OSC’s September Newsletter arrives
Oxford Strategic Consulting aims to provide relevant, up-to-date information that adds real value to your organization. We hope that you enjoy our monthly newsletter.
A word from Professor William Scott-Jackson
“Research shows that less than 25% of employees, worldwide, are actively engaged. Yet organizations, academics and consultancies have been trying to improve this for years – with annual surveys, changes to working conditions and, yes, money. Maybe we’ve been looking in the wrong place, at the wrong time and working the wrong levers? Our research suggests that engagement is perhaps 40% impacted by the immediate leader and 20% by the work environment and conditions; however, at least 40% is to do with the people themselves. Long-term variations in people’s general enthusiasm and positivism play a large role here.
We know how to fix leadership (although OSC would argue that much leadership development is provided at the wrong time and in the wrong way). Fortunately, we now know that we can help individuals become more positive – not just in their working lives but also in overall wellbeing. So we are advocating constant feedback on engagement, high-impact tips for both new and experienced leaders and practical help for people to be more positive in their lives. Maybe then we can see levels of engagement at over 50% or even higher. It is certainly worth a try.”
Saudi Female Achievers
Saudi females were significantly more likely to be motivated by ‘striving to achieve’ than their male counterparts (35% cf. 20%), found a YouGov survey commissioned by OSC. Always at the forefront of research in the GCC, the OSC research consisted of nearly 1,000 face to face interviews with Saudi nationals living in Saudi Arabia. There is a tremendous amount of untapped female talent in Saudi Arabia, but the tricky bit is figuring out how to unlock this potential. Here are some of the ways in which OSC has been engaging with female talent and employment across the region.
A Personalized Inspiration
One of the emerging themes in OSC’s recent Emirati Leadership Style research is that Emirati leaders engage their teams through a personalized form of inspiration. Family and tribal paradigms play an important role here—leaving less space for the stricter, formal leadership style found in many Western organizations. In this way, Emirati leaders often act as sheikhs, as if they are ‘first among equals’ in their organizations. Our cutting-edge research project has already met with wide press and media coverage, including an op-ed in The National (add link) and an upcoming roundtable article in Changeboard Middle East Magazine. OSC needs your valuable input—and you could win an IPad Air! To get involved in this cutting-edge research project, please email robert.mogielnicki@oxfordstrategicconsulting.com.
Hidden GCC Talent
In a competitive environment with limited natural human resources, successful companies must differentiate their recruitment methods. Professor William Scott-Jackson’s latest webinar explains new, innovative strategies for attracting and recruiting the best talent in the GCC. Oxford Strategic Resourcing (OSR) and its newly expanded team of consultants utilize these research-based techniques to find the best, highly skilled, mid to senior level executives. You can watch the full webinar here and learn more about OSR from their website.
Getting a Return on Investment From Employee Engagement Surveys
Many organisations invest significant sums in running employee engagement surveys. So why do so few get a real return on their investment? Our research highlights that enhancing employee engagement results in measurable improvements in business results. Deploying the right engagement survey is critical – but so too is the right action planning and follow up. Many organisations, however, focus their time and energy in running the survey and reporting the results, but pay insufficient attention to what they do with the actual survey results. In this article we share our top tips on how to improve engagement through meaningful action planning a based on our extensive experience in this area. More…
OSC in the News
13 AUG 2014
TradeArabia published an article written by OSC consultants explaining how OSC research on leadership in the UAE supports HH Sheikh Mohammed’s long-held assertion that leadership is the key capability for Emiratis. More…
16 JUL 2014
Bloomberg Businessweek featured OSC research on female employment in an article about how eLearning promises to change educational paradigms in Saudi Arabia and teach the skills needed by the private sector. More…
10 JUL 2014
The National published an article co-authored by Professor Scott-Jackson and Robert Mogielnicki on the huge importance for leadership development in the UAE. More…
29 JUN 2014
Changeboard Middle East published Debbie Whitaker’s roundtable article on how HR leaders across the GCC are driving employee engagement. More…
16 JUN 2014
One of our accomplished GTAB Fellows, Eisa Abdulla, was appointed to prestigious QFC Regulatory Authority post. Many congratulations to Eisa! More…
Save These Dates
10 SEPT 2014 – Employee Engagement Webinar – Online
Professor William Scott-Jackson has been invited to deliver a webinar on employee engagement. We believe that less than 25% of employees worldwide are actively engaged, and companies are doing all of the wrong things to engage them. Learn more about the webinar here.
22 SEPT 2014 – Gulf Talent Advisory Board Fellows’ Summit – Abu Dhabi.
The GTAB Summit will bring together HR leaders from across the GCC to discuss the latest OSC research on the Gulf Arab Leadership Style. The Summit will highlight the first ever GCC leadership style, together with practical methods for how GCC-based organisations can use this leadership style to improve the day-to-day engagement and effectiveness of their employees.
22 SEPT 2014 – Emirates Foundation For Youth Development Business Breakfast – Abu Dhabi
OSC will launch its groundbreaking Research Report, sponsored by BP, on ‘Maximising Emirati Talent in Engineering’ as part of the Emirates Foundation 2nd Business Breakfast.
15 OCT 2014 – Oil and Gas HR Summit – London
Professor William Scott-Jackson will present at the Oil and Gas HR conference ‘Strategic Talent Management for the Future of Oil and Gas Talent Capability’, where he will speak with senior HR leaders from the global oil and gas industry on how companies can use Differentiating Strategic Capabilities (DiSCs) to boost organizational effectiveness and employee engagement.
18 NOV 2014 – Engaging Leadership – A VIP Summit for Business and HR Leaders in the GCC – Dubai
OSC’s latest VIP Summit on Engaging Leadership will highlight the first ever GCC Engagement Model, together with practical, proven methods, tools and behaviours that GCC-based organizations can use to improve the day-to-day engagement of their employees.
Ramadan Ends with First Annual GTAB Suhour
The OSC team hopes that our clients and friends had a blessed Ramadan, and we are proud to report the successful launch of our first annual GTAB Ramadan Suhour. GTAB Fellows Talib Al Hashimi and Muhammad Jamal led insightful discussions on ‘The State of Recruitment in the UAE’ and ‘Unwanted HR Metrics’ in the Dubai World Trade Center’s Ramadan tent. GTAB Fellows discussed the topics over Moroccan green tea and traditional Ramadan sweets while sitting in a majlis style. We look forward to hosting next year’s GTAB Suhour.
HR Digest
MOOC Takeover
Massive open online courses, or MOOCs, are challenging traditional educational paradigms. EdX, a MOOC provider founded by Harvard and MIT, is making a huge splash in the GCC (see Bloomberg article in news section) and may help disabled learners across the region acquire the necessary skills for meaningful employment. More…
Sentiment Analysis Moves to HR
No longer just a marketing tool, sentiment analysis may change the very nature of HR analytics. Sentiment analysis analyzes whether a comment is positive, negative or neutral, and companies like Oxford Strategic Consulting, IBM and Towers Watson now offer sentiment analysis of survey comments. Does this service have the potential to take off in the HR world? More…
Can LinkedIn attract senior talent?
More and more organisations are relying on LinkedIn as part of their recruitment strategy, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it can attract the best senior talent for your organization. Some statistics worth considering:
Only 6% of internet users in the MENA region use LinkedIn.
There are only 10 million LinkedIn users in the Middle East—compared to 100 million users in the US.
Approximately 60% of LinkedIn users have never worked for a company with more than 200 employees.
LinkedIn may be a very useful business-oriented social networking service, but we are less convinced that it should be used as a resourcing tool. What do you think? More…