Emaar The Economic City attracting world-class talent through LinkedIn partnership

Emaar the Economic City (EEC), the developer of the King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) on the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia, has ramped up its use of social networking platforms to achieve its goals to attract and hire top talent from across the Kingdom and abroad. In particular, EEC has noted that its investments in LinkedIn’s Talent Solutions have helped the organization identify recruits faster and streamline its executive search function.

Since joining LinkedIn in 2013, EEC has revealed that 70% of its job hires have been made through LinkedIn, hiring 79 mid to senior-management level employees from LinkedIn in 2015 alone. In particular, EEC’s Saudisation rate has also climbed rapidly since partnering with LinkedIn, and today is almost double the required percentage for its field.

The Tadawul-listed developer has indicated that recruiting-focused advertising campaigns run on LinkedIn have resulted in much higher growth of followers on the company’s corporate page – over 300% year-on-year growth in the first year of use. EEC can now tap into this pool of followers when looking for potential candidates since they’ve already shown interest in the brand and have interacted with them in one way or another.

“Traditionally, we would rely heavily on business partners and executive search companies to find candidates, many of which might not be qualified or fit the culture of the city. Our recruitment department needed to optimize its talent acquisition process while at the same time extending our reach to both local and global senior-level talent,” said Fahd Hamiddadin, Chief Commercial Officer at EEC.

King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) is the largest privately-funded new city globally, covering an area of 181 square kilometers of land, approximately the size of Washington DC. The city is home to the fastest-growing logistics and manufacturing hub in the region, with more than 120 local and international companies using the city as a base of operations in the Kingdom.

KAEC also has a thriving residential and commercial community and establishes itself as a weekend getaway of choice for domestic tourists.

The development and operations for the city are managed by EEC, which currently employs 335 people directly. Around 15% of employees are female, spread across all seniority levels, and more than 24 nationalities are represented. Approximately 10,000 people work in the city every day.

Before turning to LinkedIn, searching for executives via headhunters cost more and took longer, Hamidaddin notes. Now that EEC has moved from being a traditional recruitment department to a proactive and strategic Talent Acquisition department, Hamidaddin says that they work faster and have decreased their overall executive search workload, all while attracting more talent than ever before. “Our partnership with LinkedIn has ensured that our talent needs are met while also helping position our brand as a preferred employer in a dynamic and demanding job market,” added Hamidaddin.

Rabih Haidar, Head of Saudi Arabia, LinkedIn Talent Solutions, said: “LinkedIn wants to create an opportunity for every member of the KSA workforce and be a growth engine for the Saudi economy in line with the Kingdom’s new vision for 2030. We are extremely proud that organizations such as Emaar the Economic City realize the enormous value of today’s digitally-focused recruitment tools in connecting talent with opportunity. Through these collaborations, businesses in Saudi Arabia are ultimately better able to find, attract and train the best talent, build and strengthen their brand and connect with new customers.”

Today EEC uses the full LinkedIn Talent Solution to attract and hire top professionals from around the world. By having access to the entire LinkedIn network and a strong pool of passive talent, EEC can reach out to potential candidates through InMails (LinkedIn’s messaging tool) and start a conversation with them. “While increasing our diversity, LinkedIn helps maintain the great level of competencies pioneering King Abdullah Economic City’s development,” says Hamidaddin.

Arabic-language capabilities have been critical to this talent drive, with LinkedIn launching its Arabic platform in 2015. Since that time, its membership base in the Kingdom has grown by almost 100% to over two million individuals. KSA is currently the number one country globally whose talent is utilizing LinkedIn Arabic.