A recent survey of the top UAE SMEs indicated by an overwhelming majority its plans to hire more labor in the next half year. About 81.5% of the firms surveyed said that they are seeking to hire due to improved business performance in the last quarter of 2013. This in turn would require a larger manpower complement to sustain the growing company operations.

On the other hand, the remaining 18.5% are not seeking to hire for the same period as many had already recruited their new staff earlier this year. Another fact found in the survey is than more than half have concerns as to the cost of recruitment with visa expenses as the biggest challenge for SMEs moving forward.

Dubai SME CEO HE Abdul Baset Al Janahi said that while hiring is important for SME growth, many firms would benefit from retention policies and other staff development programs for current employees.

He said, "While many enlightened, willing and able SMEs realize the need to attract, retain and develop good employees, there is still a long way to go. Though the Dubai SME100 initiative, we work to create more awareness of human capital development and showcase good SME role models for other SMEs to learn good practices of their SME peers."