HR leaders and thinkers set to provide insight into innovation and employee engagement at the 12th edition of HR Summit & Expo next week
Dubai, UAE, 14 November 2015: More than 3,000 human resources professionals from the Middle East will gather in Dubai next week as the 12th edition of the HR Summit & Expo opens its doors.
Running from 16-18 November at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre, the theme of this year’s summit is Business Unusual: Disrupting HR and Leading Innovation, led by guru speakers who will be joined by a collection of eminent authors, thinkers and HR leaders from some of the most well-known organisations around the world.
Many of these experts agree that there is a need for companies to drive innovation in order to increase employee engagement and this is especially significant in order to address some of the challenges facing HR in the Middle East.
Peter Cheese, one of the guru speakers at the summit and Chief Executive of the CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development, said: “We know that the Middle-East workforce, like most places, has some good engagement in well-run organisations, but also areas where engagement is poor. The key will be to ensure that any employee engagement strategy has a strong regional focus and takes into account the differing needs of different groups in the workforce.”
According to Cheese, the key to raising employee engagement in the Middle East workforce is understanding the differing needs of different groups in the workforce.
Rita Trehan, Chief Capacity Officer who has made a career of business transformation within Fortune 200 companies and another speaker at the conference, added: “With a population that is heavily orientated towards millennial, there is a need to rethink the future of the workplace and what this generational group is seeking from the world of work since it is very different to the generations before them.
“Understanding these differences and the impact that this is has on workplace practices will require companies to be willing to adapt, innovate and change at a much faster rate than they have done in the past.”
More than 60 concurrent sessions will take place throughout the three day summit, as well as a choice between 10 certified master classes led by an unrivalled faculty of facilitators, where the prevailing theme will be the importance of HR to lead innovation in Middle East businesses.
Added Cheese: “The world of work is changing and in turn, so must HR. We believe HR can make a huge difference in the Middle East. With economies shifting from an almost total reliance on oil and gas to a sustainable future as knowledge and innovation-led markets, HR can only become more important.”
Among the other guru speakers speaking at the summit include Ram Charan, co-author of best-selling book, The Talent Masters; Fons Trompenaars, globally renowned consultant and organisational theorist; and best-selling author Jim Kouzes, one of Wall Street Journal’s twelve best executive educators in the United States.
Other experts include Sven Rohte, Chief Commercial Officer at Daman; Neil Morrison, Group HR Director at Penguin Random House; Shirley Davis, President and CEO of SDS Global Enterprises; and Ripa Rashid, Senior Vice President at Centre for Talent and Innovation.
Ramy Bayyour, Show Director of the HR Summit and Expo, said: “This year’s event promises to offer an invaluable, highly relevant insight for HR professionals in the GCC and beyond.
“The show has become firmly established as the Middle East’s ‘must attend’ event and we are delighted to be welcoming an esteemed group of speakers who will be sharing their insight on a particularly relevant theme in the industry.”
Running alongside the summit and exhibition is the Middle East HR Excellence Awards which will showcase the best HR talent in the Middle East and honour professionals in the public and private sectors. Winners will be celebrated across 10 separate categories at a gala dinner on Tuesday 17 November at The Address Hotel Downtown Dubai.
The HR Summit and Expo is supported by Headline Sponsors Daman, Profiles International, CIPD, Wiley and CivilSoft; Strategic Partner Gulf Talent; Platinum Sponsors Halogen Software, FranklinCovey Middle East, Qiyada; Gold Sponsor Tanfeeth; and Silver Sponsors BTS, Eruditus, Zurich, HGS, Cass Business School and Mary Gober International.
More information is available at: www.hrsummitexpo.com.