Saudi Gazette RIYADH — Altering the mentality of the society, preparing youth skills appropriately, trusting small private businesses, and work collaboration between successful employees and entrepreneurs, were some of the topics that were discussed during the ‘Millennials 3.0: Empowering Generation Y' panel, on the second day of the 3rd annual Talent and Diversity Leadership Forum in Riyadh. In the panel discussion, the speakers talked about some of the struggles that affect the employment rate of Generation Y in the country. Dr. Rachel Awad, associate director of employability at Silatech, stressed that the Kingdom unemployment rate is the highest among GCC countries. Generation Y will make up around third of the global workforce by 2025. This figure is expected to rise to 75 percent and Saudi Arabia alone counts 13 million people under the age of 30. Around 1.9 million national are expected to enter the workforce over the next decade. Dr. Amal Fatani, leader — all women center, KSA, TCS Consulting, and former general supervisor of female affairs, Ministry of Higher Education, explained that some of the challenges that are affecting youth employment and development in the market, are not understanding the Generation Y and the method of preparing those groups. "We really need to know how to prepare this generation on how to face the world. Not the world we are living in but the future," she said. Dr. Fatani said that it is vital to alter the mentality of the society when it comes to youth by understanding them and their needs and aims. Preparing the young employees to concentrate on quality not quantity and let them learn. During the forum that is organized by Glowork in partnership with Naseba, Managing Director of Endeavor, Rakan Al Eidi, said, "If we look at the triangle of public sector, private sector, and employees, we will find a missing part between three of them." He added, solving this issue would help in giving the youth the opportunity to be involved in the market and reduce the issue of unemployment. Culture is also one of the challenges in reducing the problem of Generation Y unemployment since the culture here does not encourage the working in small companies, although small business will develop the skills of the employees in order to have a better career path. The idea of having a job in the public sector is still linked to the feeling of safety. Nader Ajami, strategic planning director in Ogilvy & Mather, believes that the fear of risk verses society is one of the obstacles that is affecting young entrepreneurs and employees in the market. Failing is a cultural taboo and not acceptable in the society. Social and cultural challenges are the main obstacles for most youth. For women, these obstacles could be the reason behind the high rate of unemployment among Saudi female. Maria Mahdaly, co-founder and managing director of Rumman Company, Destination Jeddah and Riyadh, said during the panel discussion that the challenge of women working is about culture. Some Saudi women are not working because it is not her choice but a family choice, or maybe she wants to focus on making families. In the first day of the forum, a think-tank session defining Generation Y took place. The session speaker, Dr. Mohammed Rishad Faridi, head of business center and a professor in Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, said, "I want you to know that employability is not a job, employability is a skill understanding that attribute you require to be become successful in your workplace." He added that digital native are the group that were born after 1980. He called them the generation of devices and humans that are digitalizing the society. He illustrated that meeting and shaping the information is one of Generation Y characteristics. They work and learn collaboratively and they are more performance-oriented. Another characteristic is that Generation Y displays speed. The forum on the second day also had a panel discussion on ‘Talent Management: Why it Matters'. The speakers focused on the main components of an effective talent management strategy, and they shared examples, and looked into the future of talent development. The forum closed with the distribution of Employer Excellence Awards Ceremony. The Award recognized the top employers in the Kingdom for their consistent commitment to developing talent at all levels of the organizations and their innovative diversity and inclusion practices. Khalid Alkhudair, CEO of Glowork, presented the awards. Alkhudair said, "Forums like this are very important because you are benchmarking what other organizations are doing. We are learning from one another. We are in a phase that where we are developing very quickly." He added that the country is progressing so understanding what is happening in the industries is very important. In the past two days leaders from the Kingdom and across the region were in the forum discussing stories of what they have in their organizations.
