Top 9 Dynamic HR Trends in Saudi Arabia in 2024

The trends of human resource management have spread worldwide, and their importance cannot be overstated. One of the most rewarding outcomes is that organizations may now gain a competitive advantage by hiring the right people.

The case of the Saudi Arabian Kingdom is fascinating. Organizations in Saudi Arabia have regularly taken a formal approach to employee management. The end product is pleasing, and is well-described between the lines of the Top HR trends in Saudi Arabia.

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Top 9 HR trends in Saudi Arabia in 2024

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1. Priority to employee autonomy and empowerment

Within an HR portal in Saudi Arabia, majority of HR functions are self-serviced. Employees today log in to their account and clock-in & out as needed. They make complaints and requests, apply for leave, update personal information, and carry out regular workday functions using the same account. They are also able to view their attendance record, salary breakdown, and company policies.

Today’s workflow processes are embedded into the system like peopleHum, allowing task scheduling and notification, easy access to employee data & documentation, and so much more. This not only frees up HR’s time, but also helps focus on strategic thinking and human intervention.

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2. ‘Saudization’ and challenges in recruitment

Saudization is a policy that harnesses Saudi’s local talent - and requires enterprises to hire them on a quota basis. But absence of vital skills is negatively affecting many businesses in Saudi Arabia, making more than half of organisations less productive and forcing more than a third to rely heavily on expensive consultants and outsourcing.

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Finding the right talent for the right position is key to the success of private companies, and the challenge is to be able to develop the skills of Saudis while they are on the job. - Mona Althagafi, KSA Country Director of Serco

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There are several Saudi Arabia trends affecting talent strategies in the kingdom, but one that stands out is the use of an applicant tracking system (ATS). Implementing this smarter, more analytic approach to hiring will enhance return of investment, and certainly remove bias from recruitment.

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3. Talent Retention

Employers are pushing not only the recruitment of nationals but also enough investment in their future to ensure their retention. But talent retention can be the most pressing HR challenge in Saudi Arabia. One suggestion is to take a holistic strategy. Nationals are more concerned with training and career path clarity, whereas expats are more concerned with monetary remuneration.

Segmenting employee and conducting formal engagement surveys to determine the HR issues in Saudi Arabia are among the best practises. Above all, both nationals and expats benefit from a learning atmosphere with clear indicators of performance metrics and personal growth prospects.

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4. Massive shift towards artificial intelligence and HR cloud

Traditional HR trends in Saudi Arabia are being reinvented by AI, thanks to advancements in people data and analytics. Automation is already being used to ease administrative loads and streamline inefficient HR processes.

Decision-making processes, employee experiences, and task fulfilment have all benefited from AI technology. Companies expect these HR trends in Saudi Arabia to grow and have an impact on the HR industries in the next years.

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While cloud-based HR solutions in Saudi Arabia are not new, HR departments are increasingly using them, particularly in the recruitment process. HR management software in Saudi Arabia has the advantage of being up to date on a regular basis, as well as being simple to use and available from any smart device.

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5. Culture and Engagement

Culture and engagement have emerged as key problems for business leaders in Saudi Arabia, in an era of increased corporate transparency and acute skills shortages. Employee engagement and culture concerns have sprung onto the scene and have risen among the HR trends in Saudi Arabia.

Many results in firms are influenced by culture, probably most notably employee engagement and retention. Many businesses may suffer as a result of this. More than half of respondents claim their companies have a poor or non-existent engagement measurement and improvement programme.

You may examine the missing links in the culture-engagement connection, as well as potential solutions with peopleHum’s employee engagement system.

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6. HR Tech Summit

The HR Tech Saudi Summit remains the Kingdom's only event devoted to HR Technology, bringing together top HR and IT leaders from some of Saudi Arabia's most forward-thinking organisations, as well as global technology innovators, under one roof or virtually for two days to discuss the latest HR trends, ideas, and challenges in human resource functions when implementing technology.

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7. Leveraging the use of social media

Those in the region, like companies all across the world, are fully aware of how the rise of social media has made the world more transparent. Given the ubiquitous usage of social media, this is unsurprising. Companies are increasingly held to account on social media in Saudi Arabia, where smartphone and Twitter penetration rates are among the highest in the world, and changes to company rules are frequently notified by Tweet.

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See also similar concepts: Social Recruiting | Text Recruiting: A Complete Guide

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8. Preference to data-driven decisions

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HR professionals are under more pressure than ever before to think strategically and transformatively. They must analyse sources of data for everything from compensation raises and changes to variable pay shifts and ensure that the business's ROI is not harmed.

Across Saudi Arabia's economic landscape, changes - that are affecting how organisations see their human capital costs -  are pulling HR professionals into strategic and financial talks more frequently than in the past. HR teams are being challenged to assist workforce skills development with market insights, data, metrics, and benchmarks.

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9. Diversity in the workplace

The region has seen a lot of progress in this area, with initiatives to encourage women into the workplace at all levels, through flexible working and more favourable maternity policies. Diversity has to contend with nationalisation initiatives and historic cultural norms, notably in Saudi Arabia. When it comes to inclusivity, intention is not always matched with action.

The second highest overall risk for the region and third globally is for the statement. ‘We use data analytics to de-bias hiring and rewards.’ Across the region, HR management in Saudi Arabia is seeing an increased focus on improving the return on investment from the workforce.

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Must Read: Is diversity baked into your hiring process?

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Final words

In order to maximise the value of both employees and machines, businesses in Saudi Arabia must rethink their structures. As the world moves more and more to the HR cloud, smart device applications are becoming more important to support the capabilities. In fact, mobile devices are used for nearly everything, and HR managers are now looking for innovative ways for HR management in Saudi Arabia to support the same capabilities on a desktop view.

The finest HR software in Saudi Arabia should be able to access all information on the go, in line with these cloud-based options. If your HR department isn't already using cloud-based solutions, now is the time to make the switch to ensure that your company's data is centralised, stored efficiently, and accessible.