Young and disheartened in the Middle East

The Life: The Middle East boasts an asset that is arguably more valuable than the vast oil reserves discovered in the 20th century - but it is not always viewed as an opportunity.

Radhika Punshi of Aon Hewitt says UAE has the region's lowest levels of employee engagement. Satish Kumar / The National

The Middle East boasts an asset that is arguably more valuable than the vast oil reserves discovered in the 20th century.

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But it is not always viewed as such.

The so-called "youth bulge" is more often seen as one of the biggest challenges facing the region.

It was with this issue in mind that two employees of Hewitt, now Aon Hewitt, embarked on a mass online survey.

They questioned 4,600 nationals and expatriates across the GCC, about 1,800 of them in the UAE, to find out what motivates employees. The surveyors' ultimate aim was to help organisations and governments plan for the future.

The study discovered, worryingly, that respondents in the UAE reported the region's lowest levels of employee engagement.

"What we found was that [regionally] the younger generation of nationals, so those between 25 to 34, were the least engaged; women were less engaged, national women as well as expat women," says Radhika Punshi, the head of applied research and solutions for Aon Hewitt Middle East and co-author of the study.

"We also found patterns like those with the highest educational qualifications were less engaged, nationals who were in non-managerial roles were less engaged, so it's not symptomatic of all nationals," she says.

The research revealed that young people are quite engaged at the start of their careers, but their interest goes in to rapid decline.

"It is like an early mid-life crisis between 25 and 34," says Ms Punshi.

This disengagement could come about because organisations typically spend a lot of time, effort and resources developing the youngest employees, and at about 25 to 34 years old, employees start taking on greater responsibilities while support from the company starts to decline.

The research also revealed that Emiratis' apparent mid-life crises continueuntil about age 40.

David Jones, the chief consulting officer for Aon Hewitt Middle East, says: "We think one possible explanation for that [is] young Emiratis are coming into the workplace and they're the most educated generation that this country has had, sometimes [they] have been educated abroad.

"They see people who are in their 40s, 50s and 60s who are a different generation and maybe aren't so well educated … but they're not going anywhere. They're very well established, very senior in the organisation and the [young] guys are coming from a perspective where they say'OK, these guys are here, they've been here for a while, they will be here for a while, so what's my opportunity?'"

The good news is that people working in the private sector across the region reported that they felt more engaged than those in the public sector, at 62 per cent versus 48 per cent.

The survey also showed that GCC and UAE nationals set more store on "artefacts of status" such as an impressive-sounding title, whether they receive a parking space and the appearance of their office.

The private sector may not be able to compete with the generous packages and pay rises in government. But it can play on its strengths: more supportive managers, as well as better coaching and development opportunities, which were cited as benefits by private-sector respondents.

"Growth has to come from the private sector. The public sector is clearly oversaturated," says Ms Punshi.

And Mr Jones adds: "The private sector can take some of this information, some of these insights to really drive [home] what makes them more attractive in some dimensions than the public sector."

However, if governments and organisations manage to get the recipe right, the potential productivity benefits of engaging the ever-expanding young population would be enormous.

"If we can harness it in the right way, it's going to be just as important in the 21st century for the economic future of this region as oil and gas was in the 20th century," says Mr Jones. "It's really of that scale."