Companies inching closer to Saudization

A number of HR officials of private firms, which have moved from the red zone to the green zone, say their companies could achieve the required percentage of Saudization by creating new jobs and establishing training programs targeting new employees.
Hattab Al-Einzi, spokesman of the Ministry of Labor, told Arab News that the proportion of companies that have moved from red to green zone under the Nitaqat program keeps varying at any given time.
Nitaqat replaced the original Saudization program that was initiated in 1994 as a means of reducing reliance on foreign labor. The goal of attaining a 30 percent share of the labor market for Saudis was rarely reached. However, authorities implemented Nitaqat as a means of creating rewards for companies that met certain standards. Nitaqat divides the labor market into 41 activities and each activity into five groups (giant, large, medium, small and very small) to have in total 205 categories.
The performance of an establishment in the nationalization of jobs is evaluated by comparing it with similar establishment’s activity and size in order to have a fair standard for the evaluation.
Rana Shaheen, regional director for Communication and Public Relations at Starbucks, said his company moved from the red zone to green zone.
“Our company took serious steps to develop Saudization programs in the company,” Shaheen said. “We aimed to develop the capacity of young Saudis who work in our branches of Starbucks in the Kingdom, especially new employees who have been accepted to work at Starbucks."
She added: “Starbucks focused on training programs to qualify new Saudi staff to develop their skills, especially in dealing with customers. The training program is graded into three stages and extending to one year. The main goals of our training program are how to offer company’s products to customers, oversee branches of the company and management.”
At the same time, transport companies in Saudi Arabia started hiring Saudis in this sector and qualifying new Saudi drivers by paying attractive salaries to push them into working in the transport sector.