The UAE is a global business hub, thriving in almost all fields of development. With a strong economy, high standard of living, business safety, and overall ease of doing business, UAE is currently a favourite among entrepreneurs. The UAE government and various HR management services have also taken several effective steps to empower companies functioning in the Emirates.

Recently, to understand the challenges businesses face with their operations in the UAE, TASC Outsourcing, the leading recruitment and HR services agency recently conducted an extensive survey from more than 50 medium and large-scale businesses in the UAE.

One fact was clear from the discussions – businesses running on an in-house HR management team were facing some challenges related to recruitment and HR, while companies partnering with top HR management consulting agencies like TASC were able to overcome these challenges and were looking forward to the greater opportunities presented by the UAE economy.

Some Common Challenges of In-House HR Management Are:

1) Talent Search & Recruitment

Businesses with an in-house team often face challenges in finding and recruiting talents on time. Without a sufficient understanding of the local landscape and access to candidate databases, the recruitment process not only becomes slow but also inefficient. And without a workforce of talented employees, any business will find it hard to develop a strong footing in UAE.

2) Emiratisation Compliance

Emiratisation is a great move by the UAE government as it aims to empower UAE nationals and companies operating on UAE soil. The Emiratisation rules require businesses to hire a certain percentage of UAE nationals. According to the rules, private companies with more than 50 employees must hire UAE nationals every year by at least 2%, increasing their hiring by at least 1% every six months.

Now as mentioned earlier, companies with in-house hiring teams face difficulties in locating and retaining talent. So, meeting Emiratisation requirements becomes an added hassle for in-house HR teams. And missing out on the deadlines can lead to fines and penalties, which affects the overall business performance.

3) Employee Retention

Locating and hiring talents is only the first step to achieving business goals in UAE. To maintain steady progress, a business must also retain talent efficiently. As every company in UAE aims at hiring skilled employees, and meet compliance regulations on time, you need to have a highly efficient employee management plan and compensation strategies to ensure maximum retention.

In-house HR management services, over-burdened with work pressure and a lack of local corporate understanding, often find it challenging to develop compensation plans that can retain both local and expat employees.

4) Payroll & Compensation Challenges

Processing payroll and employee benefits is a crucial component of a business structure. Efficient payroll management leads to employee satisfaction and retention and also helps businesses control expenses and manage cash flow more efficiently. However, with an in-house team efficient payroll management can be challenging. As businesses require separate payment and compensation plans for local employees and expats, the management and processing of payroll and compensation becomes complex, which can lead to errors and delays in processing.

5) Maintaining Company Culture & Meeting Goals

Any company in the UAE must focus on meeting its quarterly and yearly goals to maintain growth and overall business success. Several factors play key roles in this process. From employee satisfaction and productivity to productive culture and compensation, in-house HR teams must continuously focus on all aspects of employee management. With an in-house team, meeting these requirements can be challenging. As in-house teams don’t have a sufficient understanding of the local culture and other factors, the overall company working atmosphere can get affected adversely.

6) Predicting Seasonal Requirements

Compared to the UAE nationals, in-house HR teams with expat HR managers often fail to predict future events and seasonal requirements. This causes the company to fail to capitalise on crucial seasonal growth opportunities.

Without the right combination of skilled local and ex-pat employees, a company may also lack in generating a productive connection with the local community and customers, which eventually affects the overall business performance in UAE.

How Can HR Outsourcing Help Overcome These Challenges?

Most businesses face challenges with an in-house HR team because they lack the understanding of how the UAE corporate sector functions. The UAE is currently a global business hub with business owners and employees from all around the world working here in different industries. So, HR teams must not only have an in-depth understanding of the industry functions in UAE, but they must also understand how the country’s working community works.

This is why the best option is to partner with top HR management services in the UAE. Getting professionals for HR management consulting and processing can streamline all HR processes and reduce the pressure on in-house managers. At the same time, outsourcing HR processes also increases the overall efficiency of HR management.