July 11-13, 2023, Cambridge UK

3 DAYS / 10 Workshops
MORE THAN 200 ACADEMIC PAPERS

The Future of GCC Labour Market Reform: Towards a Multi-Disciplinary, Sustainable, Evidence-Based and Practical Understanding

Labour market reform increasingly represents the single biggest challenge for government, academic, and business leaders. Broadly, at a national level, policy makers are concerned with transforming the productivity of the local population into the future engine of economic growth, creating a more sustainable economic and social model, supporting greater economic diversification, social stability, improving job creation, employee engageme ...


Labour market reform increasingly represents the single biggest challenge for government, academic, and business leaders. Broadly, at a national level, policy makers are concerned with transforming the productivity of the local population into the future engine of economic growth, creating a more sustainable economic and social model, supporting greater economic diversification, social stability, improving job creation, employee engagement and well-being. Employers are impacted by the factors influencing supply, demand, and the cost of talent and how it would influence the productivity and positivity of their regional workforce. Finally, individuals living and working in the region are concerned with personal standards of living, how best to invest in their own human capital, their careers, quality and quantity of life, etc. These factors are all, in some way, dependent on the existing structure and future direction of reform of the labour markets of the region. 2 It is important to understand how to attract, develop, engage, and retain the growing numbers of job-seeking youth, females and other marginal groups, particularly amongst the region’s local population. While government policies focus on promoting the prospects of the local population, changes to the role of nationals in the workplace, by implication imply changes to the role of expatriates too. Highly segmented labour markets and the significance and inconsistency of the role of government, both disproportionately as employer of choice for the majority of the local population and formulator of labour policy within the broader context of social and economic policies, is an aspect that needs to be studied. Reconsidering the role of education in the region with such a young and rapidly growing demography is key, in particular in promoting broader employability among graduates, helping them to navigate the transition from education to employment. Arguably, promoting self-awareness and the finding of meaningful work are critical. An evidence-based approach is required, extending research to better understand how these issues interact with each other, without over-relying on analysis and practices conducted elsewhere. It is imperative to develop local solutions, focused on impact analysis of investments made by governments, employers, and individuals, where stakeholders work together (researchers and practitioners, governments & employers (PPP), educators and employers) in order to establish an integrated, multi-disciplinary approach (including economics, education, business, psychology, human resources, finance etc.). This workshop aims to take a lead in promoting such an approach and papers are invited accordingly. In sum, although labour reform has been a priority in the region for decades, an increased sense of urgency now prevails to get it right this time. The advancement of the local population is at the very heart of the issue – in determining whether the region propels itself towards a demographic dividend or spins into a demographic disaster as it continues to pursue the transition to a post-energy mode of achieving social, economic, and work imperatives.  

Arguably, in the GCC today there is no area of policy formation and execution with a higher priority than increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of local labour markets. Put simply, labour market reform represents the single biggest issue for government, academic and organisational leaders (Jones and Punshi 2013). Broadly, at a national level, policymakers are concerned with transforming the productivity of the local population into the future engine of economic growth, creating a more sustainable economic and social model, supporting greater economic diversification and, social 3 stability, besides improving job creation, employee engagement and well-being. Employers are impacted by the factors influencing supply, demand and the cost of talent and how it would influence the productivity and positivity of their regional workforce. Finally, individuals living and working in the region are concerned with personal standards of living, their quality and quantity of life, where they live, how they get to work, where their kids go to school, etc. All of these aspects are in some way dependent on the existing structure and future direction of reform of the region’s labour markets.




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Workshop

Directors


David

Jones

NA
The Talent Enterprise



Sofiane

Sahraoui

NA
Institute of Public Administration of Bahrain


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