SG: What’s your goals and plans for Hilton in KSA?
BB: Promoting Hilton as a good place to work for young Saudis and identifying Saudi role models in our organization for both genders. Our journey has incorporated many different levels with the government, the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Tourism and building partnerships to offer more and more opportunities for the Saudi youth
SG: Did you see any improvements from the hotel itself in hiring Saudis? Have you faced any difficulties in doing so?
BB: I can say that we found some challenges but with there is a lot more awareness of Saudization these days which only boosts what we are doing amongst the Hilton KSA portfolio. The hotels put lots of effort in engaging Saudis from workshops offered at schools and universities where we offer students to come and do internships at our hotels and get to know the business. We have signed with the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage an agreement to guarantee jobs for students who go abroad for studies and they would come back with guaranteed jobs at our hotels. So all of these agreements help in creating an image of Hilton as a great employer. As you know, in whatever country you work, the company have a high level of locals. We are optimistic that 75% of workers in our hotels in Saudi are Saudi nationals.
SG: What are your thoughts on Women Employment?
BB: First of all, we are feeling very positive on the opportunity to employ Saudi females in the property. The ladies that work for us are extremely talented and have great potential and we believe that they will acquire higher and leading positions in the future. Actually last year, one of our female Saudi employees won a global chief executive award so we are looking forward for the future of hiring more Saudi female talent.
SG: Do you provide your employees with training programs in other Hilton hotels outside of the region so they can get to know more strategies and have more experience?
BB: Yes we do provide our employees with extensive award winning training programs in Hilton University. Every employee can take online training lessons and courses in the hospitality sector. We also offer the opportunity to transfer employees to other countries for a period of time so they can have experiences from other Hilton hotels around the world.
SG: What are your strategies as HR department for the 2030 vision?
BB: We are very positive on the 2030 vision as it shows that Saudi is considering diversifying its economy and specifically in our sector of tourism which means building more hotels, resorts, and hotels in historical locations to engage historical tourism. This vision is nothing but positive to us as we look forward to opening more hotels and hiring more Saudis.
With the help of our HR department here and the more the tourism develops, we look forward into having broader opportunities to employ more Saudis. We want to be seen as a great employer especially with Saudis diversified touristic features from historical places and the amazing geography of the country.
