UAE companies are set to hire 25 to 30 per cent more senior-level management employees in the next year or so, said a report.

The construction and financial sectors across the GCC will witness a hiring boom, it said.

Top experts have said that the Mena job market, the UAE in particular, will open up considerably, with seven out of 10 companies expecting to create up to 10 new positions in the country, said the Khaleej Times report.

About 65 per cent of companies in the UAE will hire 10 more people in the next three months, out of which most will be with large or multinational private companies, presenting opportunities for managers and executives, according to Bayt.com’s Mena Job Index Survey.

“The financial sector will come next after construction in terms of demand for talent, and sub-sectors like Islamic Finance will see also see a boom,” Ayman Haddad, managing director for Mena, DHR International, a recruitment company specialising in C-level and senior management recruitment in the region, was quoted as saying.

“There is space for new development for talent in Dubai, which had slowed down after the (economic) crisis and it picked up after the last three to four years. We are seeing that old management decisions – often aggressive in style – are not suitable for the new area,” he said.

“Senior executives, especially in our volatile region, are required to be fast paced and agile, strategic in their thinking, hands-on and most importantly, have superior leadership abilities.”

Except for Kuwait, respondents from across the other GCC countries, believed that the construction sector will be the most attractive in hiring/retaining top talent across all career levels, while those in Bahrain, Jordan, Tunisia and Egypt selected banking and finance sector as the one that will attract top talent.

Meanwhile, Kuwait’s oil and gas sector was claimed to attract/retain the best talents in the country.

As for the hiring process, the report showed that most candidates were likely to be interviewed by one or two people. About 22.7 per cent of respondents said that their interviewees will meet three people, while 18.2 per cent claimedthat candidates will be interviewed by more than four people.

“Manager or not, the most desirable qualification to have in the Mena region at present is one in business management, according to 23 per cent of respondents in the Bayt.com survey. The UAE employers are especially keen on candidates with commerce qualifications,” Suhail Masri, vice-president, Sales, Bayt.com, was quoted as saying.

About 56 per cent of Mena employers said good communication skills in Arabic and English were a must, being a highly desirable qualification in the UAE, second only to the ability to be a team player who is co-operative, helpful and flexible.

Meanwhile, for 46 per cent of UAE employers, good leadership skills also topped in appeal.

The employers looked for flexibility and adaptability, a track record of success, a set of transferable skills that are easily and readily parlayed to the job at hand, character, professionalism, and integrity; and maturity and stability, the report added.