2021 Has solidified The Concept of Remote Working in the GCC.(6 min read)

Most employees in the Middle East who work remotely today and were forced out of their offices and challenged to manage the sudden change of working from home, along with the added obstacles brought on by the pandemic of juggling childcare and work commitments. Despite this, however, most staff across the industries based in the Middle East that we surveyed have expressed an over-whelming interest in working remotely from the office moving forward, even after the pandemic crisis is over.

This year many expect new vaccines to bring the pandemic largely under control and several GCC based countries have done an excellent job in rolling them out to their populations —work from home in the GCC is expected to expand, become easier, more equitable, less isolating, and even more financially rewarding as large expenses related to previously working from an office-based environment have been slashed for employers and employees.

“More Middle Eastern businesses have committed to remote working now whether by necessity or for financial reasons, so I think we are experiencing the framework being built for how remote working will look like for the next five or ten years being laid out through 2021 within the Middle East which I certainly believe can only develop a more positive movement in the recruitment sector.” comments Craig Stuart, Director at iTalent.

Remote workers will see their benefits and on-the-job resources become better.

Now that there is a higher proportion of remote workers available this will also give companies incentive to design or on-board employee centered services and products that greatly improve the remote working experience, while giving employers more will to invest in those solutions to remain competitive in the marketplace and bring down attrition levels.

According to our observations here at iTalent we also expect to see better remote working security, expense management, and collaboration and communication tools emerge during this year, and the years ahead. Some companies in the Middle East have even hired dedicated employee wellness staff to manage the needs of its remote workforce and ensure they are met, and staff retention remains positive.

Productivity is on the increase as is work-life separation.

We believe that most remote workers are yet to experience the remote working lifestyle’s true benefits due to stay-at-home orders and restrictions on mobility outside of the home. One of the great benefits about working remotely is that you can work from wherever you want, and that could mean all sorts of exotic things; you could travel to another country for a while and continue working, or it means if I don’t feel like being at home all day I can go to a local coffee shop. That is the kind of freedom that remote work has the potential to give you, so we foresee the experience will massively improve.

The current feeling of isolation of remote working will disappear.

‘’Many newly remote workers are currently struggling with loneliness and isolation, those issues are more a function of the pandemic than remote work itself,’’ Says Craig Stuart. “That is why I think, for almost everybody, remote work will significantly improve next year as the pandemic hopefully disappears.”

Diversity in the workplace will increase due to remote working.

The rise of remote work has the potential to massively expand a company’s talent pool, as employers can hire the best and brightest from around the world, no matter where they’re located. As a result, Craig Stuart believes the workforce is about to get a lot more international, and a lot more diverse in the Middle East.

‘’If you no longer hire from just one part of the world, but anywhere, it’s actually easier to build more diverse organizations, because the talent pool is far greater,” he says. “Having a diverse group of people means you have a diverse group of voices in your organization, which leads to better thinking about how you do things.”

GCC Based government policy will be re-tooled to support homeworking and remote working.

This year and going forwards GCC based remote workers will represent a much larger proportion of the employee population, providing incentive for Government policymakers to better serve their needs and introduce much required support. “I think we could see stimulus to support more remote workers, or more broadband projects, or even talks of new tax and employment laws being instigated,’’ says Jon Lauriston, Associate Director at iTalent.

Middle East remote working-specific policies have had little attention being paid to them previously, given the low number of employees they effected. Now that remote work has become the norm for so many white-collar workers in the Middle East, we are cautiously optimistic that there will be more political will to improve conditions for remote workers in various countries to attract the best global talent inwards.

The financial benefits for remote workers will increase.

Just as employers can hire talent from just about anywhere on a global level, Middle Eastern candidates can now seek out job new opportunities outside of their immediate geographical area, providing them access to higher paying salaried jobs in different markets.

If we take for example highly qualified and experienced computer programmers, they typically had to move to tech industry focused areas to realise their full earning potential. “Today you can live wherever you want, including outside of the Middle East, and make the same amount,” says Craig.

Remote working will only add further to work-life-balance.

The most difficult part of remote work is the initial transition out of the office environment. Given that 2020 plunged most businesses and employees directly into the deep end on this aspect we believe the hard part is now over and we foresee remote working will be a lot easier on everyone in the coming year.

For example, many people across the GCC had to dramatically change their daily routines and habits to accommodate the newly enforced remote work obligations, but by next year those growing pains will largely be behind them and we see much smoother sailing ahead.

We hope you enjoyed this article and if you would like to get in-touch with us to discover more about how we can assist you with your internal talent resourcing and recruitment process feel free to contact us for more details.

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