SHRM MENA chief on workforce trends redefining HR strategy

As HR leaders in the UAE and across the MENA region grapple with rapid technological shifts, regulatory complexity, and evolving workforce expectations, the role of HR has never been more strategically significant. For Vivek Arora, managing director of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Middle East & North Africa, the challenge lies in balancing innovation with the human core of the workplace.

“We live in unprecedented times in terms of the pace of evolution of technologies and their impact on the workplace,” Arora said. “HR leaders are experiencing a tension between accelerating GenAI and keeping humans at the center through investing in people, leadership, and manager development, culture, and strategic workforce planning.”

This dual challenge—embracing transformation while safeguarding culture and human intelligence—will form a central theme at the SHRM MENA Annual Conference & Expo 2025 in Dubai.

Emiratisation: from compliance to talent pipelines

In the UAE, Emiratisation continues to reshape workforce strategies. Organisations are expected not only to meet national employment targets but to integrate Emirati talent into meaningful career pathways.

“The balance lies in building skills taxonomies and mapping roles where expats can add value and bring in expertise and skills that are not prevalent in the market, and where Emirati talent can be fast-tracked via internships, mentorship, structured knowledge transfer programmes, rotations, and specialty credentials, while measuring progress regularly,” said Arora.

He cautioned against reducing Emiratisation to “a quota compliance exercise,” instead encouraging firms to build deliberate skills strategies that create complementary capabilities between local and expatriate workforces.

Well-being and the employee experience

Workforce well-being is now firmly on the strategic agenda. According to Arora, regional organisations are experimenting with a wide range of benefits beyond the statutory minimum.

“What we mostly see in focus are flexi hours, discretionary time off, employee recognition programmes, family extended well-being benefits, mental health support, gym memberships, and comprehensive cafeteria-style employee experience platforms augmented by AI,” he said.

The results are telling: “All the organisations administering such programmes report significant improvements to their employees’ overall satisfaction, engagement, and retention in the higher double digits.”

Arora added that HR professionals should share best practices more actively, leveraging regional HR networks to accelerate progress in this critical area.

AI and emerging HR technologies

While AI is already reshaping recruitment and analytics, Arora emphasised that its impact on HR will expand dramatically over the coming years.

“AI use in our region is maturing from the use of LLMs as easy-to-communicate-with assistants through NLP to leveraging GenAI for co-creating solutions to address different HR and organisational requirements to Agentic AI and the automation of entire cycles of work through RPA,” he explained.

Arora also sees strong potential in AI integrations with AR and VR to create adaptive, personalised onboarding and training experiences. “It is very important to look for synergies and explore integration with other technologies,” he noted.

The upcoming SHRM MENA Conference’s HR Tech Expo will spotlight precisely these innovations, offering HR leaders practical demonstrations of region-ready solutions.

Asked for examples of leading practice, Arora highlighted Dubai Police’s pioneering approach.

“They have leveraged technology to design multi-track UAE National programmes aligned to Emiratisation and long-term career mobility focused on future skills readiness, organisational and job architecture suitability, and fresh potential talent engagement,” he said.

The initiative integrates cutting-edge training, scholarship opportunities, and a world-class employee value proposition that aligns closely with community values.

The digital nomad effect

The UAE’s proactive visa policies and infrastructure are attracting digital nomads in increasing numbers, adding a new dimension to HR policy.

“With the advent of new technologies, the solid infrastructure, and the regulations the country has put in place to regulate telecommuting and gig work, it is now more attractive than ever for digital nomads to be weaved into the fabric of the UAE workforce,” said Arora.

But he acknowledged that rigid employment policies could hinder HR from fully tapping into this talent pool. “This is probably the biggest barrier that might limit HR’s capability from possibly employing the ‘best talents’ that come from this background,” he said.

Building culture in distributed teams

Remote and hybrid models demand new management approaches. Arora stressed that HR must play a central role in cultivating inclusivity and performance in geographically dispersed teams.

“It is critical to steer away from traditional clock-in/clock-out working models and start measuring output, as opposed to presence, and use people analytics to monitor workload, fairness, and growth access across locations,” he said.

Leadership and managerial development, he added, will be the differentiator for organisations that succeed in embedding inclusivity at scale.

Compliance and regulation

For HR leaders, adapting to flexible work models also brings regulatory challenges. The UAE has already codified multiple models of work under Federal Decree-Law 33/2021, but organisations must remain vigilant.

“HR professionals must keep abreast of all regulatory and legislative changes and updates from UAE government agencies concerning any changes in the compliance landscape,” Arora advised. He pointed to the need to track tax, social security, and permanent-establishment risks for cross-border telework arrangements.

SHRM’s role, he added, is to keep professionals updated through newsletters and events, while encouraging them to seek legal guidance where required.

Long-term workforce planning

The rise of digital nomadism is reshaping workforce planning across the MENA region. For Arora, HR must anticipate a blended workforce model combining a core employed population with a flexible “cloud” of specialists.

“Organisational culture and values will become more challenging to control; therefore, it is crucial that both HR and the organisational leadership double down on organisational values, coaching for managers, and promoting transparent and controlled work paths so the organisational culture can scale across borders,” he said.

At the same time, this shift could fuel regional innovation and strengthen global partnership networks.

The future of HR events

Arora also reflected on how HR platforms themselves must evolve. “As the employment shift continues and work models continue to evolve, focus must shift in tandem towards promoting skills taxonomies tracking, evolving internal talents and complementing them with digital nomads, and integrating AI in all aspects of HR and digital/organisational transformation,” he said.

He also called for stronger collaboration between event organisers and government agencies to expand regulatory awareness, alongside skill-based workshops and mental health interventions tailored for the region.

“This is precisely why the SHRM MENA Annual Conference & Expo serves as such a pivotal gathering—offering HR professionals not just global perspectives, but actionable, region-specific insights to navigate hybrid and location-independent workforce models.”

Ultimately, Arora believes the future of HR in the MENA region lies in striking the right balance between embracing disruptive technologies and keeping people at the heart of decision-making.

“Balancing AI with human oversight is a firm belief for SHRM that manifests in how the organisation quantifies the ROI formula to include HI—Human Intelligence and Ingenuity,” he said.