Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre has signed MoUs with Mawaheb, ThinkProp and Abu Dhabi School of Management to support broker training, certification and sector talent development. Image Courtesy: Official Communication Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre has launched the Abu Dhabi Real Estate Broker Transformation Course, a new mandatory licensing curriculum designed to upskill real estate brokers and prepare them to act as trusted advisors in the emirate’s growing real estate market. As part of the initiative, ADREC has signed memoranda of understanding with Mawaheb, part of the Department of Government Enablement – Abu Dhabi, ThinkProp, and Abu Dhabi School of Management. The agreements cover the delivery and joint development of broker training, ADREC-recognised courses and certification, as well as applied research to support the sector’s continued development. The new curriculum replaces the previous broker course and forms part of ADREC’s wider strategy to raise service quality and professional expertise across Abu Dhabi’s real estate sector. The launch comes at a time of strong market growth. According to ADREC’s H1 2026 real estate transactions report, Abu Dhabi recorded AED 117 billion in real estate transactions during the first half of the year, marking a 112% year-on-year increase. During the same period, ADREC issued 2,040 licences for real estate professionals, up 34%, while the number of licensed real estate brokers reached 3,302. As Abu Dhabi attracts more international investors, ADREC said a consistent standard of broker expertise is becoming increasingly important to investor confidence and the overall quality of service in the market. The curriculum has been tailored to Abu Dhabi’s regulatory framework and developed by a committee of senior local and international brokers. It has also been benchmarked against recognised global real estate credentials. The course covers legal, operational, ethical and market knowledge, and includes a capstone transaction simulation and final assessment. Successful candidates will receive the ADREC Certified Broker credential, which will be renewed annually as regulations evolve. Rashed Al Omaira, Director General of the Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre, said that ADREC’s role as the sector regulator is to ensure professional standards keep pace with market growth. “Brokers are often the first point of contact an investor has with the sector, and the quality of their advice shapes that investor’s experience of the market. The new curriculum sets one clear standard of regulatory knowledge and professional conduct for every licensed broker in the emirate, and it prepares brokers to act as trusted advisors to their clients,” he said. ADREC is also piloting the curriculum through a real estate brokerage training programme with Mawaheb, in collaboration with the Abu Dhabi Youth Council. Set to begin on 10 October 2026, the programme will prepare 60 Emirati nationals for licensed careers in real estate brokerage. The programme will begin with an open day, followed by one week of training and a three-month practical training period with nine leading entities in the sector. Participants will receive support to obtain the accreditation required to practise as real estate brokers in Abu Dhabi, with potential employment opportunities available upon successful completion. His Excellency Ibrahim Nasser, Undersecretary of the Department of Government Enablement, said the programme reflects Abu Dhabi Government’s commitment to advancing Emiratisation by connecting national talent with sectors requiring specialised skills. “Through our collaboration with partners across the public and private sectors, we are helping Emirati nationals enter the workforce in a strategically important economic sector, contribute to Abu Dhabi’s priorities, and build sustainable careers in real estate,” he said. Dr Marc Poulin, Acting President of Abu Dhabi School of Management, said the collaboration with ADREC will help connect academic teaching directly with market expectations and support the sector through applied research. Wajdi Ghoussoub, Interim GM and CEO of ADRES – ThinkProp, added that ThinkProp’s role as an ADREC-approved training provider is to turn the curriculum into practical training that prepares brokers for the realities of today’s market. The curriculum, Mawaheb programme and MoUs with ThinkProp and ADSM were presented at Abu Dhabi’s Livability and Investment Exhibition, LIVEX. Together, the initiatives form part of ADREC’s efforts to build an ecosystem of government, academic and private-sector partners that prepare professionals for Abu Dhabi’s real estate sector and raise the standard of service provided across the market.

The UAE's Wage Protection System is placing greater emphasis on early alerts and timely payroll compliance, helping employers address salary delays while strengthening financial security and workplace confidence for employees. Image Courtesy: Official Communication For employees, a salary arriving on time is more than a routine bank notification. It supports financial planning, household commitments and the confidence that comes from knowing when to expect their earnings. The UAE is reinforcing that principle through its Wage Protection System (WPS), with renewed attention on electronic monitoring, employer notifications and early action when salaries are delayed. An October 2026 report highlighted the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation's (MOHRE) approach to wage compliance, explaining how employers receive alerts before further administrative measures are applied. Importantly, the ministry has clarified that the latest procedures do not introduce additional substantive obligations for employers. Instead, they strengthen the implementation of existing wage-payment requirements. How the Wage Protection System Works Under Ministerial Resolution No. 340 of 2026, which took effect on June 1, private-sector employers registered with MOHRE are required to pay salaries for the preceding month by the first day of the following calendar month. Payments are made through the WPS or another ministry-approved payment channel, allowing authorities to monitor whether wages have been transferred. The framework provides for electronic monitoring from the payment due date, with notifications and alerts beginning from the second day when an establishment has not met its wage obligations. Employers are given opportunities to resolve outstanding payments, while further measures may apply under the resolution's graduated enforcement process. For HR and payroll teams, the framework reinforces the value of accurate salary records, efficient payment processes and proactive communication. Supporting Employees Through Timely Payments The scale of the system is substantial. According to MOHRE, the WPS processes more than AED37 billion in wages each month. The ministry has also identified labour-intensive industries, including construction, transportation, security and cleaning services, as areas receiving particular attention under its risk-based monitoring approach. By identifying delays early, the system aims to help employers address payment issues promptly and maintain stable employment relationships. Employees who experience delayed or unpaid wages can raise concerns through MOHRE's official salary complaint channels. Why Payroll Reliability Matters Consistent salary payments play an important role in employee wellbeing. Predictable income allows workers to plan their expenses, manage financial commitments and focus on their professional responsibilities. For employers, payroll reliability also contributes to trust. When payment processes are transparent and dependable, employees have greater confidence in the organisation's commitment to its workforce. The updated WPS framework therefore carries an important message for businesses: timely compensation is both a regulatory responsibility and a foundation of a positive employee experience. As the UAE continues strengthening its employment ecosystem, clear wage-payment procedures and effective monitoring can support a more transparent, reliable and employee-focused workplace. Sources: GulfDuty, October 5, 2026; Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation; UAE Government Portal, Payment of Salaries/Wages; Gulf News, October 1, 2026; Ministerial Resolution No. 340 of 2026

Fahed Bizzari, Founder of Bellamy Alden and a leading authority in AI empowerment, examines who should take responsibility when AI-assisted work goes wrong, and why effective leadership, employee training and clear accountability matter more than simply assigning blame. Image Courtesy: Magnific When something goes wrong in work produced with AI, who's to blame? Is it the AI, the person using it or the organisation? Before I answer that, let me tell you about a 2025 court case in America. Two years before the case, the law firm Butler Snow had warned its lawyers that AI could produce convincing but inaccurate material and required them to check its output. Then, in May 2025, a lawyer drafted two court motions and sent them to his supervisors. To support the arguments with case law, one supervisor asked ChatGPT for citations and then added them without checking their accuracy or even their existence. The drafting lawyer incorporated the additions and filed the motions, following his usual practice of trusting citations supplied by his supervisors. The other supervisor neither checked the citations himself nor asked someone else to check them. The opposing side challenged the citations as fabricated, bringing the problem before the judge. The court ordered the lawyers and firm to explain why they should not be sanctioned. During those proceedings, the firm investigated other filings, commissioned an independent review and committed to further training and stronger checking procedures. In July, Judge Anna Manasco reprimanded the three lawyers, removed them from the case and referred them to professional regulators. But she released the firm without sanction, having found that it had acted reasonably both in trying to prevent the misconduct and in responding to it. Start With the Organisation Long before AI, I've always believed that when something goes wrong, the last thing you want to do is blame someone. Whoever got it wrong will need to put their work right, for sure. But other people working under the same conditions may end up making the same mistake, and dealing only with the person whose mistake came to light can leave everyone else exposed. So the ethos is to use the incident to examine and improve how the work gets done in your organisation. In the context of AI, that could mean looking at what your people understand about the tools they're using, how well you've prepared them and what you're asking them to do. If you expect them to check AI-assisted work, have you allowed time for it? Has anyone actually shown them how to do that checking? And do they have someone to turn to when they find a problem they can't resolve themselves? If nobody has shown someone how to spot a problem, I would want to know why before blaming them for missing it. You could replace that employee tomorrow and still have the same problem, because their replacement would have to work it out too. But if you've done your part and the person knew what was required, had the time and support to do it and simply didn't bother, then, as a last resort, the blame belongs with them. Putting Their Names to the Work It's important for team members to understand that when they pass work on to somebody else, they're putting their names to it. Colleagues trust each other to have done their work properly, and using AI doesn't change that expectation. If it's good work, they deserve the credit whether they used AI or not. If it's poor, they have to answer for it and help put it right. Examining the organisation's contribution helps establish why the mistake happened and where blame belongs. It doesn't relieve team members of responsibility for the work they've delivered, even if their employer asked them to use AI. They also need to accept that AI can get things wrong. They might get a convincing summary of a document that has left out an important condition or added a claim the document never made. If they're asking the AI to do things for them, a misunderstanding can lead to the wrong action too. Finding out that the AI made the mistake still leaves you with the question of what the person using it did to check the work. In this case, the lawyer who used ChatGPT knew the firm's rules and admitted he hadn't followed them. What interests me is that the judge also held the other two lawyers responsible. The two who hadn't used ChatGPT still had a responsibility to check what went to court under their names. That matters for anyone reviewing or approving a colleague's AI-assisted work. Their approval tells the next person that they've done their part, so they need to be clear about what to check before giving it. A Note About Agents Quite often, an employee will be using an assistant, agent or agent skill that somebody else has built for them, rather than an assistant in its default state. In that situation, you also need to examine what that person built, as the instructions they gave may have caused the problem. Improve How Your Organisation Works With AI My advice for business leaders is threefold. First, follow the judge's line of thinking. She took the trouble to examine each lawyer's conduct as well as the firm's. Give your employees that same care when AI-assisted work goes wrong. Second, even if an employee was at fault, ask what the incident tells you about AI use elsewhere in your organisation. For example, do people assume that AI-assisted work has already been checked because of who passed it on? If that assumption contributed to one mistake, other people could be making it too. Third, use what you've learned to improve your approach to AI empowerment. Use practical training to show your people how these mistakes happen and how to catch them in the work they actually do. Give them a chance to practise and get help with the things they don't understand. As their leader, you have to make time for that, just as you have to allow time for checking the work. Make those checking and approval responsibilities clear in your AI governance, including who people can turn to when they're stuck. Taking that preparation seriously should mean fewer things go wrong and fewer occasions when you have to ask who's to blame.

Employees across Southeast Asia could see salary growth remain steady in 2027, with Aon projecting an average 5.2% increase. Vietnam is expected to lead the region, while demand for AI, data and technology talent continues to shape employers’ pay and hiring priorities. Image Courtesy: Magnific What will pay growth look like for employees across Southeast Asia in 2027? For many, the answer is steady rather than dramatic. Aon projects that organisations across Southeast Asia will budget for average salary increases of 5.2% in 2027, slightly above the 5% recorded in 2026. The findings come from its 2026 Salary Increase and Turnover Study, covering more than 1,200 businesses across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. But the regional average tells only part of the story. Vietnam Leads Salary Growth Vietnam is expected to record the strongest salary increase at 6.7%, followed by Indonesia at 5.5% and the Philippines at 5.3%. Malaysia is projected at 4.8%, Thailand at 4.6%, while Singapore is expected to remain at 4.1%. Market Projected 2027 Salary Increase Vietnam 6.7% Indonesia 5.5% Philippines 5.3% Malaysia 4.8% Thailand 4.6% Singapore 4.1% Southeast Asia 5.2% Pay expectations also differ significantly between industries. Life sciences and medical devices are expected to lead salary increases in Vietnam at 7.7%, Thailand at 5.3% and Malaysia at 5.2%. Singapore’s retail and hospitality sector is projected to lead at 4.8%, while consulting, business and community services tops the Philippines at 6.7%. AI Skills Move Up the Hiring Agenda Perhaps more revealing for employees is where employers plan to invest their talent budgets. Among companies planning expansion, 50% are prioritising front-office positions, including sales and other revenue-generating roles, while 35% are focusing on engineering and technology positions. Data and AI roles are the most in-demand, cited by 64% of organisations, followed by front-office roles at 56%, cybersecurity at 44%, software and cloud positions at 43%, and project and programme management roles at 41%. That suggests employees looking ahead to 2027 may need to think beyond the annual salary increase. Skills connected to AI, data, cybersecurity and technology are becoming increasingly important as companies decide where to direct workforce investment. Pay Is Only Part of the Employee Equation Aon’s findings also show why employers cannot rely on salary increases alone to retain people. Employee attrition remained in double digits across every market studied. Malaysia recorded the highest turnover rate at 17.4%, followed by the Philippines at 17.3% and Singapore at 16.8%. Across Southeast Asia, attrition stood at 16.6%. Rahul Chawla, Partner and Head of Talent Solutions, Southeast Asia at Aon, said competitive pay remains important, but organisations also need to consider the wider employee value proposition, including growth opportunities, purpose and career development. That may be the bigger workplace message behind the 2027 salary numbers. A 5.2% regional increase gives employees a useful benchmark, but the workplaces best positioned to attract and retain talent will likely be those that combine competitive compensation with opportunities to learn, develop and build skills for the changing world of work. Sources: Aon; Aon 2026 Salary Increase and Turnover Study for Southeast Asia; Aon 2026 Southeast Asia Talent Pulse Survey

Jamal Elagra, Senior Advisor – Strategy & Leadership at Element MEA, explores why more HR transformation does not always produce better organisational outcomes, and why leaders may need to rethink the infrastructure beneath performance, reward, talent and technology before redesigning the processes themselves. Image Courtesy: Element MEA HR has never had more transformation activity, or less evidence that it is working. AI is entering the function, platforms are maturing, and performance, skills and reward systems are being redesigned at pace. Yet McKinsey finds that only 26% of organisational transformations successfully improve performance and sustain those improvements. Deloitte reports that only 2% of CHROs believe their performance management systems work effectively. Korn Ferry’s latest global reward research found that only 3% of reward strategies are both aligned to business strategy and differentiated from competitors. Our hypothesis is direct. Organisations frequently transform individual HR processes while leaving the underlying organisational operating system unchanged. The shortfall is not in the number of HR initiatives. It is in the system those initiatives are expected to run on. The Evidence: Transformation Starts One Level Too Low Performance management illustrates the pattern. Companies change rating scales, introduce OKRs and automate appraisal cycles. Yet Deloitte’s 2025 research found that 61% of managers and 72% of workers could not say they trust their organisation’s performance management process. Only 26% of organisations said their managers were highly effective at enabling team performance. The form is rarely the constraint. Performance depends on a chain of organisational conditions: strategy, structure, accountabilities, leadership, performance, reward and capability. Where roles are unclear, managers avoid accountability and objectives sit apart from commercial priorities, digitising the appraisal makes a weak system more efficient. Reward shows the same gap between intent and execution. Korn Ferry’s 2025 Global Total Rewards Pulse Survey found that 74% of organisations describe their reward strategy as either high-level philosophy or broadly aligned with standard market practice. Just 15% tailor it to their organisation’s specific needs, and only 3% differentiate it around business strategy. Some 56% of organisations do not assess the effectiveness of their overall reward strategy. And 76% either do not communicate their reward strategy or communicate only high-level philosophy; only 24% communicate meaningful detail about the what, why and how. The Diagnosis: A Governance Problem Organisations can have a strategy, implement programmes and spend significant money without establishing whether those interventions produce the intended business outcome. That is not primarily an HR process failure. It is a failure of governance: the mechanisms that connect people decisions to strategic results and hold them to account. Digitising a weak system does not strengthen it. It makes it more efficient. McKinsey’s research supports a systemic reading. When organisations followed a rigorous set of transformation actions, reported success increased from an average 26% to 58%; among completed transformations following a rigorous approach, reported success reached 79%. Companies in the top quartile of McKinsey’s Organizational Health Index have historically generated roughly three times the shareholder returns of companies in the bottom quartile. Change the Starting Question Most HR transformations begin by asking which programmes to redesign. The more useful question is what organisational capabilities must exist for the business strategy to succeed. That shifts the agenda from HR activity to people infrastructure. AI raises the stakes. Deloitte’s 2026 research found that 85% of leaders consider adaptability critical, yet only 7% believe they are leading in continuously developing workforce adaptability, and only 6% report meaningful progress in redesigning work for human-AI interaction. Technology can scale a well-designed operating model. It cannot compensate for an unresolved one. Building People Infrastructure Element MEA defines People Infrastructure as the relationship between business strategy, organisation architecture, accountability, performance, talent, reward, technology and governance. Each layer depends on the one before it. Strategy defines where the organisation is going and the capabilities it requires. Organisation architecture sets structures, decision rights and workforce requirements. Accountability makes ownership of outcomes explicit. Performance, talent and reward systems translate those requirements into how people are measured, developed, deployed and paid. Technology and governance provide the data, workflows, controls and analytics to operate the system consistently; and to test whether it is working. Technology sits at the end of this logic, not the beginning. The Executive Takeaway The measure of HR transformation is not how many initiatives reach completion. It is whether the organisation now operates differently: decisions made faster, accountability clearer, critical talent identifiable, performance objectively differentiated, and workforce investment traceable to financial and strategic outcomes. Boards and executive teams should hold HR transformation to the standard applied to any enterprise investment: evidence of changed organisational performance and behaviour. Where that evidence exists, HR has moved beyond delivering programmes. It has built business infrastructure through people. Sources: Element MEA

Professionals in Saudi Arabia and the UAE are among the world’s most optimistic about AI, according to Korn Ferry’s latest workforce research. But while employees report greater efficiency, many are also facing heavier workloads, raising a bigger question for employers about whether AI is actually creating better work. Image Courtesy: Magnific Employees in the UAE and Saudi Arabia are embracing artificial intelligence with some of the highest levels of optimism globally, but the technology’s impact on their working lives is proving more complicated. Korn Ferry’s Workforce 2026 Global Insights Report found that 81% of professionals in Saudi Arabia and 76% in the UAE feel excited and positive about how emerging technologies such as AI will change the way they work. The findings come from a survey of more than 16,000 professionals across 11 global markets, ranging from individual contributors to CEOs. The research included 500 respondents each from Saudi Arabia and the UAE. That enthusiasm gives employers in the Gulf a potentially important advantage as organisations accelerate AI adoption. But the report also reveals a workplace paradox: AI may be making employees faster without necessarily making their working lives easier. Efficiency Is Rising Among professionals using AI, 78% in Saudi Arabia and 68% in the UAE said the technology had increased their efficiency. Both figures compare favourably with the global average of 63%. Yet higher efficiency is not consistently translating into employees feeling that they can focus on more meaningful work. In Saudi Arabia, 58% of respondents said they were too busy to deliver meaningful results, while 50% of UAE professionals said the same. Globally, the figure stood at 45%. AI Is Also Creating More Work The workload figures reveal an even more striking contradiction. While employees are using AI to become more efficient, 64% of Saudi professionals and 59% of UAE professionals said AI tools had increased the number of tasks expected of them. The global average was 52%. That additional pressure appears to be affecting employees' perceptions of their capacity. Some 56% of Saudi respondents and 53% of UAE respondents said they felt stretched beyond their capabilities at work, compared with 44% globally. For employers, those numbers suggest that simply measuring the amount of work employees can complete after adopting AI may provide an incomplete picture of its success. The Next Challenge Is Redesigning Work Jonathan Holmes, Managing Director for Middle East, Turkey and Africa at Korn Ferry, described the region's enthusiasm for AI as an advantage for organisations. But he also argued that efficiency alone will not produce growth. The opportunity for leaders, according to Holmes, is to redesign roles and reconsider how work is performed with AI, while helping employees understand the impact of what they do. That may become one of the more important questions facing HR leaders as workplace AI matures. If technology allows an employee to complete a task faster, organisations have choices about what happens to the time saved. Filling every efficiency gain with additional tasks risks turning AI into another source of workload pressure rather than a tool that creates space for higher-value work. For UAE and Saudi employers, employee resistance may not be the biggest obstacle to AI adoption, their workforces are already remarkably optimistic about the technology. The challenge now is ensuring that enthusiasm translates into better-designed jobs, meaningful productivity and sustainable workloads rather than simply longer task lists. Sources: Korn Ferry, Workforce 2026 Global Insights Report; Khaleej Times

Saudi employers face tighter rules for counting nationals under Nitaqat, with Qiwa introducing limits linked to employees’ contract histories. Saudi workers must meet contract, salary and employment-status requirements to continue counting towards an employer’s Saudisation levels. Image Courtesy: Business Destination Saudi employers will need to pay closer attention to employees’ contract histories under tightened rules governing how Saudi nationals are counted within the Nitaqat Saudisation programme. Under the mechanism finalised through the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development’s Qiwa platform, a Saudi employee must have no more than five employment contracts during the preceding 52 weeks to continue being counted as one Saudi employee under Nitaqat. The change makes contract history another factor HR teams need to consider when managing Saudisation compliance. Five Contracts Is Not the Only Requirement Simply remaining within the five-contract threshold does not automatically mean an employee qualifies for Nitaqat calculations. The worker must also have a valid employment contract registered through Qiwa and a total registered monthly salary of at least SAR4,000. Employees classified as part-time workers or students do not qualify to be counted as one full Saudi employee under the mechanism. For employers, this means Nitaqat workforce planning increasingly requires attention to the quality and status of employment records rather than simply the number of Saudi nationals on the payroll. Another Limit Applies After Seven Contracts Qiwa has also clarified a separate rule governing how many employment contracts a Saudi worker can enter into over a year. A Saudi employee cannot be issued another employment contract after entering into more than seven contracts within a 365-day period, calculated from the date of the first contract. An eighth contract cannot be issued until a full year has passed from the date of the first contract within the period in which the threshold was exceeded. This is separate from the five-contract Nitaqat rule. In practical terms, the five-contract threshold determines whether an employee continues to count as one Saudi employee for Nitaqat purposes, while the seven-contract restriction concerns whether another employment contract can be issued. Two Active Contracts Maximum There is another restriction employers need to watch. Saudi employees can hold no more than two employment contracts simultaneously. A worker who already has two active contracts must terminate one before entering into another employment agreement. Together, the measures place greater importance on accurate employment records within Qiwa. For HR teams, the key takeaway is therefore not simply that Saudi Arabia has introduced a “five-contract cap.” Employers need to distinguish between Nitaqat eligibility, annual contract limits and simultaneous employment restrictions when hiring Saudi nationals and calculating their Saudisation position. With Qiwa increasingly central to employment-contract administration, keeping employee records accurate and monitoring contract histories will be important for organisations seeking to avoid unexpected changes to their Nitaqat calculations. Sources: Saudi Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (MHRSD); Qiwa; Saudi Gazette; Gulf Business

A new partnership between ENOC Group and the Ministry of Community Empowerment will connect eligible social welfare beneficiaries with employment, practical training and workplace exposure, while giving younger participants early access to career development programmes. Image Courtesy: Official Communication A new UAE partnership is looking to turn social support into longer-term employment opportunity by creating clearer pathways into the workforce for eligible Emiratis. ENOC Group and the Ministry of Community Empowerment have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to expand employment and professional development opportunities for eligible participants in the Ministry’s empowerment and social welfare programmes. Announced during Ru’ya Careers UAE 2026 in Dubai, the partnership will combine job opportunities with practical training, workplace exposure, youth development and capacity building. From Support to Employment Under the agreement, the Ministry will identify and nominate eligible candidates and follow their progress through the programme. ENOC will then consider those candidates for available positions based on its recruitment requirements and business needs. Importantly, the programme goes beyond direct recruitment. Participants will also be able to access practical training and workplace exposure, providing an opportunity to build experience before moving into longer-term employment. The first phase will begin after the initial cohort is identified, with the programme's launch date expected to be announced later in 2026. For younger Emiratis, the partnership introduces an earlier entry point into the world of work. Participants aged 15 to 18 will be able to join selected ENOC summer programmes, where they can gain workplace experience, develop practical skills and explore potential education and career options. Building Longer-Term Workforce Readiness H.E. Noor Abulhoul, Assistant Undersecretary Social Welfare and Empowerment Sector at the Ministry of Community Empowerment, said the approach is designed to create a connected journey that moves from understanding a beneficiary’s capabilities to employment preparation, job matching and continued support after they enter the workforce. ENOC Group CEO Hussain Sultan Lootah similarly highlighted the importance of giving people experience and exposure at the beginning of their careers. “This partnership is about helping individuals gain the experience, confidence and exposure they need to take that next step, while opening clearer pathways into the workforce.” The range of potential career pathways is broad. At Ru’ya Careers UAE 2026, ENOC is showcasing opportunities spanning cybersecurity, refinery engineering, laboratory operations, chemistry and analytical sciences, alongside other technical and professional disciplines. For employees and jobseekers, the significance of the partnership lies in its emphasis on progression rather than placement alone. By combining employment opportunities with training, early workplace exposure and continued development, the initiative aims to help eligible participants build the experience needed not simply to enter the workforce, but to establish more sustainable careers. Sources: ENOC Group; UAE Ministry of Community Empowerment; Ru’ya Careers UAE 2026

Dubai Healthcare City Authority and the Emirati Human Resources Development Council have launched a first-of-its-kind award recognising employers that demonstrate strong practices in attracting, developing, progressing and retaining Emirati talent across Dubai Healthcare City. Image Courtesy: Official Communication Employers across Dubai Healthcare City will soon be recognised not simply for hiring Emirati talent, but for how effectively they develop and retain UAE nationals once they enter the workforce. Dubai Healthcare City Authority (DHCA) and the Emirati Human Resources Development Council in Dubai (EHRDC) have formed a strategic partnership to launch the Al Ghaf - DHCA Emiratisation Excellence Award, described as the first award dedicated specifically to recognising Emiratisation efforts across the Dubai Healthcare City ecosystem. The partnership was signed during Ru’ya Careers 2026 and brings together DHCA’s role in developing Emirati technical talent with EHRDC’s wider work to advance UAE national participation in the private sector. Beyond Emiratisation Numbers The award introduces an important distinction into the Emiratisation conversation. Rather than concentrating only on recruitment numbers, it will recognise the efforts of DHCC business partners across attraction, development, career progression and retention of Emirati employees. Developed with the support of Dubai Quality Group, the programme will also encourage sustainable workplace practices that create opportunities for UAE nationals to build and advance their careers. H.E. Abdulla Ali bin Zayed Al Falasi, Deputy Chairman of EHRDC, said the initiative is intended to recognise organisations using innovative approaches to developing and empowering UAE nationals while encouraging other employers to strengthen their own practices. The wider objective is to support job stability and improve the competitiveness of Emirati professionals in the labour market. Building Emirati Careers in Healthcare The healthcare focus gives the initiative another dimension. Issam Galadari, CEO of Dubai Healthcare City Authority, said building a sustainable healthcare sector requires investment in the people who will eventually shape it. The partnership will therefore focus on creating career pathways, professional development opportunities and stronger Emiratisation practices among organisations operating within the DHCC ecosystem. The award itself takes its name from the Ghaf tree, the UAE's national tree. DHCA describes its resilience, continuity and deep roots as reflecting the programme's emphasis on sustained investment in people and long-term career growth. Its historical use in traditional Emirati remedies also connects the name with the healthcare sector. Applications Open in 2027 The first Al Ghaf - DHCA Emiratisation Excellence Award will open for submissions in Q1 2027. Further information covering eligibility, evaluation criteria and the participation process will be announced later. For employers, the initiative creates a new benchmark around how Emiratisation is approached within the healthcare ecosystem. And for Emirati professionals, its emphasis on development and retention signals a broader workforce priority: creating careers with room to progress, rather than focusing solely on getting UAE nationals through the door. Sources: Dubai Healthcare City Authority (DHCA); Emirati Human Resources Development Council in Dubai (EHRDC); Dubai Quality Group

Malaysia is strengthening its Employment Insurance System from October 1, with eligible contributors able to receive benefits of up to RM25,000 alongside higher re-employment, relocation and training support aimed at helping workers return to employment. Image Courtesy: Magnific Malaysian workers who lose their jobs will have access to a stronger financial safety net from October 1, as a series of enhancements to the country's Employment Insurance System (EIS) comes into effect. Eligible EIS contributors will be entitled to enhanced benefits of up to RM25,000 under amendments to the Employment Insurance System Act 2017, according to Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri R. Ramanan. The changes are designed not only to provide support during unemployment, but also to help workers return to employment, retrain and relocate when suitable jobs are further from home. Returning to Work Brings Higher Support One of the most notable changes involves the Early Re-employment Allowance. Currently, eligible Job Search Allowance recipients who find a new job before exhausting their benefit can receive 25% of their remaining unpaid allowance. From October 1, that proportion will double to 50%. The change creates a larger financial incentive for workers who successfully return to employment early rather than remaining dependent on unemployment support for the full eligible period. Malaysia is also introducing additional assistance for workers whose next opportunity requires them to move. Eligible contributors who secure employment more than 100km from their homes will receive a one-off RM1,000 mobility allowance, helping offset some of the immediate costs associated with relocating for work. For employees, that could make job opportunities outside their immediate area more financially accessible. For employers, the Malaysian Employers Federation said greater worker mobility could widen available talent pools, particularly in industries and locations where companies struggle to find workers with the required skills. Training Support Gets a Significant Boost Workers using periods of unemployment to develop new skills will also receive greater support. The maximum training fee covered under the EIS will increase from RM4,000 to RM7,000, while the daily training allowance will rise to RM30. Under the existing EIS framework, eligible workers who lose employment can receive income replacement while searching for a new role and can access employment services through PERKESO and MYFutureJobs. They may also undertake skills training as part of their return-to-work journey. The October changes strengthen that transition-focused approach. Rather than treating employment insurance solely as financial assistance after someone loses a job, the expanded benefits place greater emphasis on helping people move into their next one; whether that requires new skills, relocation or support during the transition. With workplaces and skills requirements changing quickly, that distinction is increasingly relevant. A stronger employment safety net is not simply about supporting people while they are out of work; it can also reduce some of the financial barriers involved in getting them back into it. Sources: Malaysia Human Resources Ministry (KESUMA); Social Security Organisation (PERKESO); The Sun; Malaysian Employers Federation

Singapore is putting HR capability at the centre of its future-of-work strategy. Five new recommendations spanning career opportunities, AI adoption, workforce planning and professional HR standards aim to benefit more than two million workers; with larger employers eventually required to have a certified HR professional. Image Courtesy: Magnific The future of HR in Singapore is being given a much bigger job. Rather than treating human resources primarily as an administrative function, a new national set of recommendations positions HR professionals and people leaders as central players in how businesses adopt AI, redesign jobs and create better career opportunities for employees. The Tripartite Workgroup on Human Capital Capability Development has released five recommendations designed to strengthen human capital across Singapore's workplaces. The Government has accepted all five. Together, the measures aim to benefit more than two million workers, support at least 2,000 enterprises and strengthen the capabilities of 20,000 HR professionals and people leaders. The recommendations follow 18 months of engagement with more than 1,000 employers, employees, HR professionals, industry organisations, academics and government agencies. What Will Actually Change at Work? One of the most significant changes will affect larger employers. From 1 July 2028, organisations with more than 200 employees will be required to have at least one HR professional certified at IHRP Certified Professional level or higher, or holding an eligible equivalent accreditation. The idea is to establish a stronger professional baseline for the people responsible for workplace and workforce decisions. But certification is only one part of the plan. Singapore also wants companies to become better at planning how their workforces will evolve. SNEF and IHRP will provide practical guidance to help businesses connect workforce transformation with wider enterprise transformation. Smaller businesses, which may not have a senior HR strategist on their payroll, are being considered too. A pilot involving IHRP and local startup co will match participating SMEs with experienced HR leaders on a part-time embedded basis, giving them access to strategic expertise without requiring a full-time senior hire. AI Is Coming to HR, With People Still at the Centre Perhaps the most interesting recommendation for employees concerns AI. A new People-centred AI Transformation for HR (PATH) initiative will help businesses introduce AI into HR through starter kits combining technology solutions with implementation guidance, consultancy, training and funding support. IHRP will also introduce accredited training aligned with 12 new AI Fluency Skills Badges, while NTUC is developing an AI transformation playbook for HR professionals, scheduled for the first quarter of 2027. Importantly, the workgroup is also recommending guidance for responsible AI use in recruitment. As algorithms become more involved in hiring and other employment decisions, the proposed guidance would focus on processes and safeguards intended to keep decisions fair and merit-based. That makes the initiative about more than helping HR departments become faster with AI. It is also about building the human capability needed to decide where and how AI should be used responsibly. Can Employees See Which Companies Create Opportunities? Another recommendation could eventually give workers an interesting new way of evaluating potential employers. The Singapore Opportunity Index (SOI) is intended as a national benchmark showing the opportunities employers create for their people, using verified administrative data. Employees could use the information when making career decisions, while businesses could use their reports to assess their own human-capital strategies. That introduces an interesting shift in how the value of a workplace can be viewed. A good employer may increasingly be judged not simply by the job it offers someone today, but by what that job allows them to become tomorrow. And that is ultimately the thread connecting Singapore's five recommendations. AI may change jobs. Businesses will continue transforming. Skills requirements will evolve. But Singapore's approach is placing a clear emphasis on ensuring the people responsible for navigating those changes; HR professionals, managers and business leaders are equipped to bring employees with them. For workers, that could make the future of HR considerably more important than its traditional title suggests. Sources: Singapore Ministry of Manpower; Tripartite Workgroup on Human Capital Capability Development; NTUC; Singapore National Employers Federation; Institute for Human Resource Professionals.

Some of the employees closest to burnout may also be the ones still delivering their best work. Máire Crouchman explores why strong output can sometimes conceal rising cognitive and emotional strain; and why sustainable performance requires leaders to look beyond whether the work is getting done. Some of the people closest to burnout are often the least obvious. They are still hitting targets. Still answering quickly. Still staying late. Still volunteering to take something else on. They are often the person everyone describes as “reliable”. And that is precisely why their struggle can remain invisible. Performance tells us what someone produced. It does not tell us what it cost them cognitively or emotionally to produce it. That distinction matters. In many organisations, wellbeing concerns only become visible when something changes: productivity drops, absence increases, deadlines are missed or behaviour becomes noticeably different. By that point, however, an employee may have been operating beyond a sustainable level for months. High performance can hide strain remarkably well. Some people respond to pressure by slowing down or withdrawing. Others respond by working harder, becoming more perfectionistic, checking repeatedly, extending their hours or becoming increasingly reluctant to ask for help. The output may remain strong while the internal cost of maintaining it continues to rise. The Same Workload Does Not Create the Same Load This is where cognitive diversity becomes particularly important. Two employees can be given exactly the same workload, attend the same meetings and work within the same environment, yet experience very different levels of cognitive demand. One may leave a day of back-to-back meetings feeling energised. Another may need significant recovery time before they can concentrate deeply again. One person may interpret a vague brief as freedom. Another may spend considerable cognitive energy trying to work out what “good” actually looks like. Constant context switching, interruptions, unclear priorities, sensory demands, social expectations and rapidly changing deadlines do not affect everyone in the same way. This is particularly relevant when we consider neurodivergent employees, but it is not limited to neurodivergence. Stress, poor sleep, grief, caring responsibilities, illness, hormonal changes and prolonged uncertainty can all affect the amount of psychological bandwidth someone has available at any given time. The question therefore should not simply be: “Can this person do the job?” A better question is: “What is it currently costing this person to do the job well?” High Performance Is Not the Same as Sustainable Performance Organisations understandably value resilience. But resilience should not be measured by how long someone can continue functioning in an environment that is consistently overloading them. Sustainable performance requires recovery, clarity, psychological safety and enough cognitive capacity to respond to inevitable periods of pressure. If an employee can only maintain their performance by working late every evening, constantly overriding exhaustion, masking difficulty, avoiding breaks or sacrificing life outside work, the organisation may still be seeing strong performance. But it is borrowing against future capacity. Eventually, that cost appears somewhere. It may look like disengagement. Irritability. Increased mistakes. Physical illness. Emotional exhaustion. Absence. A sudden resignation. And because the employee “seemed absolutely fine”, the change can appear unexpected. Often, it was not sudden at all. Leaders Need to Become Curious Before Performance Drops Managers do not need to diagnose employees or monitor their emotional lives. They do, however, need to create conditions where strain can be identified before it becomes crisis. That begins with curiosity. Instead of immediately interpreting a change in behaviour as poor attitude or reduced commitment, leaders can ask what may have changed around the person. Have priorities become less clear? Has workload increased without anything being removed? Is the employee spending most of their day switching between competing demands? Have they stopped taking breaks? Are they repeatedly compensating for gaps elsewhere in the system? Leaders should also be cautious about assuming that silence means capacity. High performers are often the people organisations trust with more. Their competence becomes the reason they receive additional work, greater responsibility and fewer check-ins. The very behaviour that makes them valuable can make their overload less visible. Designing for Sustainable Performance Employee wellbeing cannot sit solely within wellbeing programmes. It is also influenced by how work itself is designed. Clear priorities, realistic workloads, autonomy, predictable communication, protected focus time, opportunities for recovery and psychologically safe conversations are not simply wellbeing initiatives. They are performance infrastructure. In practice, this can be as concrete as protecting a genuine block of uninterrupted focus time each day, removing one responsibility whenever a new one is added rather than simply layering it on, or making it normal for a stretched employee to renegotiate a deadline without it being read as failure. These are not indulgences. They are the conditions under which good work remains possible. The future of high performance will not be about extracting more from people who appear capable of carrying it. It will be about designing work in a way that protects the cognitive capacity on which performance depends. The strongest leaders will not only ask: “Are my people delivering?” They will also ask: “What is it costing them to keep delivering like this, and is that cost sustainable?” Source: Contributed article by Máire Crouchman.