies tend to undermine GASCO’s Emiratisation strategy’s objective of employee retention. GASCO should ensure it has stabilised the HR system as well as created HR infrastructure that can advance the competence of the HR function. GASCO should also consider acquiring the technologies required to automate some core processes .GASCO should as well review the current pay and benefits it gives to UAE nationals that make up its workforce. Although GACSO provides a one-off training to new recruits, it is significant that training schemes be set up to assist in developing the skills in all job areas. In order to retain the right talents and skills, training programmes should be refreshed regularly to ensure that the UAE nationals recruited do not forget certain elements of training. Table of Contents Abstract 2 Table of Contents 3 1.0 Introduction 4 2.0 Background on GASCO’s Emiratisation strategy 5 3.0 Objectives 6 4.0 Viability 8 5.0 Achievements to date 9 6.0 Strengths of GASCO’s Emiratisation strategy 10 7.0 Weaknesses of GASCO’s Emiratisation strategy 11 8.0 Recommended strategic plan for the next five years 14 Purpose 14 Mission 15 Core Values 15 Vision 15 Action Plan 15 Goal 1: 15 Strategies 15 Goal 2: 16 Strategies: 16 Goal 3: 17 Strategies 17 1.0 Introduction Emiratisation refers to a quota-driven affirmative action of the United Arab Emirates human resource management policy intended to encourage players in the private sector in the country to absorb its nationals into their respective workforce (Al Marzouqi, 2012). It is essentially a government-sponsored initiative intended to encourage and set up Emiratis for lucrative employment opportunities in the private sector. Since 2000, the countries that are members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), specifically the UAE, have initiated a number of policies that focus on adjusting the local labour market and to encourage absorption of nationals into the workforce. Examples of such measures vary from employment targets for nationals to government wage restrain fees (Al Subaihi, 2015). Emiratisation came about after decades of rapid economic growth and employment opportunities that fascinated millions of migrant workers from across the globe into UAE (Al Marzouqi, 2012). This caused a major concern for the UAE government, as it led to a high unemployment rate among the UAE nationals. Still, the same trend still exists to date. According to Townsend (2016), of the estimated 9.2 million working population in the UAE, some 7.8 million are foreign workers. As a consequence, fewer opportunities were available for the citizens because of the highly competitive foreign workforce. As a consequence, Emiratisation was developed as a new strategy to lessen the country’s high dependence on foreign labour force and augment its national employment rate. Many companies in the private sector, such as GASCO have took on the policy initiative by devising associated emiratisation strategy (GASCO, 2016). This paper examines the degree of Emiratisation at GASCO. It undertakes an in-depth study of GASCO’s Emiratisation strategy and reports on its objectives, viability, achievements to date, as well as strengths and weaknesses. Rooted in this analysis, viable strategic plan for the next five years is recommended. 2.0 Background on GASCO’s Emiratisation strategy Since the financial crisis of 2008, the UAE government placed greater emphasis on the Emiratisation policy in many companies considered to support the economy. Each of these companies has, as a result, come up with strategies to recruit and maintain a substantial level or proportion of UAE nationals in the workforce (Al-Qubaisi, 2012). Abu Dhabi Gas Industries Ltd (GASCO) is among the companies considered to have made significant progress in this regard. GASCO is a major oil and gas company that is responsible for processing onshore natural gas in Abu Dhabi. The company was incorporated in 1978 as a result of a joint venture among Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), which has a share of 68%, Shell and Total, which have a share of 15%, and Partex, which has a share of 2%. GASCO is essentially an operating company that is in charge of extracting liquid natural gas from its associated gases. The primary objective of establishing the company was to encourage maximal utilisation of resources of a variety of associated gases found in the company. The company converts the associated gases into numerous marketable products meant for exportation (ADNOC, 2016). GASCO adheres to ADNOC’s Emiratisation Policy. ADNOC is key a strategic partner for the United Arab Emirates government in contributing to the realisation of Emiratisation by employing the country’s nationals. Therefore, GASCO sources for UAE nationals using ADOC’s National Recruitment Committee (NRC) by means of a yearly intake plan. The company seeks to attain 75 percent Emiratisation by 2017. Trainees recruited through the NRC programme have to undergo a prearranged competency development program dubbed Individual Personal Development Plans and CAMS prior to being included into various positions in the organisation (ADNOC, 2016). To make sure that the company y meets its Emiratisation target, it pursues a strategic and broad recruitment approach in synchronisation with ADNOC through an intake of UAE nationals from high schools for certain subordinate positions. It also funds a scholarship programme at the Petroleum Institute in addition to other national institutions of higher learning or vocational schools. It also promotes recruiting of female UAE nationals at sites as well as strengthens talent retention (GASCO, 2016). At the same time, GASCO organises an employment campaign, which is aimed at choosing UAE national secondary school graduates who have showed interest in initiating vocational and technical career. The candidates who have been selected are provided with a pre-employment training contract that runs for about eight months. For instance, it has a tradition of selecting 160 high school applicants who are then provided with training for up to eight months. 3.0 Objectives Among the key business​s objectives of GASCO’s Emiratisation strategy is employing and continuously developing UAE Nationals. It also seeks to build the capacity and employee UAE nationals in a way that can be considered to be both momentous and efficient. The Emiratisation strategy enables the company to set formal targets in order to achieve recruitment quotas in the oil and gas industry. Indeed, the company has responded to this objective by seeking to offer UAE nationals and attractive work environment, which also assures them of continuous improvement in terms of career development, and skill development in line with a culture centred on attaining an effective work-life balance. The Emiratisation strategy has enabled the company to recruit, nurture as well as to retain desirable skills and competencies of UAE nationals (GASCO, 2016). GASCO also seeks to bring up future leaders and make sure that the youths in UAE appreciate the significance of the energy and hydrocarbon sector for the entire economy. The career development programme is a significant component of the company’s Emiratisation policy aimed to achieve this objective. From the perspective of the organisation’s management, the career development programme is provides employees with significant growth opportunity, in spite of their educational backgrounds, provided that they can successfully adopt a desirable target position in the organisation. Consistent with these Emiritisation objectives, GASCO focuses on two fundamental areas: i. First, it aims to attract UAE talents. The company seeks to substantially increase the amount of the country’s nationals working with ADNOC and as a result position effective recruitment strategies. The company offers opportunities for experienced as well as nationals with high qualifications as well as new graduates in search of their first-time jobs (Al Subaihi, 2015). ii. Second, it seeks to retain UAE talents. ADNOC considers that it is significant to retain UAE national talents. To achieve this objective, the company provides significant work opportunities for employees to improve their technical and non-technical skills. All through the career of an individual employee, several steps are considered to promote and build up the skills and competencies needed to attain success in their careers. 4.0 Viability GASCO’s emiratisation strategy follows the national strategies and decrees developed by the UAE Government. Therefore, Emiratisation of the workforce remains GASCO’s major strategic priority despite being highly demanding. The company has spared no effort toward recruiting and developing capable UAE nationals. Attaining its target of 75% Emiratisation by 2017 remains a viable strategic goal in line with the targets of shareholders. To attain the target, GASCO has implemented some initiatives like an annual recruitment plan that serves to strategically target female and male developees who hold a diploma or higher education degrees and are therefore qualified for certain jobs at various levels in both technical and non-technical areas. GASCO also collaborates with ADNOC’s NRC as a component of its intake plan for the nationals. It has therefore ensured that the emiratisation programme is in line with the objectives of key stakeholders. GASCO also collaborates with national learning institutions in the country. This ensures that its emiratisation strategy has strong links with the national education plan and practised educational programmes, which are also in line with its operational needs. The Emiratisation strategy also includes the strategies for recruiting and retaining UAE nationals. This ensures that more UAE nationals are absorbed into the workforce, yet also retained in the long-term. Indeed, without retention of the workforce, the emiratisation programme would be of no use and a sheer waste of money and effort. It should therefore be observed that recruiting and retention strategies of the emiratisation programme form the core of the viability of the programme. In fact, ‘recruitment and retention’ consists of the two fundamental objectives of GASCO’s emiratisation programme. The ‘recruitment and retention’ have made the emiratisation programme viable as it enables the company to continually update the existing pool of UAE nationals who have just graduated from the national educational system, as well as to take the retiring staff into perspective. The viability of the programme also relies on key processes and systems, such as leadership development plan, which ensures that young UAE nationals are nurtured to take up key leadership positions in the company and in other sectors of the economy. It also runs a competency assurance management system, which ensures that the talents recruited are helped to nurture their competencies in ways that can improve the productivity of the company and the greater UAE economy. It also has career development process and personal development plans to ensure that the recruited workforce pursue their careers of interest and realise career growth. Overall, because of the perceived viability of the programme, the company has managed to recruit a large proportion of its workforce from UAE and will carry on its efforts to attract and retain UAE nationals to reach its target of 75% by 2017. 5.0 Achievements to date The company has showed commitment to providing exceptional opportunities to nationals found to have unique talents in all areas of organisational operation. This has been showed by the company’s emiratisation strategy, incentive programmes, and employee development programmes. Among GASCO’s most noteworthy latest achievement was when it met the Absher initiative objectives consistent with the decree of His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE. As part of the initiative, the company managed to hire some 1,000 nationals, who had been enrolled in the Abu Dhabi Human Resources Authority. Therefore, the company has managed to increase the amount of UAE nationals employed in the company. Because of the perceived viability of the programme, the company has managed to recruit a large proportion of its workforce from UAE and will carry on its efforts to attract and retain UAE nationals to reach its target of 75% by 2017. Currently, GASCO has achieved to employee some 61.6% of the UAE nationals into its workforce (GASCO, 2016). The Emiratisation strategy has enabled GASCO to recruit some of the best talents in UAE from the start. 6.0 Strengths of GASCO’s Emiratisation strategy The Emiratisation strategy has significant political backing, as it is recognised and supported by the UAE government. Therefore, among the strengths of the strategy is its legitimacy and acceptability by the public, which are instrumental in its success of at present and in future. In fact, it considered a government initiative to influence the private sector players to interact with major stakeholders within the greater society to offer job opportunities to UAE graduates, whose number continues to increase rapidly. The strategy has continued to receive favourable political will as it accelerates the country’s labour productivity because of the training and career development programmes it provides as part of the Emiratisation strategy. Training and employee development enables GASCO to carry on with industry changes. As the oil and gas industry is persistently changing, training of UAE nationals in its workforce enables GASCO to improve the skills levels of its workforce to ensure they are up-to-date with current industry standards. This also makes sure that the company can comply with industry regulations, particularly through an ongoing training. The training of new recruits, particularly UAE nationals, ensures they are in touch with the most up-to-date technological advancements. As newer technology becomes developed time and again, there is always a need to perform and ongoing training, which is consistent with GASCO’s Emiratisation strategy. The company believes that customised employee training programme to orientate the recruited UAE nationals ensures that they can use the latest technology to encourage the company to realise its corporate objectives of improved profitability. Regular training, as guided by GASCO’s Emiratisation strategy, enables the company to notice the skills gaps and weaknesses. It gets to effortlessly identify the skills gaps in the market as well as in its existing workforce. Once it identifies the skills gaps early, it allocates sufficient time to train new recruits on the required areas to ensure that they fill their positions adequately. 7.0 Weaknesses of GASCO’s Emiratisation strategy While a vast majority of jobseekers in Abu Dhabi who are UAE nationals are well-educated, they face certain challenges that prevent them from establishing long-lasting work contract with GASCO. Among the most predominant challenge that also demonstrates the weakness of the GASCO’s Emiratisation strategy is the perceived relatively low salary that accompanies the strategy. Despite being perceived to be suitable for the local workforce, they are not able to match that provided by major competitors in the oil and gas industry, such as Shell. This undermines the viability of the strategy. While GASCO does provide training to its new recruits that consist of UAE nationals, the training is usually one-off and is in most cases intended to offer them orientation into the workforce. This makes it difficult to improve and polish the skills of the employees in the long-term. The high turnover rate because of greater competition by the more lucrative public service jobs and multinational companies tend to undermine GASCO’s Emiratisation strategy’s objective of employee retention. This in turn undermines the viability of the strategy, as it translates to a waste of financial resources and time. For instance, up to 10 percent of Emiratis in the company leave their jobs for greener pastures elsewhere. There is also a concern that the training and career development opportunities offered by GASCO is not sufficient. While the company has targeted collaborating with national institutions to provide relevant and inward looking training to the employees with focus on establishing a spirit of nationalism or patriotism, the training is considered to be less competitive compared to that offered by multinational corporations, such as Shell. For instance, there is a concern that GASCO’s training initiative is not necessarily forward-looking or progressive as it focuses on nationalisation. On the other hand, there is the view that multinational corporations provide employees with training that enables them to be more innovative and aware of what is happening in the outside world. This has led to a general conception of GASCO’s employees that the training they are provided with make them less innovative and productive relative to that offered by the competitors. This perception makes it difficult to attract and retain the right talent in the long-term. Another weakness that doubles up as an obstacle is that the smaller proportion of the UAE nations with the right qualifications and talents has made it difficult for the Emiratisation strategy to achieve its objective of recruiting up to 75% of its workforce by 2017. In fact, the need for highly competent labour force, or persons with high technical skills, is particularly challenging to the company, because of the scarcity of labour force with the desired technical skills. This has made the company to sometimes consider recruiting foreign workers to boost its technical powerhouse. This serves to undermine the logic behind Emiratisation strategy. Currently, GASCO has achieved to employee some 61.6% of the UAE nationals into its workforce. In implementing its Emiratisation strategy, GASCO has to contend with less competent workers in its workforce, which has forced it to centre on training at the expense of other vital operational activities. Training is specifically costly for the company, as the company has to spend more on training less skilled employees who freshly graduate from the universities and colleges, rather than recruit the more competent workforce from foreign countries. This is despite a general understanding that the training should be more inclined toward improving the national workforce to be more competent in their respective jobs. The high negative perception that Emiratisation is essentially a consequence of government policy has led to implicit protestation by the private sector companies, including some people at GASCO that the government is forcing companies to recruit local workforce. Indeed, the perception that private sector has significant negative attitudes toward Emiratisation is considered to be becoming strong enough to defy the efforts by the UAE government to implement the policy. The negative perception is has limited support for the initiative at the organisational level. This implies that the strategy has not necessarily been accepted across the organisation. It appears from this analysis that GASCO’s management is less satisfied with the proportion of Emiratis absorbed in its workforce and the decree by the government to enforce the strategy. They seem to have no choice but to comply with the requirement. 8.0 Recommended strategic plan for the next five years Purpose The changing political, economic, social, and technological conditions in the global and domestic sphere provide exceptional opportunities for the UAE nationals, which has made it difficult for GASCO to retain its workforce. Therefore, for the company to adapt to such a volatile global economy calls for greater resiliency and flexibility in the face of complying with the Emiratisation strategy, it requires to reconsider its strategies. True to the need to retain the recruited UAE nationals, this paper revises GASCO’s strategic plan in response to the weakness that have been enhanced by shifts in democracy, changes in the economic landscape, greater challenges in the labour market, and changes in the global energy markets This plan presents a strategic policy document that should be revised each year within GASCO’s budget process to make sure that the company prioritises its efforts in a strategically and fiscally responsible way. The initiatives suggested in this document are revenue neutral, despite not coming with a suggested revenue stream. Mission The mission of the strategic plan is to offer ensure effective implementation of the Emiratisation strategy. While how the mission is achieved may change over the years, this would remain at the core of any activity that GASCO engages. Core Values The core values proposed to enable GASCO to continue reflecting on the proposed mission include: Promoting a sustainable workforce Creation of wealth for the company, employees and general stakeholders Ensuring collaboration and cooperation between the company and the government Encouraging equity, inclusion and diversity Vision The proposed vision is to enable GASCO to become a leading source of expertise and economic development knowledge in the UAE. Action Plan Goal 1: GASCO should ensure it has stabilised the HR system as well as created HR infrastructure that can advance the competence of the HR function in the first three years and review its viability in the remaining 2 years. Strategies GASCO should ensure role clarity for the recruited UAE nationals to ensure they are more aware of what tasks they need to fulfil and their duties to the realisation of the Emiratisation strategy. This will make the recruited UAE nationals to be more focused on their tasks, and to accomplish these tasks competently (Abu Dhabi University, 2010). GASCO’s personnel policies for identifying and negotiating changes with employees should be improved and standardised. This will enable the company to identify the changing employees’ needs and work to fulfil the desires of the employees. In effect, it will serve to prevent high turnover rates by encouraging employee satisfaction at the end of five years. GASCO should review its job classification and compensation scheme. It needs to strategically ensure that its classification/compensation scheme is consistent with the industry best practices and comparators. This will ensure that the recruited UAE nationals are paid commensurate with the pay in the market. This has a potential of reducing the high turnover rate in the next five years once fully implemented (Abu Dhabi University, 2010). Although the company provides a one-off training to new recruits, it is significant that training schemes be set up to assist in developing the skills in all job areas. In order to retain the right talents and skills, training programmes should be refreshed regularly to ensure that the UAE nationals recruited do not forget certain elements of training. Goal 2: GASCO should also consider acquiring the technologies required to automate some core processes in the first two years, and implement it in three years. Strategies: GASCO should set off a three-year multi-phased strategy for stabilising and modernising its human resource management systems, such as learning management system. Implementing a learning management system will ensure that the skills gaps in the workforce is continually identified and that UAE nationals who have been recruited are provided with an ongoing training to make them more competitive than employees in other sectors of the economy. It will also enable GASCO to strengthen its position in the labour market by improving its capacity to attract, recruit and retain exception personnel (Abu Dhabi University, 2010). Goal 3: GASCO should review the current pay and benefits it gives to UAE nationals that make up its workforce in the first two years and implement a new structure in 3 years. Strategies GASCO should consider increasing the amount of compensation and benefits it gives to the national employees. By making its pay structure more competitive, it is expected that GASCO will be attractive to the UAE nationals. It is expected that this will attract better talents as well as encourage retention of already recruited employees, who may consider moving to other companies that offer better rewards (Abu Dhabi University, 2010). GASCO should also encourage a culture of accountability through a performance management system that offers greater rewards for the more productive workforce. This will encourage the employees to be more productive. In turn, it will change the perception among the employees and the management that Emiratisation is encourage mediocrity among the workforce as it is a government initiative. References Abu Dhabi University (ADU) (2010). The Abu Dhabi Emiratisation Forum. Retrieved from http://aimevents.net/emiratisation_forum/docs/emiratization.pdf ADNOC. (2016). Emiratisation. Retrieved from http://careers.adnocdistribution.ae/en/who-we-hire/emiratisation Al Marzouqi, N. (2012). Emiratisation Strategy at Jumeirah and its objectives (Emiratis perspective). Retrieved from http://bspace.buid.ac.ae/bitstream/1234/91/1/90024.pdf Al Subaihi, T. (2015). Emiratisation push fails to hit targets. The National. Retrieved from http://www.thenational.ae/uae/emiratisation-push-fails-to-hit-targets Al-Qubaisi, O. (2012). ICT, Human Capital Development and Emiratisation of the Labour Market in the United Arab Emirates. Retrieved from https://repository.royalholloway.ac.uk/file/fd0f4da5-9222-131c-3d26-7a8bd6bab1b0/8/_FINAL_PDF_6_JUNE_Omar_Al_Qubaisi_Thesis_1_.pdf GASCO. (2016). Emiratization. Retrieved from http://gascosustainability.com/?page_id=146 Townsend, S. (2016). Great escape? The UAE expat's dilemma. Arabian Business. Retrieved from http://www.arabianbusiness.com/great-escape--uae-expat-s-dilemma-642102.html Read More