Hiring in Qatar has always been a balancing act. You need the best person for the job, and you need someone who will settle into life here.
Since the regional conflict began in February, that balance has become even harder to strike.
It’s one thing to find the right person for the role, it’s another to convince them to uproot their whole life for a country they may never have even set foot in before. And that’s before you add a spouse and children into the mix.
The 18-month problem
What happens if your candidate lands in Qatar, with their family, and finds it’s not the right place for them? The last thing you want is to be hiring for the same role again 18 months later, at added expense.
Relocation support, sometimes offered before the formal job offer goes out, can look like an easy line to trim from the budget. The reality is different.
That support can be what convinces a family to take a leap into the unknown. It can be the deciding factor for someone on the fence. And most importantly, it helps the whole family settle with ease rather than stress, so your new hire can hit the ground running without worrying about what’s happening at home.
Everyone has a person
Every long-term expat you meet out in Doha has a story, and in that story there is a person (often more than one person) who changed the whole experience for them. That helped them to settle and made them realise that Doha is where they wanted to build a life.
Let me tell you mine.
Ten years ago, we moved to Qatar from Dubai with a three-year-old and an 18-month-old. We naively believed our Gulf experience meant we would be fine.
Wrong.
On paper we were doing ok. We had a school place, we knew what documents we needed, we had an idea of where we might want to live.
But the reality was different.
Dragging two small children into dusty, hot villa after dusty, hot villa (did I mention we moved in August?!) was exhausting. I didn’t know the areas. I didn’t know the compounds. And I didn’t know how I was going to build a life here.
Then, on my third day, desperately lonely in a random soft play, I met Jackie. A woman with two little girls who invited me into her life, fed me homemade bread and gave me a chance to breathe again.
Having someone who lived here to talk to helped us decide where to live. It gave me the start of a social life. It gave me back my faith that this could work.
Others soon followed. Emma, who became my work wife and kept me grounded. Mary, who has navigated school life with me (including two school moves!!). People who have been there every time I wanted to throw in the towel, call my husband and demand we move home.
Yet ten years later, here we still are.
Thriving.
Paperwork gets you here. Settling keeps you here.
We worked through the paperwork step by step until we had our QIDs, driving licences, school places and nursery places. But it was the settling in that shaped our experience. It made us want to stay. And it let my husband concentrate at work, knowing I wasn’t out panicking in Doha.
That’s the side of onboarding that decides whether a new hire stays or moves on. It’s also the side most often left to chance.
What good relocation support looks like
Not every new arrival will be lucky enough to meet their Jackie in a soft play on day three. But employers can make sure they don’t have to rely on luck.
It starts with an orientation on arrival that goes beyond a list of compounds. Which areas suit this particular family What does living there really mean for the commute, the school run and the children’s activities?
It means helping families see what life could look like before they commit. Visiting their top schools with someone by their side. Trying out sports clubs and activities, so every member of the family can find something just as good as what they’re leaving behind.
And it means giving them someone to ask. Someone who has lived here for years and can answer the questions a new hire might not feel comfortable raising with HR. Someone who understands what the accompanying spouse is going through, because they’ve been in those shoes themselves.
The learning
A smooth start, supported in every way, leads to people staying longer. The working spouse can hit the ground running, knowing they are not just doing a job here, but building a life for the whole family.
The cost of that support is small compared with starting the hiring process all over again.
So, over to you. When your next hire lands in Doha with their family, who will be their person?
