GOLD appproach

“If successful, candidates will be placed on a 12-18 month leading edge accelerated management development programme. DP World will ultimately prepare them to embark on their global career to eventually becoming one of our future general managers.”

DP says that due to the rapid rise of its profile through acquisitions over the past couple of years, there may be recruitment difficulties in certain locations where DP World is less known as a company. “However, as DP World is increasingly growing and becoming a recognised global brand, we are able to use our global network to source the ‘right people’,” says Mr Hall. “DP World has become one of the world’s leading terminal operators and has the ability to offer challenging careers across a truly global footprint.”

DP World says its employees work together to create an environment that relies upon “teamwork, innovation, commitment and leadership”.

“We invest heavily in training and development at all levels via the DP World Institute and local training providers and through succession planning to encourage employees to add value and contribute to the growth of our business, focusing strongly on customer satisfaction,” says Mr Hall.

DP World’s remuneration packages are designed to link reward with performance and the human resources team constantly measures packages against the external market, says Mr Hall. In addition, each business unit within each region has specific local incentives to attract and retain employees.

There is prevailing climate of poaching in the industry, he adds, but the strategy is to build DP World as an employment brand “linked to development and opportunity” so individuals will approach DP World independently because they want to work for the company.

Another major global port operator says: “In some ports where we operate, we face a tight labour situation with a very low unemployment rate and it is a challenge finding new employees and retaining existing staff. Inevitably, the tight labour market puts upward pressure on wages.”

In response, it diversifies its sources of employment, tapping from local as well as foreign sources where possible and where it is more cost-competitive to do so. However, “this approach in turn results in an increasingly diverse workforce with its accompanying language and cross cultural issues”, says a spokesman.