HR trends in Logistics in the ME

by Faysal Khan on 2012-02-22

Many western companies would champion the concept of "our employees are our strength". What makes us in the middle east different?

Leading recruitment company Gulf Talent's survey of average salaries in 2011 shows a marked increase across the board however Logistics is low on the 'employment by sector' category, scoring 6th out of 8, with healthcare, retail & FMCG and Telecoms & IT as 1, 2 and 3.

But the question remains, are good logistics people being satisfactorily taken care of by their employers? Comments such as "It's so hard to find quality candidates...nobody is letting go of their top performers" by recruitment managers is an indication as to what is going on.

The same recruitment report as above also stated that....."Companies interviewed by Gulf Talent complained that, despite more candidates being available in the market, it is still hard to find good quality people......" and they go on to say........"with the market uncertain, high performing professionals continue to be wary of a career move that may expose them to last in first out down sizing policies"

Given that the size of middle east logistics is about 21 billion dollars per annum, of which 7 billion is the UAE alone, it gives pause to consider that good people are desperately needed to keep the wheels of commerce turning.

Faysal Khan