What Workforce Localisation and Nationalisation Mean

In many countries, a large part of the private-sector workforce comes from abroad. Governments in these countries want more of their own citizens in good private-sector jobs. Employers are therefore asked, encouraged or required to hire, develop and keep more national staff. The general name for this effort is workforce localisation.

Some countries use the word nationalisation for the same idea, and many give their programme a national name. In the Gulf region you will hear Saudization, Emiratisation, Omanisation, Qatarization, Kuwaitisation and Bahrainisation. In the Caspian region and in many oil and gas producing countries, the same goal often appears under the heading local content.

Note that "nationalisation" in this sense has nothing to do with the state taking ownership of a company. It means increasing the share of national citizens in the workforce.

Three levels of ambition

Organisations approach localisation at three different levels. It helps to know which one you are working at.

• Compliance. The organisation does what the law or the contract requires, and no more. The aim is to avoid penalties and keep permits.
• Capability. The organisation treats national staff as a long-term source of skills. It builds pipelines, develops people to full competence and moves them into technical and leadership roles.
• Strategy. Localisation becomes part of how the organisation wins work and keeps its licence to operate. A strong national workforce is a reason why clients and government choose it.

Compliance is the floor, not the goal. A programme that only chases a percentage often hires people into roles with no future, and those people leave. The ratio then falls again and the cycle repeats.

What a localisation programme contains

Whatever the country, a working programme has the same parts. It knows the rules that apply. It counts its workforce correctly. It plans which roles to localise and when. It builds a pipeline of national talent and develops people to competence. It keeps the people it develops. And it measures and reports progress honestly. The rest of this course follows that order.