Dubai, 22 November 2011: Aon Hewitt, the global human resource consulting and outsourcing solutions business of Aon Corporation (NYSE: AON), today announced the launch of the QuduratTM report, a pioneering research study into the advancement of national talent, the single biggest HR issue in the region.  QuduratTM – meaning ‘capabilities’ in Arabic – is the first and largest research of its kind in the region, dedicated to national talent in the workplace, and represents the voice of 4,600 employees across five GCC countries.

Key Highlights:

1. Lower levels of employee engagement in the region could be improved through greater confidence in senior leadership, combined with a greater sense of purpose in the workplace.
 
2. By giving 25-34 year-old nationals (Gen Y) consistent ongoing support, and an innovative and adaptive approach to employment, it may be possible to avoid this segment from suffering premature mid-career crises.

3. There needs to be a distinct strategy directed towards managing the growing female workforce and increasing their engagement, to further enhance the productivity of the GCC.

4. Private sector organisations enjoy higher levels of engagement, and need to learn to leverage their non-monetary competitive advantages over the public sector when recruiting nationals.  In response to what is important to them at work, GCC nationals rate career growth, and learning and development above pay and benefits.

Dr. Markus Wiesner, CEO Aon Hewitt Middle East, said: “Aon Hewitt is the largest dedicated HR consulting organisation globally, however, we know that this region is unique in so many ways; therefore we have to firmly root all our advice in a deep local understanding.  Our strategy is evidence-based consulting, using research insights and factual analysis to provide our clients in the region with the best possible advice in all we do.  Previous approaches in dealing with the issue have been limited by a lack of hard data and an over-reliance on unfounded opinions.

“We are leading the way on this most critical issue for the future of the region, by basing our approach on a firm foundation of data, as the QuduratTM study is the biggest and most robust of its kind ever conducted in the GCC.  This research-based approach is an ongoing commitment for us, and we are now very excited to be launching Wave Two of the Qudurat TM study.  The next stage of our research will begin at the end of this year, and further findings will be announced in 2012 with an aim to have more than 100,000 participants by 2013. Aon Hewitt is still welcoming partners and participants from across the GCC for this second phase of Qudurat™.

“We now understand with absolute clarity that the approaches to optimising the region’s human capital will need to be dramatically different to those currently in place.  The insights and understanding to manage this revolutionary transition will be instrumental in ensuring the GCC reaps the demographic dividend available to the region in the next decade.”

Commenting on the research study, David Jones, Chief Consulting Officer at Aon Hewitt in the Middle East said: “The QuduratTM research study is ground-breaking, both in scope and scale, which allows us to have undoubted confidence in the validity, reliability and significance of our findings.  We are therefore extremely robust in our conclusions. The report produced many counter-intuitive findings which surprised and challenged some of our pre-conceptions.  We are now able to vigorously contest many stereotypes about talent in the region, providing unique insights to assist our clients in positively addressing the opportunities afforded by our region’s demographic dividend in the decade ahead.

“On paper, the region has all the ingredients in place – a young, talented and growing workforce, along with the financial resources to accelerate effective, targeted national development.  The key question now is whether we, as the region’s HR community, can partner together to get the recipe right in terms of pragmatic approaches to talent management in the workplace. We are putting forward a number of new approaches based on our insights from this unparalleled research.”

Further Detail on Key Research Themes:

1. Opportunity for increased national employee engagement

Current engagement levels in the GCC are modest, at 54% overall, and the research suggests there is a considerable opportunity to increase engagement levels in the immediate and long term.  This would not only help to address the issue of unemployment of nationals across the GCC, but also has the potential to enhance the performance of the workforce.

One area that has the potential to significantly, and positively, impact engagement is an employee’s confidence in the most senior leadership in their organisation. There is currently, however, a real lack of confidence in this regard, with only 46% of respondents believing their leaders are making the right decisions in running and managing their organisations.  Improving this figure would lead to an increase in engagement levels of almost 22%.

Background statistics:

o The level of engagement amongst GCC nationals working in their own home country is 51%. This is significantly lower than expatriate counterparts, at 57%.
o Emiratis report the lowest levels of engagement at 46%, followed by Bahrainis at 49%. Expatriates in the UAE also report lower levels of engagement than foreign workers in other countries.

2. The next generation of talent 

The findings suggest that in order to accommodate the growing number of young people approaching working age, educational programmes, and in particular vocational training, must be developed to support the growth of entrepreneurialism, trade and technical professions. These areas are likely to be the major drivers of employment growth.

QuduratTM also found that the youngest group of employees, those under 25, are very distinct in their attitudes and preferences towards work.  The research indicates that while this group is highly engaged, at 64%, the level of engagement drops significantly for 25-34 year olds to only 47%, suggesting the onset of a premature mid-career crisis.  Furthermore, only in the first two years and after 20 years of their careers is a national employee satisfied with learning and development opportunities at the organisation.

This suggests organisations need to innovate and adapt new approaches in order to keep this generation fully committed and productive.  Employees themselves need to take greater responsibility for their performance and orientation towards work as well.  However, organisations need to be much more agile in ensuring they are not only attracting young talent and keeping them motivated in the initial years, but continue to develop the early to mid-career employees.  Ongoing coaching, learning and development will not only support nationals across all career stages, but will also extend opportunities to expatriate workers, who are not typically a priority for training and development.

Background statistics:

o By 2020, the GCC population is forecast to reach 53.5 million, a 30 per cent increase from the year 2000. The Arab world is expected to grow to 598 million by 2050.
o More than 60% of the region’s population is under the age of 30, as a result of high fertility rates in the region. This is putting increasing pressure on labour markets to create the right opportunities to meet the accelerating growth of indigenous labour supply in the region.

3. Participation of women in the labour force

The Aon Hewitt research suggests that women in the Middle East are clearly willing and very capable, and that they report a greater degree of alignment and readiness to the modern GCC workplace than men in many aspects.  It firmly sets the challenge to employers and policymakers to ensure that they are ready to fully benefit from the value of more women in the office.

QuduratTM reveals that the existing people policies and practices within organisations are not effectively supporting working female employees.

The results show that on average, women are less engaged than their male counterparts in the region, with engagement scores of 50% and 57% respectively.  Moreover, GCC national women and Emirati women in particular are the least engaged.

The Qudurat TM research also indicates that women are arguably more suited to the challenges of GCC labour markets than men.  Women, both national and expatriate, who choose to be active in the labour market, seem to report no significant differences between ‘who they are at home and who they are at work’ compared to their male colleagues, implying that they are coping as well, if not better, in managing their various societal roles. 

70% of women responded that in a situation where their family disagreed with an important decision related to their job, they would follow their own choice versus following the wishes of their family.  This defies convention, as it might be expected that female employees may respond in more traditional ways.

Relatively low levels of female participation in the GCC workforce, combined with continuing changes in the social position and expectations of young women, imply that there is a further latent potential supply of labour ready to take up work.

Background statistics:

o Women constitute only 18% of the labour force in the GCC.  In addition, 30% of unemployed females are university graduates.  Comparatively, in the UK, for example, 70% of women contribute to the economy via formal paid employment. Other countries show similar and increasing levels; 63% of Singapore national women work, 74% in Norway and 55% across the EU as a whole.

4. Saturated employment in the public sector

While QuduratTM shows higher levels of engagement in the private sector at 62%, compared to the public and semi-government sectors at 48% and 55% respectively, the research indicates that the private sector needs to leverage its advantages over the public sector to build differential employer brands and attract young, talented individuals.

The Aon Hewitt study brings to the forefront some new drivers that matter significantly to employees, and can be leveraged by the semi-government and private sectors to compete for talent. This suggests that if private sector organisations promote these elements, they will be able to move the focus beyond just salary differentials and perceived material benefits.  When asked about what matters to them at work, GCC nationals rate career growth, and learning and development above pay and benefits.

The data suggests that workers in the semi-government sector are the least career oriented and have the lowest levels of trust.  They do, however, report the highest levels of pride in customers, a relatively higher tolerance to diversity and the most satisfaction with their physical work environment.  Organisations in the semi-government sector face unique challenges as they redefine themselves to closely reflect a more private sector approach to attracting and retaining employees, while competing with the traditional public sector for talent.

QuduratTM does indicate, however, that the private sector also has to learn from the public sector.  Those working in the public sector, the vast majority of whom are GCC nationals, report significantly more consistency and alignment  between how they see themselves at work and at home.  When workers feel able to genuinely be themselves in the workplace, with a greater sense of shared personal and organisational values, they are more likely to be more engaged and more productive.

“While it is not surprising that there are major differences in the drivers for engagement between the public and private sectors, given that future employment opportunities will come largely from the private sector, it is imperative that these differences must be understood and corresponding strategies applied to retain national talent within the private sector,” commented Markus Wiesner, CEO of Aon Hewitt in the Middle East.

Background statistics:

o The public sector plays a central role in the regional job market. The ILO argues that around 29% of total employment in the Arab World is filled by the public sector which amounts to around 38% of current expenditures, which is double the world average.
o Over the long term, Aon Hewitt believes the commercial sector will not have the capacity to recruit significantly more national workers at the current rates. This premium can be significant. For instance, compensation data from Aon Hewitt’s UAE Banking Forum 2011, with 19 participating banks, indicates there is an average guaranteed cash premium of 17% for staff, 14% for junior management, 11% for middle managers and 23% for senior management roles held by UAE nationals as compared to roles at the same level when held by expatriates.

About Aon Hewitt
Aon Hewitt is the global leader in human resource consulting and outsourcing solutions. The company partners with organizations to solve their most complex benefits, talent and related financial challenges, and improve business performance. Aon Hewitt designs, implements, communicates and administers a wide range of human capital, retirement, investment management, health care, compensation and talent management strategies. With more than 29,000 professionals in 90 countries, Aon Hewitt makes the world a better place to work for clients and their employees. For more information on Aon Hewitt, please visit www.aonhewitt.com.

About Aon
Aon Corporation (NYSE: AON) is the leading global provider of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, and human resources solutions and outsourcing. Through its more than 59,000 colleagues worldwide, Aon unites to deliver distinctive client value via innovative and effective risk management and workforce productivity solutions. Aon’s industry-leading global resources and technical expertise are delivered locally in over 120 countries. Named the world’s best broker by Euromoney magazine’s 2008, 2009 and 2010 Insurance Survey, Aon also ranked highest on Business Insurance’s listing of the world’s insurance brokers based on commercial retail, wholesale, reinsurance and personal lines brokerage revenues in 2008 and 2009. A.M. Best deemed Aon the number one insurance broker based on revenues in 2007, 2008 and 2009, and Aon was voted best insurance intermediary 2007-2010, best reinsurance intermediary 2006-2010, best captives manager 2009-2010, and best employee benefits consulting firm 2007-2009 by the readers of Business Insurance. Visit http://www.aon.com for more information on Aon and http://www.aon.com/manchesterunited to learn about Aon’s global partnership and shirt sponsorship with Manchester United.

About QuduratTM
QuduratTM is Aon Hewitt's pioneering research study focused on understanding what drives and motivates talent in the region, with an emphasis on understanding national talent. The study is the first and largest of is kind representing the voice of 4,600 employees across five GCC countries. It was conducted in partnership with a researcher from Stanford University to better appreciate the factors that impact employee engagement and performance at the workplace. The insights from the research would be valuable to governmental institutions, private sector organizations, academic institutions and other stakeholders looking to advance Arab national talent in diverse capacities. Aon Hewitt is building a network of partners and participants for the research study. The project is fully funded by Aon Hewitt and there are no financial obligations for partners or organizations to participate in QuduratTM.