From Germany to the UAE. On Tuesday we heard from Luke Tapp, who is based in Dubai, talking about how there is no furlough scheme at all in the UAE, so there is no means by which, if a company puts somebody on leave, the government will contribute something towards their salary. Instead the government's help has come in the form of ministerial resolution 279 of 2020 which allows companies scope to take unusual but necessary measures to help the business in light of Covid-19 - measures which can have a direct impact on the workforce. So things like putting people onto unpaid leave, onto part-time hours, part-time pay, and putting people on mandatory annual leave. That resolution has certainly helped private sector businesses in the UAE but notwithstanding that help many businesses over there are struggling. Luke Tapp again:
Luke Tapp: “There’s no getting away from the fact that it's a tough economy and, as the employment practice advising international clients on cost cutting measures, we see it across all sectors. I don't think any sectors really are immune to the economic challenges that we're seeing out there in the UAE market. So yes, it's a tough environment. I think, in terms of positives, what we can definitely say is that the government were very proactive in managing the spread of the infection. The lockdown that we saw implemented a few months ago was very aggressive and it had a really positive impact on reducing the infection spread, and we came out of the lockdown much quicker as well. What we see now from the government is very much a push to support business, to support the economy, to get a bit of momentum for all private sector businesses now. So I think what we expect to see over the coming months is a strong recovery within the economy and companies getting back to full capacity in terms of their workforce, getting people back into their offices, getting people back spending money, and getting business moving again, I would say in terms of the one or two sectors that we see coming back stronger than others, definitely the tech sector is coming back very strong. We are seeing some companies looking at recruitment, looking at moving employees into the UAE in the tech sector and, maybe, in the healthcare as well and the pharmaceutical sector - we've seen a couple of clients that have been quite active in in those areas as well but other than that it's a case now for a lot of the clients in other sectors to just sort of maintain their position, restructure their organisation, get a new workforce in place that works for the new economy, and then looking for opportunities in the medium to longer term future.”
E-learning – what courses do have and at what cost?
Finally to our FAQ slot and a question we have been asked by a number of clients recently - what e-learning courses do we have? With many staff still furloughed and unable to work, e-learning provides a perfect opportunity for both employees and managers to up skill. The answer is we have 5 e-learning courses - so we have a trio of courses in our Management Essentials series covering Disciplinary & Grievance Hearings, Investigations and Capability plus our pair of courses on Sexual Harassment, one for employees and one for managers. A question we have been asked often in recent weeks is how many employees can access the training and at what cost? The answer is we don’t operate a subscription model. Instead all the modules come with a licence for an unlimited number of users which means hundreds of people can all be trained for a one-off purchase cost, with the option to repeat the training as many times as you like without any further cost. Each of the three Management Essentials modules is priced at £3,500, or if you buy all three modules together, £9,000 and most clients who have purchased so far have opted for that discounted package. As for the Harassment modules they cost £3,750 each. Included for that cost is a degree of tailoring – adding your organisation’s logo throughout and including your organisation’s policies and procedures and any other documentation you'd like to add. If you would like to have a closer look at any of the modules you can, we are offering a free demonstration so please do get in touch if this might be something you want to consider for your staff. As we said, if you have staff currently furloughed this is a very good time for them to take on this sort of training.
For now from me that’s the news. Good bye.
