Demand for bankers set to sky-rocket in the GCC

Financial services firms in the GCC are set to increase their headcount by 30% in the next few years, and up to 50,000 more jobs could be created.

A study by Hewitt Associates shows that banks in the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Jordan are laggards when it comes to recruiting enough people to cope with increased levels of business. As a result, they're set to splurge on staff.

"Being a high-growth region, the GCC, and the UAE in particular, is seeing increasingly high levels of demand for talent in banking and financial services," says Debabrat Mishra, consulting business leader, Hewitt Middle East.

Predictably, in a region looking to establish itself as the leader in Islamic finance, this is an area where the battle for talent is key.

Mishra says: "There is increasing demand and a premium for innovators. The future growth of Islamic banking hinges on the ability of institutions to rapidly innovate on product development. There will be a premium for talent that has in-depth understanding of traditional products and can use this knowledge to develop Sharia-compliant products."

The report also reckons salaries are set to rise by 9-11% this year.

Lee Slater, head of resourcing for MENA at Standard Chartered Bank, says a talent war for UAE nationals is driving pay hikes.

"This competition, along with the small number of highly-qualified national banking professionals, is fuelling the salary increases in the region. Every bank in the region has plans for expansion and growth and we are all calling for the same limited manpower. This has created more challenges."

Husam Al Sayed, general manager of human resources, Emirates NBD, adds: "Another major factor is the emergence of new players in the banking and finance industry, which is increasing the level of competition between UAE banks to retain their talented staff."