Introduction
The Human Resource Authority, formerly known as the Abu Dhabi Tawteen Council, is a government agency that seeks to link job seekers with employers in the United Arab Emirates. In recognition of the high number of job seekers in the country, the organization was formed as a one-stop place where graduates and other job seekers can obtain information on vacancies in various government departments. Further, the organization is focused on the development of the sustainable workforce of the Emirati workforce. The Human Resource Authority (HRA) was established by law N (7) of 2015 under the guidance of the President and the ruler of Abu Dhabi, His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nayhan. The organization is the successor of the Abu Dhabi Tawteen Council, the Abu Dhabi Government Leadership Center, and the Civil Services Sector.
Vision, Mission, and Strategic Objectives
The Human Resource Authority is one of the many organizations that have been formed in the United Arab Emirates with the main aim of supporting the Emiratisation. Emiratisation is a program by the government that seeks to ensure that the citizens of the UAE get meaningful and efficient employment in the private and public sectors (Forstenlechner, Madi, Selim, & Rutledge, 2012). As an organization, HRA seeks to support the development of relevant skills and employment of citizens into relevant jobs in the country in a manner that will maximize their involvement in the expansion of the country.
The Mission of the HRA
Spearheading the efforts of the Abu Dhabi Government in sustainable Emirati workforce development
The Vision of the HRA
To become the leading driver towards sustainable employment of every job seeker who is looking for a career path in the Emirati of Abu Dhabi
Strategic Objectives
- To meet the demands of the businesses in Abu Dhabi to enable them to employ quality and qualified employees
- To contribute towards a capable workforce in the businesses to form strong foundations for the long-run growth of the Emirati
SWOT Analysis
The SWOT analysis is an important tool that helps an organization to identify its limitations, prospects, strengths, and pressure to its activities (Randeree, 2009). The agency is mandated with the achievement of the Emiratisation goals towards ensuring a workforce that is qualified and able to meet the demands of the business environment. The organization has achieved considerable success in its mandate (Forstenlechner et al., 2012). Performing a SWOT analysis of the organization will provide important insights into its activities. The results will provide crucial guidelines for upholding its strengths and utilizing its opportunities while on the other hand reducing its weaknesses and avoiding the threats it faces in the market.
Firstly, the HRA has achieved high levels of success in the public sector. For example, the organization has managed to ensure that the majority of the people in the public sector are citizens of the country. Currently, more than 85% of the workforce is made up of citizens of the country (Al-Ali, 2008). Such a success level is a crucial indication that Emiratisation has achieved success in the public sector. Secondly, to succeed in its activities, the HRA must have support from other important government agencies, including secure funding. Therefore, the organization enjoys strong support from the government. It has the necessary resources to support its goals in the country (Koji, 2011). As such, the above strengths form an important catalyst for the organization’s success.
The organization has several weaknesses that must be addressed for more success to be possible. For instance, its high achievement in the public sector has come at a cost for private success. In this case, the organization has a poor working relationship with the private sector. This situation is reflected in the current composition of the workforce in the industry. Currently, only 0.35% of the workforce in the private sector is Emirati (Al-Ali, 2008). The expatriate population makes up more than 99% of the employees in the workforce. The above statistics can be attributed to the HRA’s over-focusing on the public sector.
The organization can utilize several opportunities to increase its achievement. For example, the first approach to increasing its collaboration with the private sector is an important starting point (Forstenlechner et al., 2012). Currently, the private sector does not view HRA as a reliable one-stop point for getting the best talent for its business needs. Therefore, it is important for HRA to increase partnerships with private sector businesses. Such a partnership will pave a way for mutual understanding of the skills requirements of the private sector, thus facilitating the sourcing of the people with the right qualifications through the HRA (Modarress, Ansari, & Lockwood, 2013).
The second opportunity is a partnership with institutions of higher learning in the country. Universities and colleges must offer knowledge that is needed in the business world (Randeree, 2009). Therefore, the HRA can collaborate with the higher institutions to not only access potential employees through the graduates but also to ensure that the curriculum development considers the knowledge that is demanded in the employment sector.
Lastly, the Human Resource Authority must consider the threats in its industry and consequently put in place strategies to avoid them. For instance, there is steep competition from private recruitment and placement agencies that majorly serve the private sector. Hence, the organization must consider the opportunities that have been presented to increase the confidence of the private sector organizations in its activities.
PEST Analysis and Porter’s Five Forces
The PEST analysis is an important competition study tool that allows an organization to consider various external factors in the industry that can affect its activities (Mashood, Verhoeven, & Chansarkar, 2009). For the HRA to remain relevant in its activities, it must identify the political, economic, social, and technological factors that can influence its success:
Political Factors
As a governmental organization, the HRA is not free of political interference. Therefore, it must work within the stipulated legal and political frameworks to achieve its mandate. Such a high level of political power over the organization is a positive phenomenon, especially in the UAE, where the organization enjoys support from the leadership, which is keen on achieving the goals of Emiratisation (Khondker, 2009). The regulations towards the recruitment of individuals are also important areas that may interfere with the goals of the organization.
Economic Factors
Due to the current drop in global oil prices, the economy of many Middle East countries has been slowing down (Forstenlechner et al., 2012). Such changes affect the number of employment opportunities in the country. In the UAE, the slowdown of the economy may affect the success of HRA, which may be unable to find an adequate number of jobs that match the skills of the job seekers in the organization’s database (Al-Ali, 2008). In addition, unfavorable economic factors may affect the private sector’s ability to seek new employment. In many cases, such organizations seek highly qualified individuals who may not be available on the HRA database.
Social Factors
It is worth noting that social factors may affect an organization’s success positively or negatively. For instance, in the predominantly young population, many of the individuals in the database are young graduates with little or no experience (Forstenlechner et al., 2012). As such, many of the people are seeking entry-level job opportunities. Hence, it is challenging for the HRA to meet the demand for qualified and experienced individuals.
Another important social factor is the preference for public sector employment among the Emiratis (Al-Ali, 2008). Many citizens of the country desire to work in the public sector. As such, it is a challenge for HRA to serve the private sector since many job seekers are reluctant to take up such jobs. Without addressing the above issues, it will become difficult for HRA to achieve its mandate and goals of spearheading the efforts of the Abu Dhabi Government in developing a sustainable Emirati workforce.
Technological Factors
Technology is fast-changing and creating important opportunities for growth. However, organizations that are not ready to adjust accordingly are at risk of being overtaken by time (Khondker, 2009). In the case of HRA, many organizations are working towards creating their recruitment strategies that include the use of the internet to advertise and receive applications for available positions (Koji, 2011). Many organizations do not realize the need to use an intermediary when they can directly do recruitment roles. For HRA to utilize the advantages provided by technology, it is important to devise approaches that will ensure synchronized processes where various organizations advertise their recruitment efforts through the HRA website and other platforms.
Competitive Strategy
The competitive strategy allows an organization to adopt approaches and concepts that can give it a competitive advantage in its industry. For HRA, the best competitive advantage is differentiation. Since the organization has enormous support from the government besides the adequate resources at its disposal, it has a unique opportunity to establish itself as the leading one-stop-shop for all recruitment needs for the Emiratis (Modarress et al., 2013). The first approach involves increasing its relevance to the private sector through increased collaboration and partnership with private sector businesses. To achieve the above goal, the organization must strive to increase the number of experienced people seeking employment through its recruitment platform that is majorly utilized by fresh graduates (Mashood et al., 2009).
Secondly, the organization should work closely with institutions of higher learning to ensure that graduates have the skills that match the demands of the market. In addition, the utilization of technology can also ensure that the organization reaches more people in the country as a way of increasing its effectiveness. Such approaches will ensure that the organization differentiates itself as the leading business for sustainable Emirati workforce development in the United Arab Emirates.
Recommendations
The analysis of HRA has used various tools to show the organization’s competitiveness and relevance in its industry. The following are the recommendations concerning the HRA’s future:
- Partnership and Collaboration with the private sector: The current success of the HRA has been reflected as concentrated in the public sector. However, success shows that the organization has failed to achieve the same results in the private sector. To address the issue, it is important for the organization to seek a close working relationship with the private sector to ensure that it can adequately serve the needs of the business in the Emirati and the country.
- Focus on skills and experience labor force: More than 85%of the people registered as jobseekers with HRA are majorly fresh or recent graduates. This finding means that the organization can only serve adequately the demands for entry-level job opportunities. Therefore, it is important for the leadership of the organization to come up with strategies that will give the organization skilled and experienced job seekers in the country. The partnership with the private sector is an important starting point in this direction.
- Partnerships with institutions of higher education: The higher institutions are mandated with producing graduates with the right knowledge for the job market. Therefore, it is very important for the HRA to work closely with institutions of education to ensure that the curriculum provides knowledge in the pertinent issues of the job market.
- Utilization of technology: The use of technology is important in linking job seekers and employers. In this case, the HRA should adopt technologies that will ensure that the organization can serve its mandate well.
Reference List
Al-Ali, J. (2008). Emiratisation: drawing UAE nationals into their surging economy.International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 28(10), 365-379.
Forstenlechner, I., Madi, M., Selim, H., & Rutledge, E. (2012).Emiratisation: determining the factors that influence the recruitment decisions of employers in the UAE. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 23(2), 406-421.
Khondker, H. (2009). Social Change in the United Arab Emirates: Challenges of Migration and” Emiratisation. Singapore: Middle East Institute.
Koji, H. (2011). Controversies over Labor Naturalization Policy and its Dilemmas: 40 Years of Emiratisation in the United Arab Emirates. Kyoto Bulletin of Islamic Area Studies, 4(1-2), 21-36.
Mashood, N., Verhoeven, H., & Chansarkar, B. (2009). Emiratisation, Omanisation and Saudisation–common causes: common solutions. Web.
Modarress, B., Ansari, A., & Lockwood, D. (2013).Emiratisation: from policy to implementation. International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management, 13(2-3), 188-205.
Randeree, K. (2009). Strategy, policy and practice in the nationalization of human capital: project Emiratisation. Research and Practice in Human Resource Management, 17(1), 71-87.