What an Emiratisation consultant does
An Emiratisation consultant helps a UAE company meet its MoHRE targets for employing UAE Nationals. The work has four parts: establishing what the target actually is for each trade licence, sourcing and pre-screening Emirati candidates, activating the Nafis benefits attached to each hire, and keeping those hires in place so the count holds at the next checkpoint.
It is not the same as a recruitment brief. The target is a compliance obligation assessed twice a year, so the consultant is working to a deadline and a number rather than to a vacancy. Most of the difficulty sits in two places companies underestimate: which roles MoHRE counts as skilled, and whether the Emiratis already on payroll are registered correctly enough to be counted at all.
Audit and target
Count skilled roles per establishment card from work permits, verify the Emirati headcount, and calculate the target and gap for each licence.
Source and screen
Reach active and passive UAE Nationals, pre-screen every candidate by phone, and present a shortlist with salary expectation, notice period and Nafis status.
Compliance and Nafis
Register the establishment and each hire on Nafis, activate salary and pension support, and confirm classification before the checkpoint.
Plan to the deadline
Work back from 30 June and 31 December so offers are accepted and contracts registered with weeks to spare.
Onboard and retain
Brief the manager, agree a 30/60/90-day plan, and check in at day 30 and day 90 so the hire is still counted at the next assessment.
Report to the board
Fine exposure, progress per licence and classification-tier impact in a form a board or group HR director can act on.
When companies bring one in
Six situations account for almost every engagement we start.
- You have just crossed 20 or 50 employees and the target now applies
- A checkpoint is within a quarter and the gap is not closed
- You run several trade licences and cannot tell which one is short
- Emirati hires keep leaving inside the first year
- Job postings produce applicants who are unqualified or unreachable
- You have never claimed a Nafis benefit for an Emirati employee
Targets are assessed on 30 June and 31 December, and a shortfall is fined every month until it is closed. A brief placed in March or September costs a placement fee. The same gap discovered in June costs the fee plus the fines already accrued.
How to choose one
Six questions that separate a specialist from a generalist desk with an Emiratisation line in its brochure.
- 1Ask what licence they hold
Recruitment agencies, labour-supply firms and HR consultancies are separately licensed in the UAE. Know which one you are signing with and what it permits.
- 2Ask how the candidate pool is built
A consultant who searches only when you brief them will take six to eight weeks. Ask how many UAE Nationals they already hold relationships with, and how often that pool is refreshed.
- 3Ask who actually does the work
Find out whether the person in the meeting is the person who will screen candidates, or whether the brief passes to a junior researcher afterwards.
- 4Ask how they define a skilled role
The answer should reference MoHRE’s occupational classification on the work permit, not your job titles. This is where most internal counts turn out to be wrong.
- 5Ask what happens after the start date
Nafis registration in week one, a manager briefing, and check-ins at day 30 and day 90. A hire that leaves before the checkpoint does not count.
- 6Ask for a reference in your sector
A consultant who places in your industry already knows the salary bands and where the candidates are.
What Emiratisation support costs
Hiring work is normally a single placement fee, agreed up front and payable when the employee starts. There is no retainer for standard hiring, and no fee if nobody starts. Advisory work is priced differently: audits and compliance reviews are either included with placements or scoped as a fixed fee, and an embedded hiring desk is a monthly engagement.
| Engagement | Model | When you pay |
|---|---|---|
| Permanent Emirati hiring | Placement fee per hire | On the candidate’s start date |
| Executive search | Retained, three stages | Shortlist, offer accepted, start date |
| Bulk and graduate hiring | Per seat, tiered by volume | As each cohort starts |
| Workforce audit | Free initial audit | Nothing for the first audit |
| Nafis and compliance advisory | Included, or fixed fee standalone | Included with every placement |
| Embedded hiring desk | Monthly, scoped to your target | Monthly, six-month minimum |
Compare any quote against the alternative rather than against zero. One unfilled skilled role costs a monthly fine per missing Emirati until it is closed, which is usually a multiple of a placement fee within the first year. The quota gap report puts your own figures against that.
What our support looks like
One consultant from the first call to the day-90 check-in. No account managers, no junior researchers, and no CV dumps: three to five pre-screened UAE Nationals per role, each spoken to before you see the profile.
Common questions
An Emiratisation consultant helps a UAE company meet its MoHRE targets for employing UAE Nationals. The work covers four things: auditing how many skilled roles and Emirati employees you have per trade licence, calculating the target and the gap, sourcing and pre-screening Emirati candidates, and activating Nafis benefits and compliance reporting so each hire is correctly counted.
Most companies engage one when they first cross 20 or 50 employees, when a MoHRE checkpoint is approaching and the gap is not closed, when Emirati hires keep leaving within the first year, or when a group with several licences cannot tell which entity is short. The two checkpoints are 30 June and 31 December, and briefs placed three months ahead cost far less than fines.
Hiring work is normally a single placement fee agreed up front and payable when the Emirati employee starts, with no retainer. Advisory work — workforce audits, Nafis registration, compliance reporting — is either included with placements or scoped as a fixed fee. Our initial workforce audit is free for UAE mainland companies.
Yes, and many do. The two things in-house teams usually lack are a pre-built pool of Emirati candidates, which is why job postings take six to eight weeks to produce a shortlist, and certainty about which roles MoHRE counts as skilled. A consultant is worth it when the deadline is close, the volume is high, or the classification is unclear.
No. Employ Emiratis is a licensed HR consultancy. We advise UAE mainland companies on Emiratisation, source and pre-screen UAE Nationals from our own database, and support the process through to onboarding. Interviews, hiring decisions and employment contracts stay with the employer.
