Leading UAE-based smart and green facilities management (FM) company Farnek has won contracts worth more than AED 72 million ($19 million) and witnessed major growth for its hospitality division that was driven by outsourcing.

This year alone Farnek has mobilised over 450 staff, with international hotel brands such as Emaar, Millennium, Sheraton, Movenpick, Sofitel, Hilton and Kempinski, amongst others.

The bulk of the demand has been for housekeeping, stewarding and security, as well as specialised cleaning and maintenance.

Farnek’s growth in market share is consistent with the latest industry figures. Research by Mordor Intelligence has revealed that the UAE’s hospitality market is currently estimated to be worth over AED 27 billion and is predicted to grow to AED 34.7 billion within five years.

Outsourcing staff is widely believed to be more cost-effective than hiring fulltime employees. Industry professionals estimate that hotels can reduce operating costs by more than 30%, but for many hotel managers, outsourcing is still confined to stewarding roles.

That is even though typically, low salaries, long and often unsociable hours, repetitive duties and the lack of fast-track career advancement, often account for the reluctance of younger workers to take up fulltime positions in hospitality.

However, according to Tamer Bishay, Director of Business Development, Farnek, even though the UAE is close to the enormous talent pools of MENA, South and South-East Asia, where workers can find better paid jobs here than similar ones at home, the exponential growth of tourism is still putting an added strain on hotel human resource departments.

“Training of course is a key issue. This can take a considerable amount of time and effort to ensure that employees are trained to comply with operational standards.

“Then comes the issue of retention. Invariably it takes longer to recruit staff than it does for them to leave a hotel’s service, leaving potential gaps in service delivery, during high demand periods.

“Those hotels embracing the concept of outsourcing, often do so not just for the cost-efficiency, but experience – many of our outsourced staff, would have worked in a number of different hotels.

“They are already well trained, fully qualified, can be contracted for specific demand periods, or over a longer term, which provides an effective and immediate solution,” he said. – TradeArabia News Service