How to Become a Successful HR Manager in Dubai

We live in a world of high competition, high technologies, and high life rhythm. In order not to lag behind others, successful HR managers must continuously work on their skills, improve competencies and applied techniques, keep up with the trends in the market. Here we describe to you how to do it.

6 Tips on How to Become a Successful HR Manager in Dubai

For the last decade, the economy of the UAE has been growing, with almost the highest rate in the world. As a result, this influences the field of human resources. Hundreds of new businesses are registered every year in local free zones and beyond them over the whole country. Trading, manufacturing, consulting, logistics companies, call centers, regional offices – all they need new personnel. It makes an HR manager, perhaps the most sought-after specialist in the labor market of the country.

There are excellent career prospects for this specialist in the UAE. Like in any other place there is some specificity here. To succeed, you have to consider several factors, and most importantly, always work on own qualifications, get new skills, master new technologies, and take into account local cultural and social features.

Here are some tips for you on how to become a successful HR manager in Dubai, UAE:
1. Wherever you can use automation
2. Go beyond your office
3. Find the right approach for new employees
4. Do not forget about ongoing training
5. Stay current on company events
6. Take into account regional specifics

Let’s look at each of them in more detail.

1. Wherever you can use automation

The essence of this advice is as follows – do not seek to carry out all the routine work by yourself. Machines cope with it better and faster. Why make complicated calculations in your mind if you have a calculator? Routine quickly exhausts and reduces the desire to work. A robot does not get tired; it does everything quickly and without mistakes. Computers can and should be implemented into the processes of searching and attracting employees — to those stages that can be described in algorithms. For example, bots can form an invitation or remind you of a meeting, a virtual recruiter can process large amounts of information, sort responses, set up automatic search, send interview and test results, free up time for an HR specialist to work with the most relevant candidates, as well as for out-of-the-box thinking and further innovation implementation.

Automation has become commonplace. Most companies use it. Cloud-based HR and payroll systems no longer surprise anyone. Moreover, they are your additional competitive advantage. The productivity of all employees is of primary importance now, and the routine processing of large amounts of data does not help to increase it. It is essential to choose HR-tools that will increase team productivity and help to establish internal communication, analytics, and control.

Further, considering other aspects of HR management, we will provide you with some useful links to the resources that you can help to automate your work. But the main idea is as follows – automate your work wherever it’s possible, this will dramatically increase your productivity and efficiency.

2. Go beyond your office

Freelance and outsourcing are widely spread in the modern business world now. According to surveys, the vast majority of millennials prefer to work with the possibility of remote communication, or even wholly remote work outside an office. This trend will only be stronger shortly. In fact, when searching for a candidate, you should not limit yourself to your city, region, or even country. In many cases (not all so far), a personal presence of an employee is not required, and this opens up new opportunities for an HR manager. But here you cannot do without digital technologies.

Thus, for example, using the HRmaps service, you can easily publish vacancy announcements on internal and external resources, manage the selection process, conduct video interviews, etc.

In many cases, work is a team-project approach. The Trello service will help organize the process of communication, file sharing, and deadline control.

All this will allow you to go beyond and significantly expand the capabilities of your company.

3. Find the right approach for new employees

Generation X or millennials have already become the dominant class in the labor market. Besides, generation Z is already actively replacing generation Y employees. What does this mean for an HR manager? The old approaches, which were good ten, twenty, or thirty years ago, are no longer relevant now. A young modern specialist is unlikely to work in one company in one position for more than 3-5 years. They need new challenges, new perspectives, constant growth, and development.

Gamification will help you with this issue. It involves triggers and other tools to motivate employees to achieve the best results. It is similar to loyalty programs: ratings, leaderboards, and ranks. This approach creates a sense of play and pleasure, which motivates employees to new victories. Besides, you can strengthen a team and provide synergies between teams and departments with this approach.

Millennials appreciate their time; they do not want to spend it on writing lengthy reports, on unnecessary (for them) meetings, presentations for management, etc. It is essential to minimize such events so as not to distract employees from creative work and achieving their goals. Excessive control will not give you anything useful. It is better to give your employees maximum freedom and the opportunity to reach their full potential. Believe it; most millennials will show you what they are worth.

Let’s face the truth: HR is known for introducing bulky tools and processes that interfere with your work. For example, ineffective compulsory courses that take time which could be spent more profitably. It’s time to change this situation.

And of course, millennials quickly master digital technology. 15Five cloud platform will allow your specialists to spend a minimum of time writing a weekly report – what they are working on, what difficulties they are facing, what resources they need etc. It’s just what you need for millennials.

4. Do not forget about ongoing training

The constant development of technologies, as well as increasing competition on a global scale, require continuous preparation and improvement of skills, mastery of new tools and techniques. And we are talking both about the staff of a company and an HR manager. The task of an HR manager is to establish an effective training process in a company. It will allow, on the one hand, maintaining the current level of competencies of your employees, and on the other, increase their loyalty, since seeing your efforts aimed at their development, your employees will repay you with enthusiasm and perseverance in their work.

Take into account the fact that progress does not stand still in the market of vocational training services. Training for a couple of days that distract you from your work is becoming less popular. Now it’s time of interactive platforms, micro-learning, virtual reality, in-house training. The best solution is a provider that can to provide you with a comprehensive service, having engaged all your staff in the training process according to the schedule that is most convenient for you.

As for the training of an HR manager, you can improve your HR skills here, especially if you are living in Dubai. After passing a series of courses, you will get an idea of the most relevant tools, techniques, methods, and approaches in the selection and work with staff that is used in this area, as well as how to develop and implement an effective training system in your company.

5. Stay current on company events

HR analytics is of great support for businesses in obtaining reliable data. The possibilities of conducting a competitive analysis, identifying applicants with high potential and a desire to develop at the selection stage, effective personnel forecasting, managing staff turnover, improving corporate surveys, reliable processing of their results, and other analytical models for the work of HR manager become essential factors for the success of the company as a whole.

Thanks to analytics and robotization, most analytical and administrative operations can be digitized and automated. The tools listed above can be found in modern performance monitoring systems, for example, CultureAMP. Experienced psychologists compiled questionnaires in this system; the results of the assessment can be compared with the results of similar companies in the market.

Besides, it is crucial not to forget about feedbacks, because not only a company chooses an employee, but also an employee selects a company. The way how an employer looks in the eyes of potential employees broadly defines its success in attracting valuable cadres. Breezy service allows you to track all the stages that a person goes through when hiring. Candidate profiles are collected in one place – you can see a CV, portfolio, and accounts on social networks.

BetterWorks is another assistant to an HR manager. Using it, you can set goals and request feedback from colleagues. The application allows you to communicate directly with your manager, even in a large company. It enables HR to monitor the situation in a team and timely respond to emerging problems.

6. Take into account regional specifics

The UAE has lots of benefits to offer for foreigners who come here to work: a safe and predictable environment, the absence of taxes, and developed infrastructure, as well as the ease and high speed of all the necessary procedures for hiring. As a result, such a policy of openness and attracting new talents has led to the fact that 85% of the country’s population are foreigners. These are immigrants from India, China, Great Britain, Russia, and other countries of the world. This is the main feature in the work of HR in the UAE – representatives of different nations and cultures will most likely work in a single team.

Accordingly, an HR manager should be able to create a friendly atmosphere in a team, ensure effective communication. It can be facilitated by general teambuilding training and informal events, such as corporate games, or something like that.

Success in the work of a modern HR manager in the UAE largely depends on his/her ability to quickly learn, adapt to a changing environment, and openness to new technologies. Success consists of several aspects, each of which has to be worked on. But the result is worth your effort. We hope our article will help you become a successful HR manager in the UAE!