The Omanisation Challenge
Despite decades of Omanisation policy requiring minimum percentages of Omani employees across private-sector industries, compliance remains a challenge and genuine integration – as opposed to paper compliance – is even more elusive. Many companies meet quotas through ghost employment (registering Omanis who do not actually work), placing nationals in non-essential roles, or concentrating them in HR and administrative functions rather than core technical and commercial positions. The result is a two-tier workforce that satisfies regulators without fundamentally changing employment patterns.
Employer Perspective
Private-sector employers cite multiple reasons for preferring expatriate workers: lower total employment costs (expatriate wages in many sectors are a fraction of Omani expectations); greater flexibility (expatriate workers can be hired and released more easily); longer working hours and willingness to accept difficult conditions; often stronger technical skills in specific areas; and lower absenteeism rates. These are not merely prejudices – they reflect real economic calculations in competitive markets where labour costs directly affect profitability and contract competitiveness.
The Wage Gap Problem
The public-private sector wage gap is the single largest barrier to meaningful Omanisation. An Omani graduate can expect a government salary of OMR 800-1,200 per month with generous benefits, while many private-sector entry positions offer OMR 350-600. This gap, combined with shorter public-sector working hours and greater job security, makes government employment overwhelmingly preferred. Wage support programmes that subsidise the gap have had mixed success – they reduce the immediate cost to employers but create dependency and do not address underlying productivity issues.
Sustainable Solutions
Sustainable Omanisation requires moving beyond quotas to address root causes: invest in technical education that produces graduates with genuinely competitive skills; gradually narrow the public-private wage gap through public sector reform and private sector minimum wage increases; create career progression pathways that make private sector careers aspirational; enforce Omanisation requirements more rigorously while providing genuine support to compliant companies; and target sectors where Omanis can add real value (technology, financial services, tourism management) rather than attempting universal replacement of expatriate labour.