HR Leader Mariah Siddiqui

Mariah Siddiqui

Hear from the Rising Star in HR, the Founder of Empleo Consultants

About Mariah Siddiqui:

I enjoyed a strong stint in Finance at Thomson Reuters before starting Empleo. As much as I loved numbers, my job also included heavy interaction with leaders across various functions. I realized I enjoyed working with people and understanding their work as much as I enjoyed projecting numbers to grow businesses. At a young age, I understood the importance of hiring the right people, especially leaders – they are instrumental in taking decisions that can make or break a company.

I started Empleo Consultants two and a half years ago with a vision to help ambitious firms unleash new levels of growth by helping them hire high performing talent. This was on the back of the UAE’s leadership’s vision to establish this country as the best country in the world. The UAE is attracting international talent eager to move their careers to this sunny country full of opportunities. Having relocated here when I was 8, I am always looking for ways to give back.

In a growing market, jobs will always be generated, albeit some get obsolete owning to technological advancement, new ones are always created based on the country’s advancement and growth trends. In the last couple of years, the healthcare sector alone witnessed a whooping 45% growth in new facilities being set up.

On a personal front, I’ve always enjoyed meeting new people, learning about new businesses, and building connections. Grey’s Anatomy also happens to be one of my favorite TV shows, and that’s how my healthcare HR consultancy was formed.

The world was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic shortly after our formation, and we signed up with government bodies to recruit hundreds of medical professionals to help contain the spread. Since then, we’ve partnered with leading

healthcare establishments across the region to recruit top notch, highly specialized medical professionals for them. This ranges from star doctors, highly specialized international doctors, nurses, and C-suite leaders.

On the back of our successful healthcare recruitment, we’ve now branched out into recruiting managerial and C-suite talent for various industries, including but not limited to the Banking & Financial Services sector, and leading MNC’s. We’ve also ventured into healthcare events. We organize bespoke trainings to give healthcare professionals the opportunity to enhance their knowledge, unlock their next career move, whilst earning credits for professional development.

Empleo works to meet the recruitment needs of healthcare:

The requirement of healthcare talent depends on various factors, from the type of healthcare facility, the target audience, the size, the specialties, and of course, the location. Most roles are either highly specialized and technical, or require thorough industry knowledge, such as leadership roles.

We are experts, with a very strong knowledge of the healthcare professional qualification requirements, the labor laws, and the industry overall. We’re also proactively in touch with leading medical professionals internationally and can quickly recruit the most relevant talent for existing, expanding, and upcoming healthcare facilities.

The global healthcare manpower shortage coupled with a rise in population and upcoming medical establishments, we proactively scout for talent in developing markets/countries to help meet the shortage in a strategic fashion.

Being a very competitive industry and attracting international healthcare brands from all over the globe, networking is also a key factor to ensure we’re up to date with predicting manpower requirements of hospitals, to plan and build our talent pipeline accordingly.

Mariah’s Leadership in HR:

I’d like to firstly thank the leaders of this country to seamlessly manage COVID-19 and set an example for the world to take inspiration from. The UAE government extends several initiatives towards SME’s and entrepreneurs like me that encourage us further to spread our wings and dream big. COVID-19 proved to be challenging in ways more than one, impacting all industries. With the recent recovery post COVID, we have seen a rise in hiring as companies bounce back to normal. HR & Recruitment is a developed market with many big

players dominating the share. With perseverance, consistency, and discipline, we are growing faster than expected by onboarding like-minded firms to partner with our capabilities, industry knowledge, and global connect.

I believe the way forward in this competitive market is to invest in building deep connections to understand what businesses require, and use innovation and creativity to proactively meet the client’s requirements. The key is to attract the right and qualified global talent to bring out the magic of synergies by creating multicultural teams in this country. With our commitment to excellence, we reckon that the future of manpower requirements in this country are nothing but bright, and we hope to play a small part in this by providing only the best talent.

Mariah’s Team Management Skills:

We follow a very flexible work culture, as I firmly believe that the best way to grow your business is by talking to people – both, within your company and outside.

Speaking to clients tells you what you need to do, speaking to your team will tell you how to do it. It’s the people who spend their time on the ground that give you wise inputs on how to deliver superior services to your clients. Teams must have recognition and empowerment through skill development.

We spend at least an hour every day to share experiences, stories, and learn things outside our work knowledge to make sure we’re evolving – you never know when a eureka moment can happen for your next big idea!

Major accomplishments of Empleo Consultants:

– We’ve mobilized hundreds of medical professionals to support the COVID-19 pandemic crisis in the UAE

– We’ve onboarded some leading government and private healthcare establishments and recruited hospital teams from scratch, including but not limited to Chief Executives, leading star doctors, and hundreds of nurses

– We’ve hired revenue generating C-suite leaders and mid-senior executives for international banks and multinational corporations listed on the stock exchange

– We’ve developed a loyal base of clients who are happy with our boutique services, attention to detail, and worldwide connect of talent to recruit the most qualified candidates in a timely manner

– From a functional perspective, our recruitment team holds the appropriate qualification, CIPD certifications, and the relevant industry expertise. From a Continued Medical Education and Continued Professional Development perspective, our board includes seasoned leaders with decades of experience in this field.

AI influencing the HR and recruitment field:

Artificial Intelligence technology has been transformational. From physically dropping resumes at offices to now receiving thousands of CV’s electronically, recruitment grew up. With so many ATS startup firms, AI/technology has shown promising results by automating mundane tasks.

But genius is about knowing when to stop. I personally come from the school of thought that human connection will never go out of fashion, no matter how much you automate HR. People thrive on human connection. People prefer voice notes over texting stating the human voice leaves less room for misunderstanding and captures live emotions through the tone of voice. This is just one example. Wisdom is using the right amount of automation while keeping human connection alive. Use AI to pre-screen, send bulk emails to generate initial interest, but use intuition and human interaction for key decisions i.e., Interviewing, performance feedback etc. I’ve seen ATS platforms that capture nervous expressions of candidates through video recordings and reject them. Reality is, everyone is nervous during interviews, especially when we give them 30 seconds to record an elevator pitch. The real talent of an interviewer is to be able to look through the personality for capacity, caliber, and character. Always save time for such interactions, as hiring the right people decides the future of your company. People bring the company’s vision to life.

We live in an era where our grandparents can video call us from anywhere! Humans have evolved very intelligently. With the right career guidance and staying up to date with latest developments, I believe we can look at jobs of the future and proactively groom ourselves to be prepared.

Some best ways of nailing a great job in the healthcare industry:

I believe in a world full of automation and cut-throat competition, relationship building and personal branding goes a long way in setting you apart from others. Leverage the time saved by technology making your access to the job market easier through investing in yourself and building connections. Finding job vacancies is a click away, knowing how to approach them is everything. Take your personal brand to another level – find out leaders of a company to proactively connect with them. Showcase your achievements in your resume, always keep your profiles on business networking platforms up to date. Invest in clicking professional pictures. Capture the recruiter within a few seconds by highlighting your career achievements on top of your profile. Keeping a crisp yet strong profile reflects your dedication and commitment.

Mariah’s Message:

Keep the curiosity alive. Humans are meant to grow together, to walk together, to learn together. Network. Do not underestimate the power of meeting new people and the doors they can open. My father always says that he infects people with his positivity, and I understand why. Let your ambition be so infectious that you want to meet as many people as you can.

Never think something is not worth reading or someone is not worth meeting because they don’t fall in your line of work. We’re in the age where IT engineers are working on predictive health platforms for Doctors! Meet everyone with an open mindset to learn.

Never stop learning, mental exercise is as important as physical exercise. Today science proves that mental stress, fatigue, and complacency can manifest into physical ailments in the long run.

While you may not wake up motivated every day, you can choose to stay disciplined and consistent. Those two traits will yield positive results and kick in motivation.

Connect with Mariah:

Readers may directly email my team at hello@empleoconsultants.com

Our office is in Business Bay, Dubai