More than 3,000 human resources professionals from the Middle East will provide insight into innovation and employee engagement at the HR Summit & Expo in Dubai.

The expo which opened in Dubai yesterday (November 16) is being held under the theme 'Business Unusual: Disrupting HR and Leading Innovation.'

It is being spearheaded by guru speakers who will be joined by a collection of eminent authors, thinkers and HR leaders from some of the most well-known organisations around the world, said the organisers.

Many of these experts agree that there is a need for companies to drive innovation in order to increase employee engagement and this is especially significant in order to address some of the challenges facing HR in the Middle East.

Peter Cheese, one of the guru speakers at the summit and chief executive of the CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development, said: “We know that the Middle-East workforce, like most places, has some good engagement in well-run organisations, but also areas where engagement is poor. The key will be to ensure that any employee engagement strategy has a strong regional focus and takes into account the differing needs of different groups in the workforce.”

According to Cheese, the key to raising employee engagement in the Middle East workforce is understanding the differing needs of different groups in the workforce.

Rita Trehan, the chief capacity officer who has made a career of business transformation within Fortune 200 companies, said: "With a population that is heavily orientated towards millennial, there is a need to rethink the future of the workplace and what this generational group is seeking from the world of work since it is very different to the generations before them."

"Understanding these differences and the impact that this is has on workplace practices will require companies to be willing to adapt, innovate and change at a much faster rate than they have done in the past," she noted.

More than 60 concurrent sessions will take place throughout the three day summit, as well as a choice between 10 certified master classes led by an unrivalled faculty of facilitators, where the prevailing theme will be the importance of HR to lead innovation in Middle East businesses.

“The world of work is changing and in turn, so must HR.  We believe HR can make a huge difference in the Middle East. With economies shifting from an almost total reliance on oil and gas to a sustainable future as knowledge and innovation-led markets, HR can only become more important,” remarked Cheese.

The other key speakers include Ram Charan, co-author of best-selling book, The Talent Masters; Fons Trompenaars, globally renowned consultant and organisational theorist; and best-selling author Jim Kouzes, one of Wall Street Journal’s twelve best executive educators in the US.

Other experts include Sven Rohte, the chief commercial officer at Daman; Neil Morrison, Group HR director at Penguin Random House; Shirley Davis, president and chief executive of SDS Global Enterprises; and Ripa Rashid, senior VP at Centre for Talent and Innovation.  

Ramy Bayyour, the show director of the HR Summit and Expo, said this year’s event will be offering an invaluable, highly relevant insight for HR professionals in the GCC and beyond.  

"The show has become firmly established as the Middle East’s ‘must attend’ event and we are delighted to be welcoming an esteemed group of speakers who will be sharing their insight on a particularly relevant theme in the industry," stated Bayyour.

Running alongside the summit and exhibition is the Middle East HR Excellence Awards which will showcase the best HR talent in the Middle East and honour professionals in the public and private sectors.

Winners will be celebrated across 10 separate categories at a gala dinner on Tuesday 17 November at The Address Hotel Downtown Dubai.-TradeArabia News Service