Aon on HR and Talent in GCC’s fast-growing technology industry

For the GCC’s fast-growing technology industry, human capital and talent are key pillars of their success, yet at the same time, these building blocks have also emerged as caveats for future growth, according to experts from Aon.

The technology industry in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has transformed significantly over the past few decades, beginning with early-day automation in the late 1990s, to digitalization in the late 2000s, when organizations started automating processes and leveraging data for better decision-making.

Currently, we are in an era of digital transformation – where organizations are built around having technology at the core of their business model. These transformations have reshaped job structures and talent pools within the industry but have also resulted in major HR-related challenges for technology firms.

Global and Regional HR Challenges

In technology product organizations, there’s a high demand for product management and UI/UX experts. Sales roles are transitioning from product-centric to industry-centric focuses, and there is a growing need for industry consultants. In both technology product and service organizations, there is a growing need for talent with skills of data analytics and artificial intelligence. In technology service organizations, there is transition from legacy technologies to new age ones like Python.

The evolving technology sector presents HR challenges, particularly regarding talent attraction and retention. At Aon, we see a rise in the poaching of analytics, AI, and cloud experts across the industry as demand for their skills skyrockets.

The Middle East faces a significant people-related challenge due to its smaller talent pool compared to established tech hubs like the US and India. Global firms in the region often manage their core development operations in their HQ countries, making it hard to source critical roles like product managers locally.

To address these challenges and leverage opportunities, technology firms in the GCC need comprehensive strategies for talent acquisition, development, and retention, while ensuring compliance with local regulations.

How Aon Can Help

Technology firms looking to operate locally require critical advisory support like organization design, workforce planning and rewards strategy design.

The Talent Solutions business of Aon can assist technology organizations in establishing their HR functions, identifying market gaps in HR processes, and providing tailored solutions.

Analytics is another area that can provide value, guiding insights and informed decision-making. For example, analytics show that the ratio of individual contributors to supervisors in job families like software development is 1:18 versus job families like product management where the ratio is 1:4 in the technology industry.

Aon data also shows that these ratios vary across geographies; this reflects the cost arbitrage available in talent surplus countries like India, Philippines and China. By utilizing such market and job insights, technology organizations can address employee attraction, retention, and reward.

Aon offers solutions such as comprehensive compensation benchmarking, benefits structuring, career development frameworks, and workforce analytics. These human capital solutions are designed to optimize talent strategies and enhance organizational performance.