Challenges in Recruitment

October 29, 2024

Candidate Search: 6 Proven Strategies to Overcome Omanization Challenges With AI

Reem Al-Tamimi

Reem Al-Tamimi

Content Writer

A recruiter trying to solve omanization challnges by enhancing the candidate search with AI

AI is transforming the recruitment landscape in Oman, offering new ways to overcome the challenges of Omanization. As the policy to boost local talent takes full effect, finding the right Omani candidates remains a hurdle. Nearly 60% of employers struggle to locate candidates with the necessary skills and qualifications, making it difficult to meet quotas while securing the best fit for the role.

The competitive job market and growing demand for skilled local professionals only add to the pressure. Traditional hiring methods—sorting through resumes, scheduling interviews, and hoping for the right match—often slow down the process. But with AI-driven technology, companies can revolutionize their candidate search, making it faster, smarter, and more efficient.

Traditional recruitment methods—sifting through resumes, scheduling interviews, and hoping for the right candidate—often slow the process down. But with new technology, there’s a better way to approach the candidate search, one that’s faster, smarter, and more efficient.

AI-powered solutions are transforming the way businesses navigate Omanization by simplifying the candidate search. These tools help streamline recruitment, making it easier to find the right Omani talent while ensuring you not only meet Omanization goals but also build a highly skilled workforce that supports Oman’s Vision 2040.

Curious about how AI is reshaping recruitment in the Sultanate? In this blog, we’ll dive into how innovative technology can help Omani businesses overcome the challenges of Omanization and make finding top local talent faster, easier, and more precise.

Ready to unlock a new, smarter way of hiring in Oman? Let’s get started.

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An infographic show the numbers of expatriates in comparing to Omani employees in Oman

Let’s go back to the late 1980s, when Oman introduced Omanization—a policy aimed at reducing the country’s reliance on foreign labor by prioritizing the hiring of Omani nationals in key sectors like banking, hospitality, and retail. This initiative remains vital to Oman’s broader goals, particularly as the nation moves toward Vision 2040, with its focus on economic diversification and sustainable development.

Yet, despite these efforts, finding the right Omani talent continues to be a major challenge for employers.

Today, 77% of Oman’s workforce is still made up of expatriates, highlighting the difficulties businesses face in meeting Omanization quotas—particularly in specialized fields like technology and engineering.

Omanization isn’t just about meeting targets; it’s about building a skilled, local workforce for the future. However, traditional recruitment methods—such as manually reviewing resumes and using basic job boards—are often inefficient.

In 2023, Omanization stood at 16%, with 274,894 Omanis employed out of a private sector workforce of 1.74 million. The skills gap is evident, and the number of unemployed Omanis rose by 26% in early 2024 despite 38,000 job vacancies in the private sector. Many of these vacancies were filled by expatriates, leaving local talent underutilized.

This is where AI-powered tools come in. AI can revolutionize the candidate search process by quickly identifying top Omani talent based on skills and qualifications. These tools help businesses streamline recruitment, allowing them to meet Omanization goals more efficiently while building a stronger, locally-driven workforce aligned with Vision 2040.

How Advanced AI-Powered Recruitment Solutions Pinpoint the Right Omani Talent

A recruiter using advance AI-powered recruitment solutions to pinpoint the right Omani talnet

As Omanization shapes the future of the workforce, companies face the challenge of efficiently meeting quotas while ensuring the best candidates are hired. Traditional recruitment methods often don’t address these demands effectively, especially when searching for local talent. 

This is where AI-powered recruitment solutions, like EVA-REC, step in to streamline and improve the candidate search processes. EVA-REC, with its AI-driven features, offers precision, scalability, and efficiency, all of which are essential for creating a successful Omanization strategy. 

Let’s explore how EVA-REC can transform each aspect of recruitment.

Enhance Precision in Identifying Qualified Omani Candidates

One of the biggest challenges in Omanization is finding the right candidates quickly and accurately. EVA-REC addresses this challenge by enhancing the precision of your candidate search. Using AI, the platform analyzes thousands of resumes and applications, narrowing the pool to focus on qualified candidates who meet your company’s specific requirements. Whether you’re hiring in specialized industries like banking, telecom, or healthcare, EVA-REC automatically filters candidates based on relevant experience, skills, and qualifications.

For instance, EVA-REC’s resume screening feature quickly evaluates whether a candidate possesses the necessary qualifications, such as sector-specific experience, certifications, or education. With its weights feature, EVA-REC allows recruiters to prioritize the most important criteria—whether it’s education, years of experience, or specific skills—ensuring that the most relevant candidates rise to the top of the list. This level of customization not only saves time but guarantees that every suitable candidate is considered according to the specific needs of your organization.

By enhancing precision through AI and customizable weighting, EVA-REC helps companies stay aligned with their Omanization plan, securing top talent without compromising quality. Additionally, EVA-REC goes beyond just evaluating qualifications; it assesses relevant experience and future potential, enabling businesses to consider candidates for both immediate roles and long-term growth. This forward-looking approach supports the overall success of your Omanization strategy, ensuring a workforce that can thrive and adapt within your organization.

Curious how Elevatus’ AI smart filtration tools can help you pinpoint the best talent with ease? Dive into this blog to discover the power behind them!

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Find Smarter Sourcing Strategies for Local Talent

In today’s digital age, candidate search has evolved far beyond simply posting on job boards and waiting for applicants. AI now enhances sourcing strategies by automating outreach through multiple channels, including social media, specialized job boards, and internal talent databases. With AI, recruitment platforms can seamlessly integrate with social networks and distribute job postings across thousands of job boards simultaneously.

EVA-REC takes this approach even further, automatically distributing job listings to over 2,000 job boards worldwide. This broadens your reach, connecting you with a diverse and highly qualified pool of candidates, significantly increasing your chances of finding the perfect fit. But EVA-REC doesn’t stop at job boards; its AI-driven resume screening feature instantly filters out irrelevant profiles and ranks applicants based on how closely they match the job description. By connecting to platforms like LinkedIn and Indeed, EVA-REC ensures you’re reaching both active job seekers and passive candidates who may be ideal for your roles.

What sets EVA-REC apart is its powerful analytics feature, which helps recruiters identify the most effective sourcing channels. By analyzing data on candidate quality and success rates across different platforms, EVA-REC allows businesses to fine-tune their recruitment strategies and focus on the channels that deliver the best results.

This data-driven approach ensures that your candidate search is not only far-reaching but also highly efficient, saving time while enhancing your ability to meet Omanization targets and hire the best possible talent.

The Future of Work and Its Impact on Recruitment

Evaluating Candidates with Advanced Test Assessments

Beyond the candidate search, one of EVA-REC’s standout features is its ability to conduct psychometric testing and advanced evaluations, providing deeper insights into a candidate’s suitability. This ensures the hiring process goes beyond simply checking qualifications and focuses on understanding a candidate’s strengths, weaknesses, and long-term potential.

EVA-REC incorporates scientifically-backed skill assessments that evaluate cognitive abilities, problem-solving skills, and interpersonal competencies—key factors for success in various roles. In industries like telecommunications and finance, where leadership and decision-making are critical, these assessments offer a detailed analysis of how a candidate is likely to perform.

By integrating these evaluations into the candidate selection process, EVA-REC gives recruiters a comprehensive view of each candidate before making a hiring decision. This approach not only helps businesses meet their Omanization plan requirements but also ensures they are investing in talent that will drive long-term growth and success within the organization.

Reducing Bias During the Recruitment Process 

Unconscious bias is a major challenge in any recruitment process and can severely impact the success of an Omanization plan. Traditional methods of candidate selection often rely on subjective judgments, which can lead to qualified Omani candidates being overlooked.

Luckily, EVA-REC helps tackle this issue by focusing on data-driven factors. The platform’s AI-powered candidate search process relies on standardized criteria such as qualifications, relevant experience, and skills, ensuring that each candidate is evaluated fairly.

By automating the resume screening and evaluation processes, EVA-REC reduces the potential for human bias, ensuring that all qualified candidates are considered purely on their merit. For Omanization, this is especially crucial as companies work to meet quotas while maintaining fairness and diversity in hiring. EVA-REC ensures that Omanis are given equal opportunities without bias influencing the hiring process.

The platform’s reference checks and background checks are also automated, further enhancing objectivity and transparency. This structured approach not only improves the chances of meeting Omanization targets but also helps build a more inclusive and fair work environment, aligning with the broader goals of the Omanization strategy.

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Align Your Recruitment with Government-Mandated Omanization Quotas

Meeting government-mandated quotas for Omanization in Oman can be challenging, especially with tight deadlines and specific targets to hit. AI tools can simplify this process by automatically prioritizing Omani candidates during the candidate search and candidate selection, making it easier to stay on track.

EVA-REC takes this a step further by seamlessly integrating Omanization preferences into the recruitment process. With the platform’s customizable filters, companies can prioritize Omani candidates, ensuring that local talent is given the attention it deserves to meet Omanization requirements. This integration ensures that every stage of recruitment remains aligned with Omanization goals.

Additionally, EVA-REC offers real-time tracking of your Omanization quotas, giving you full visibility into your progress. This feature is especially valuable for hiring managers, allowing them to make adjustments quickly if they’re falling behind. The platform also generates detailed reports on job offer success rates, providing insights to help businesses optimize their Omanization strategy.

By automating the tracking and reporting of Omanization progress, EVA-REC enables companies to stay compliant with regulations while maintaining efficiency and quality in their recruitment process.

Develop A Long-Term Planning for Omanization

AI isn’t just useful for solving immediate hiring needs—it also plays a vital role in long-term workforce planning. For companies looking to develop sustainable Omanization strategies, EVA-REC offers valuable tools to support this vision. By analyzing historical recruitment data and trends, EVA-REC provides predictive insights that allow businesses to forecast future workforce needs. This proactive approach helps companies plan ahead for skill gaps and talent requirements, ensuring they are well-prepared to meet Omanization quotas not just today but for years to come.

EVA-REC’s advanced analytics enable businesses to identify high-potential employees and design tailored skill assessments to encourage internal growth. For example, if data suggests a future shortage of leaders in sectors like banking, EVA-REC can recommend training programs to help current Omani employees develop the necessary skills for leadership roles, ensuring the company remains competitive.

By incorporating long-term workforce planning into its Omanization strategy, EVA-REC helps companies build a sustainable talent pipeline. This ensures they are not only meeting the demands of Oman’s evolving economy but also cultivating a strong, capable, and locally driven workforce.

Predict Future Skill Needs and Training Omani Talent

One of the most powerful features of AI is its ability to predict future skill demands within the workforce. By analyzing global and regional employment trends, AI can identify emerging skills that will be in demand and highlight gaps within the current Omani talent pool. This allows businesses to invest in the right training and development programs, ensuring their employees are prepared for the future.

EVA-REC leverages this capability to help companies anticipate and address future skill gaps. By analyzing industry trends and recruitment data, EVA-REC can identify which skills will be crucial in the coming years. For example, if the platform detects a rising need for digital skills in the telecommunications sector, businesses can begin training Omani employees now, ensuring they have the expertise needed when the demand grows.

This proactive approach not only helps businesses meet Omanization quotas but also ensures they stay competitive in an ever-changing market. With EVA-REC’s predictive insights, companies can prepare for future challenges and opportunities, building a long-term, future-proof Omanization strategy that keeps them ahead of the curve.

Is Your Business Ready to Overcome Omanization Challenges and Build a Stronger Local Workforce?

With the right tools, overcoming Omanization challenges and building a stronger local workforce are within reach.

AI is leading the charge, helping businesses streamline their candidate search, predict future skill needs, and ensure compliance with Omanization quotas. By automating recruitment processes and providing data-driven insights, AI enables you to find the right talent quickly, bridge skill gaps, and align with long-term workforce goals.

Now is the perfect time to leverage AI-driven platforms like EVA-REC to enhance your recruitment strategies. Ready to take the next step?

Request a demo of EVA-REC today and discover how it can transform your hiring process, ensuring success in your Omanization efforts while building a thriving local workforce.

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Author

Reem Al-Tamimi

Reem Al-Tamimi

Turn top talent to employees fast

Hire, assess, onboard and manage top talent for every job. See how Elevatus streamlines everything; from acquire to new hire.

Request a demo