Expo 2020 to create more than 277,000 jobs

28/11/2014 06:18 AST

According to Oxford Economics estimates, Expo 2020 will create more than 277,000 job opportunities in the UAE between 2013 and 2021.

An increasing number of companies in the UAE are pulling all stops to identify and recruit the next generation of market-savvy leaders, both from the region and abroad, as they aggressively target large-scale business growth in preparation for Expo 2020.

A top official of Thought Leaders Middle East, one of the leading global retail and supply chain experts, warned that a talent shortage across most operational sectors is leading companies to aggressively poach the best talent from their competitors while ensuring that they retain their existing top achievers.

“With Expo 2020 only six years away, retailers must plan well in advance to meet the fast-shrinking talent pool if they have to keep ahead of their competition,” says Prakash Menon, Executive Director of Thought Leaders Middle East. “In the months to come, we are going to witness a fierce war for talent among business groups and companies to retain not only their best employees but also recruit the leading achievers from among the competition’s ranks.”

Menon was speaking at the Dubai launch of the “Retail Mastery” Programme, a special curriculum designed by Thought Leaders Global to identify and encourage the next generation of retail leaders to deliver outstanding profitability. Conducted in manageable blocks of two days per month over a three-month period, the program is specifically targeted towards the middle and senior management within a retail organisation, retail professionals and consultants.

Menon added that Dubai’s winning the bid to host Expo 2020 was proving to be a major catalyst for development across all industry segments, sparking a flurry of major development announcements involving new shopping centres, hotels and tourist facilities to accommodate an estimated 25 million visitors. “The 21st century workplace environment is more fast-paced, competitive and unpredictable than ever before. What seemed unthinkable yesterday is either commonplace or on the verge of being introduced today,” he said.

The “War For Talent” term was coined in the late Nineties following the publication of a McKinsey & Co report that urged businesses to review their employee strategies to recruit, retain and develop top achievers.

The Gulf Today