“Productivity is the first victim of unskilled employees, then comes the quality and quantity of the outcome,” said businessman Hussein Shobokshi.
Faults in companies’ human resources departments are a main cause of hiring employees who are not cut out for the job, he added.
“The main organ of every business is the HR department,” he said. “It is responsible for making very important decisions within the business, ranging from developing strategies to improving efficiencies, and the kind of employees to recruit.”
Employers want to select employees who have or who can learn the skills necessary to do the job, but another problem is a high turnover of workers who are trained for their positions only to leave for greener pastures.
“Sometimes schools are forced to hire unprofessional teachers to fill a gap,” said Arlene Attar, principal of the American Program and Al-Hamra Schools in Jeddah. “When you hire teachers with university degrees and no experience you end up training them with an extensive program. Then after two years of training and experience they leave the school and we end up with an empty chair to fill.”
Some industries need really high skilled and qualified members in fields like health sciences. Whether it’s a hospital, a clinic or even a pharmacy, one mistake can be expensive if not fatal.
“People rely on us and trust us with their lives. Medical staff — from doctors, nurses, lab technicians and even pharmacists — should be really careful with their diagnoses because one small mistake can lead to a major medical error,” said Dr. Yasser Al-Nouri, a general practitioner at King Abdulaziz University Hospital in Jeddah.
Certain jobs demand certain skills. And employees need to be aware of that in order to achieve their profession goal. Working at a beauty salon demands creativity and patience, according to beauty salon owner Mona Abdullah.
“If a customer leaves the salon unsatisfied with our treatment or our staff, then I consider us failed at achieving our main business goal,” she said.
Mostafa Fahmi, a marketer at a car company, said that employers should be careful not to mistake inexperience with incompetence.
“These are two different categories that shouldn’t be confused with each other. I believe strongly that everyone can become qualified with the right dose of commitment and motivation under the right management,” he said.
