Onrec conference reveals changing trends in Middle East recruitment

The recently concluded Onrec conference in Dubai was an eye opener of sorts for the recruitment community within the region. At the forum, a leading UAE conglomerate revealed how they had significantly cut down on hiring expenditure since adopting e-recruitment. They reduced their preferred supplier list from 220 to zero! Even job board usage was limited and tied to a group contract rather than separate contracts for different business units.

The revelation saw questions fired back by recruitment agencies wanting to know how the hard-to-fill jobs were being managed and the impact of the decision on the quality-of-hires.

The group recruitment head explained that e-recruitment helped them use their employer brand effectively, directly engage global candidates and build a private candidate database. The technology allows them to automatically screen out poor quality applicants, keep track of expenditure and measure the quality of new hires.

He even went on to add that managing their hard-to-fill jobs was their sweet spot considering no outsider could match his own recruiters’ skills when it came to identifying the best global talent. “From drivers to senior hires, today’s technology allows us to save enormous amounts of money on recruitment,” he said.