Qatarisation strategies found to be failing female nationals

Companies in Qatar are failing women with their Qatarisation strategies, according to a new report.

In a survey, Oxford Strategic Consulting (OSC) found that 36 per cent of organisations in the country either never or sometimes actively promote female nationals as part of their strategy.

This is despite Qatari women representing about half of the national workforce, or 91,000 working age individuals.

The company found that 11 per cent of senior business leaders in Qatar never promoted female nationals and 25 per cent stated that they only sometimes promote female nationals.

Smaller organisations of 240-499 people were found less likely than larger organisations of more than 500 to actively promote Qatari women.

While government and semi-government organisations were found significantly more likely that private sector firms to always actively promote female nationals – at 79 per cent compared to 25 per cent.

Oxford recommend businesses develop better talent seeking methods to improve their Qatarisation schemes, with 47 per cent found to rarely undertake activities to identify talent early.

Similarly, 50 per cent rarely offered careers advice to nationals at schools and colleges.

In OSC’s employment report it found that 44 per cent of Qatari women listed not hearing about jobs as a significant difficulty when seeking employment.

Qatarisation programmes at companies were also found in need of improvement with just 33 per cent of companies surveyed stating they always maximise development and involvement of national talent.

“As these talent pipelines are developed, organisations then need to ensure that Qatari women can achieve levels of seniority by reaching C-Suite roles and Board memberships; a major goal for career-minded women,” OSC said.

“The most practically-minded companies should build effective talent pipelines by reaching out to female nationals often and early in addition to ensuring ample development opportunities for new entrants to the workforce or those who re-join after maternity leave or as a second wave in their careers.”