For many organisations, People and Culture remains closely associated with recruitment, employee engagement, policies and training. Those activities matter, but they do not answer the question CEOs ultimately need answered:
Does the organisation have the people, capabilities and leadership required to execute its strategy?
The evidence suggests that this question is becoming more important. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 found that employers expect 39% of workers’ existing core skills to change by 2030, while 63% identify skills gaps as a major barrier to business transformation. At the same time, 85% of employers surveyed plan to prioritise workforce upskilling. (World Economic Forum)
The UAE is moving in the same direction. Its National Employment Strategy 2031 explicitly links labour productivity, future skills, lifelong learning and talent attraction with the development of a knowledge-based economy. The UAE’s Advanced Skills Strategy also promotes lifelong learning and future skills for citizens and residents. (u.ae)
For business leaders, the implication is clear:
People and Culture needs to move closer to strategy, capability and performance.
At a Glance: Five Findings Leaders Should Consider
39% of core skills are expected to change by 2030.
The World Economic Forum’s 2025 research shows that organisations cannot rely on today’s capability requirements remaining stable. (World Economic Forum)
63% of employers identify skills gaps as a major barrier to business transformation.
The issue is therefore not simply finding people. It is having the capabilities required to execute change. (World Economic Forum)
85% of employers plan to prioritise upskilling.
Workforce development is becoming a core response to changing skill requirements. (World Economic Forum)
66% of managers and executives say most recent hires were not fully prepared.
Deloitte’s 2025 research found that lack of experience was the most common weakness. (Deloitte)
73% of organisations see reinventing the manager role as important, but only 7% report making great progress.
The gap suggests that management capability is becoming a significant organisational constraint. (Deloitte)
- The UAE Workforce Agenda Is Becoming a Business Agenda
The UAE’s workforce policies provide an important context for business leaders.
The National Employment Strategy 2031 aims to support a knowledge-based economy by improving labour productivity, developing skills required by the labour market, promoting lifelong learning, building future skills and attracting talent. It also identifies sectors such as technology, artificial intelligence, finance, health, education and advanced science as areas of importance for national workforce participation. (u.ae)
The Advanced Skills Strategy takes a similarly long-term view. It is designed around lifelong learning and identifies four broad categories of future skills: basic skills, competencies, personality traits and specialised skills. It covers students, graduates and experienced employees. (u.ae)
This matters because the UAE’s economic ambitions require organisations to continually develop capability.
The government’s We the UAE 2031 vision aims to double the country’s GDP from AED 1.49 trillion to AED 3 trillion, with economic and development priorities spanning the next decade. (u.ae)
For individual companies, this translates into a practical leadership question:
What workforce capabilities will be required to support our next stage of growth?
That question should influence recruitment, organisation design, leadership development, succession and investment in skills.
People and Culture should therefore be considered alongside business strategy, not after it.
- Skills Are Becoming a Strategic Constraint
Technology is changing jobs, but the bigger management challenge may be the speed at which capabilities need to change.
The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 surveyed more than 1,000 employers representing more than 14 million workers. It found that 39% of existing worker skill sets are expected to be transformed or become outdated between 2025 and 2030. It also found that 59 out of every 100 workers would need training by 2030 under its global workforce scenario. (World Economic Forum)
The research does not suggest that every employee will need to become a technology specialist.
It points to a combination of technical and human capabilities.
AI and big data, networks and cybersecurity, and technological literacy are among the fastest-growing skills. At the same time, creative thinking, resilience, flexibility, agility, leadership and talent management are also increasing in importance. (World Economic Forum)
This has an important implication for UAE organisations.
A traditional training approach often starts with available courses. A business-led capability approach starts with the strategy.
Leadership teams should identify:
- Which capabilities are essential to the next phase of growth?
- Which skills are becoming harder to source?
- Which capabilities can be developed internally?
- Which roles will change because of AI or automation?
- Which employees could move into higher-value responsibilities?
- Where is the organisation most exposed if capability is unavailable?
This is where People and Culture can become a strategic function.
The objective is not to increase the number of training programmes.
The objective is to increase the organisation’s ability to execute its strategy.
- The Manager Is Becoming a Critical Performance Lever
One of the clearest findings in recent human capital research concerns managers.
Deloitte’s 2025 Global Human Capital Trends research surveyed nearly 13,000 business and HR leaders across 93 countries. It found that 73% of organisations recognise the importance of reinventing the manager role, while only 7% report making great progress. (Deloitte)
Deloitte’s Middle East analysis provides further context. Its research indicates that managers spend significant time dealing with immediate problems and administrative responsibilities, while only 13% of reported time is spent developing people. (Deloitte)
That creates a potential gap between what organisations expect from managers and what managers actually have time to do.
As organisations adopt AI and redesign work, managers increasingly need to:
- Set clear performance expectations
- Develop employee capability
- Coach rather than simply supervise
- Allocate work effectively
- Build collaboration across teams
- Identify future talent
- Make decisions closer to the work
- Help employees adapt to changing responsibilities
This is particularly important because leadership pipelines are often built through management roles.
If managers are not developing people today, the organisation may have fewer capable leaders tomorrow.
For CEOs, the practical test is simple:
Are our managers primarily managing tasks, or are they building organisational capability?
That distinction should influence management KPIs, leadership development and performance expectations.
- From Employee Lifecycle to Workforce Capability
People and Culture is often organised around an employee lifecycle:
Attract → Hire → Onboard → Develop → Retain → Exit
For a CEO, a more useful view is the business capability lifecycle:
Strategy → Workforce → Capability → Performance → Succession
This changes what leadership teams measure.
Recruitment becomes a question of time to capability, not simply time to hire.
Training becomes a question of capability gained and applied, not attendance.
Performance management becomes a question of business contribution, not completion of appraisal forms.
Succession becomes a question of organisational continuity, not simply naming replacements.
This shift is supported by Deloitte’s research on the experience gap. Two-thirds of managers and executives surveyed said most recent hires were not fully prepared, while 73% of executives and 72% of workers said organisations should provide more opportunities for employees to build experience. (Deloitte)
For UAE organisations, this suggests that internal development can be an important complement to external recruitment.
A strong People and Culture system should create opportunities for employees to gain experience through:
- Cross-functional projects
- Stretch assignments
- Coaching
- Job rotations
- Leadership responsibilities
- Client exposure
- Commercial decision-making
- Structured development plans
The question is no longer simply whether someone has the right qualification.
It is whether the organisation is deliberately building the experience and capability it will need.
What UAE Business Leaders Should Reconsider
The evidence points to several practical shifts.
From hiring for vacancies to planning for capability
Workforce planning should begin with the business strategy and future capability requirements.
From training programmes to capability development
Learning investment should be connected to specific business priorities and measurable application.
From managers as supervisors to managers as developers
Management roles should include clear responsibility for building people and future leadership capacity.
From retention as an HR metric to critical talent risk
Leaders should know which roles, relationships and capabilities would create material business risk if they were suddenly lost.
From succession lists to leadership pipelines
A successor should not simply be named. The organisation should know what experience, skills and behaviours that person needs before taking the role.
Five Questions for the Leadership Team
Before reviewing the next People and Culture plan, CEOs and C-Level leaders should ask:
- Which capabilities will determine our growth over the next three years?
- Where do we currently have critical skill or experience gaps?
- Are our managers spending enough time developing people and future leaders?
- Which critical roles would create significant business exposure if the incumbent left tomorrow?
- Can we demonstrate how our People and Culture investments are improving business performance?
These questions move the discussion away from HR activity and towards organisational capability.
Conclusion: People and Culture Should Strengthen the Business
The evidence points to a clear shift.
Skills are changing. Technology is redesigning work. Managers are being asked to perform a broader role. Governments are placing greater emphasis on productivity, future skills and lifelong learning. And organisations are under increasing pressure to build capability rather than simply acquire it.
For UAE businesses, People and Culture therefore has a larger role to play.
It should help answer three fundamental business questions:
Do we have the right people?
Do they have the capabilities to deliver?
Can the organisation continue performing as the business changes?
The organisations that answer these questions systematically will be better positioned to execute growth strategies, develop leaders and manage workforce change.
How Straxecutes Can Help
Straxecutes works with CEOs, founders and leadership teams to connect People and Culture with business strategy and measurable performance.
Our work can include workforce and capability planning, leadership development, performance systems, talent management, succession planning and organisational effectiveness.
The objective is practical:
Build the people systems that make the business more capable, more accountable and better prepared for its next stage of growth.
Research Sources
- World Economic Forum, Future of Jobs Report 2025 (World Economic Forum)
- Deloitte, 2025 Global Human Capital Trends (Deloitte)
- Deloitte Middle East, Human Capital Trends 2025 (Deloitte)
- UAE Government, National Employment Strategy 2031 (u.ae)
- UAE Government, Advanced Skills Strategy (u.ae)
- UAE Government, We the UAE 2031 (u.ae)
- UAE Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, Emiratisation Targets (mohre.gov.ae)
