Follow the link to download the HD Poster http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wetransfer.

com%2Fdownloads%2F3ce59c4ccd8b3 59f2136097fe9ff87e120130321092144%2F700c85e284ffc8c504dadd8c646c316e20130321092144%2F225cb2 &h=CAQGrkAa7

Attracting Talents in the MENA region

CEMS Virtual Team Project Cross Cultural Management Team 12
Boehm, Josefine Hamimana, Tania Kaakunen, Boris Lucansky, Igor Ramirez Gomez, Jose Carlos Trozzi, Delio Valduga, Alessandro

Index
Job Market Specificities in the MENA Region Job Drivers, Motivators and Values of Graduates Recruiting Channels References Appendix 1 Top Business schools MENA region Appendix 2 Social Media Statistics Appendix 3 Comparison of Facebook statistics of Whirlpool EMEA and Whirlpool Latin-America 3 4 5 6 8 9 12

Job Market Specificities in the MENA Region

The objective of this project is to propose a poster, which can help Whirlpool to overcome its challenge of attracting, managing and retaining talents in the MENA region. According to information provided in the companys EMEA presentation, Whirlpool spans 28 countries and 700 million people in this geographic area making a broad generalization very difficult. Therefore, the following section will outline the job market specificities of the MENA region and also the differences within the region. Furthermore, this chapter explains how we faced the issue of generalization in our groups poster. According to Qari (2013) only 26.3% of young adults enrol for tertiary education in the MENA countries compared to 90.3% in OECD high-income countries. The availability of graduates is even further constrained by the phenomenon that the proportion of women attending university outweighs men in two thirds of all Middle Eastern countries but that only a minority of these women participates in the work force. For example in Qatar, women stand for 63% of the university population but represent only 12% of the labour force (Davies, 2012). Next to the relatively small pool of graduates, a study by the British Council (2013) shows that 46% of employers also complain about an inappropriate skill set of MENA students. However, this discontent should not be generalized for the whole region as Figure 1 illustrates. Countries like Saudi Arabia, where not only employable skills but also the proportion of unemployed educated is high (OSullivan et al., 2011), could form good targets for Whirlpool.
An Analysis of the Employable Skills of Graduates in the MENA Region
4.5 5.1 4.7 4.6 4.0 3.3 3.3 2.3 3.0 3.6 4.5 3.9 4.7 4.7

OECD High income Lebanon Saudi Arabia UAE Jordan Turkey Morocco Egypt

5.0 5.3

How well does your education system meet the needs of a competitive economy? (1-7)* How would you assess the quality of management or business schools? (1-7)* * 1 = Not very well, 7 = very well

Figure 1: Source: Qari (2013)

A more in-depth analysis of the MENA region thus proves that a broad generalization is risky and ineffective. Whirlpool has to rather understand and accept the diversity within the MENA region and offer flexible, sub-region-tailored programs. Therefore, we decided to make diversity the topic of our poster itself. Given the relatively small graduate pool, it is important that students from diverse backgrounds are attracted by Whirlpool and can then be trained through sub-region specific graduate programs. Important, however, is that the potential candidates can identify with Whirlpools values, which is why we showed selected and related ones directly on the poster. We also deliberately decided against an alternative of more career-focused approach under the slogan Your future, in your hands since there is a strong belief in fate in this region, which limits the direct control over ones life and long-term goals.

Job Drivers, Motivators and Values of Graduates

In addition to the scarcity of educated and talented graduates, the MENA region experiences the issue of brain drain. According to Qari (2013), the abovementioned issue originates from several factors influencing talented graduates. Their major concerns are reported to be the uncertainty of career progression for young employees and the modest salaries offered in the region by most companies. In fact, these graduates expect to be rewarded according to their performance with adequate money, responsibility and recognition. In order to address these challenges, we included a targeted graduate program in our poster, which encompasses the job drivers, motivators and values of the MENA graduates. Whirlpools graduate program in the MENA region offers training to compensate for the deficiency of quality education in the area so that the resulting talent pool will be ready to fast track their career within the organization. As a result, we meet the graduates expectations by empowering them and rewarding them accordingly. Important features of the program are the transparency of the companys commitments and the reliability of the graduates future path within Whirlpool. All of this in the context of Whirlpools strong corporate culture; which encompasses loyalty, trust, collectivism and mutual growth. Finally, we should mention that the highlighted characteristics of the program respond to peculiar cultural traits of the MENA region. In particular, the possibility of being rewarded by career progression corresponds to the importance of hierarchy in the region, which is considered as a vehicle to selffulfillment. Furthermore, the idea of being part of a group participating in the program in addition to Whirlpools culture, respond to the collectivist trait of the region. In addition, the features of transparency and reliability appeal to the uncertainty adverse graduates in the MENA region.

To conclude, we believe that the above characteristics will attract and retain the most talented graduates of the region, thus mitigating the brain drainage.

Recruiting Channels
The main recruiting channels that can be employed in this project refer to both traditional channels such as universities, job fairs, student associations as well as social media - an innovative channel which is gaining momentum thanks to its endless expansion especially in developing countries. Whirlpool should address its campaign mainly to the top Business and Engineering schools of the MENA region (Appendix 1), in order to focus resources on certified institutions able to provide a pool of graduates with a better level of technical and business capabilities. The company could also work closely with associations of universities, for instance the Arab Society of Faculties of Business, Economic and Political Sciences, to reach a multiple audience of business schools more easily and in a timely fashion. Student associations within the MENA region represent another valuable recruitment opportunity since their members normally consist of selected students characterized by a more entrepreneurial spirit and above average team working and communication skills. Worldwide many leading international universities, such as the Harvard Business School and the Kellogg School of Management, have their own specific MENA Students Clubs. Targeting also these peculiar associations outside the MENA region constitutes an additional possibility for Whirlpool, considering that students involved tend to be highly attracted by and interested in these countries and also have strong ties with them, often being emigrants or having MENA origins. On the other hand, a particularly attractive source of profiles of talented young graduates is offered by social media channels. Statistics show how the number of users of social media 1 is growing exponentially in the MENA region (Appendix 2). These channels represent a valuable opportunity for recruiting since the average age of users is highly skewed towards the young, especially in the case of Facebook. Nevertheless, a profitable recruitment through social media has many challenges, mostly deriving from the way a company engages with users. The minimum requirement is having a constantly updated social media web page, necessary to channel all sorts of information regarding products and career opportunities. According to statistics, Whirlpool EMEA is lagging behind many other geographical divisions, especially Latin-America, in social media activity (Appendix 3). Therefore, we have decided to put social media on the fore front of our campaign, aiming at improving the performance of the EMEA division in social media activity and increasing the recruitment opportunities.

Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin

5

References
British Council, 2013. Graduate Employability in the MENA region, British Council research project. http://www.britishcouncil.org/graduate_research-2.ppt [Accessed 19 March 2013]. Davies, C., 2012. Mideast women beat men in education, lose out at work. CNN. http://edition.cnn.com/2012/06/01/world/meast/middle-east-women-education [Accessed 19 March 2013]. Harvard Business School Students Club http://menaclub.org/aboutus.html [Accessed 20 March 2013] Hofstede, G., The Hofstede Center. http://geert-hofstede.com [Accessed 19 March 2013]. Kellogg Middle East and North Africa Club http://kellogg.campusgroups.com/mena/officers/ [Accessed 20 March 2013] OSullivan, A., Rey, M-E. & Mendez, J.G., 2011. Opportunities and Challenges in the MENA Region. http://www.oecd.org/mena/49036903.pdf#page=3&zoom=auto,0,611 [Accessed 19 March 2013]. Qari, R., 2013. How to capitalize on human capital in MENA. http://share.endeavor.org/pdf/ HumanCapital.pdf [Accessed 19 March 2013]. SocialBakers Middle east and North Africa on Facebook at the end of 2012 http://www.socialbakers.com/blog/1100-facebook-in-the-middle-east-and-north-africa-infographic [Accessed 19 March 2013] SocialBakers Whirlpool EMEA and Latin-America Facebook statistics http://www.socialbakers.com/facebook-pages/160988417266979-whirlpool-emea http://www.socialbakers.com/facebook-pages/127960490577405-whirlpool-latinoamerica [Accessed 19 March 2013] Stats: Social media growth and impact across the Middle East http://econsultancy.com/au/blog/10491-stats-social-media-growth-and-impact-across-the-middleeast [Accessed 18 March 2013] The social media recruitment survival guide http://mashable.com/2012/08/18/social-media-recruitment-survival-guide/ [Accessed 18 March 2013]

Using technology to enhance recruitment in the MENA region. http://www.humanresourcesiq.com/hr-technology/articles/using-technology-to-enhancerecruitment-in-the-men/#.UUlfjRcty_h [Accessed 18 March 2013]

Appendix 1 Top Business schools MENA region

Egypt: American University in Cairo School of Business, Ain Shams University Faculty of Commerce, Graduate School of Business at AASTMT, Helwan University Saudi Arabia: King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, King Saud University, King Abdulaziz University, and the College of Business Administration (CBA) UAE: American University in Dubai, American University of Sharjah School of Business and Management, Abu Dhabi University (ADU) College of Business Administration, S P Jain School of Global Management (Dubai), Hult International Business School (Dubai campus), London Business School (Dubai campus) Oman: Sultan Qaboos University College of Commerce and Economics, Mazoon University College, and the Modern College of Business and Science Israel: Bar-Ilan University, Graduate School of Business (Israel) Marocco: Universit Cadi Ayyad, Al Akhawayn University

Appendix 2 Social Media Statistics

Percentage penetration of social media users in selected Arab countries by social network (June 2012)

Figure 2: Source: Stats: Social media growth and impact across the Middle East

Facebook population in the MENA countries

Facebook age distribution in MENA countries

68%

Figure 3: Source: SocialBakers Middle east and North Africa on Facebook at the end of 2012

Figure 4: Source: SocialBakers Middle east and North Africa on Facebook at the end of 2012

Number of Facebook users and percentage of users in the Arab region (June 2012)

Figure 5: Source: Stats: Social media growth and impact across the Middle East

Number of Facebook active users by November 2012

Figure 6: Source: SocialBakers Middle east and North Africa on Facebook at the end of 2012

10

Number of New Facebook users in the Arab region, plus Iran, Israel and Turkey (Jan. 3 June 25, 2012)

Figure 7: Source: Stats: Social media growth and impact across the Middle East

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Appendix 3 Comparison of Facebook statistics of Whirlpool EMEA and Whirlpool Latin-America2

Whirlpool EMEA Number of fans: 4160 People Talking About: 7

Figure 8: Source: SocialBakers

Whirlpool Latin-America Number of fans 272110 People Talking About: 25636

Figure 9: Source: SocialBakers

Whirlpool Latin-America is the best performing company division in terms of Facebook activity
12