92% Of MENA Companies Hire Candidates Based On Their Ability To Work In Teams

The Teamwork in the MENA Workplace Poll 2023 by Bayt.com, the Middle East’s #1 job site, revealed a variety of insights about the effect of teamwork as a crucial factor for achieving organizational goals. Nearly 6 in 10 of MENA professionals (56%) prefer jobs that require frequent teamwork, 25% have no preference and only 19% prefer jobs that allow them to work independently.

The findings show that teamwork is essential to improve performances of not just individual employees but the larger organization, as it expands the output of individuals through collaboration – a whopping 89% of respondents say that working in a team leads to higher creativity and inspiration.

Ola Haddad, Director of Human Resources at Bayt.com said: “Effective collaboration and teamwork can lead to increased productivity, improved communication, and a better sense of community among workers. However, it is important for organizations to provide the necessary tools and resources to support collaboration and teamwork. The findings of our latest poll can be used by organizations to improve their teamwork and collaboration strategies, leading to better productivity and job satisfaction among employees.”

Factors affecting group dynamics

Companies that develop teams that are highly engaged and motivated can facilitate an increase in production, elevated customer satisfaction, and worker competency to be at an all-time high. According to MENA professionals, there are several factors that positively impact team dynamics: open communication (39%), diversity of team members (25%), support from management (18%) as well as accountability and rewards (17%).

Taking a close look at their company’s hiring practices can also help employers shape teams that are highly motivated to work together. 92% say it is important to choose candidates based on their ability to work with others and 3% consider it to be neither important nor unimportant. Respondents also shared their opinions about their ideal team sizes to optimize teamwork: two to five people (32%), six to ten people (25%), eleven to twenty people (12%) and more than twenty people (31%).

Remote working and satisfaction

The poll also explored factors which contributed to a collaborative culture with the rise of remote work. Interestingly, 71% of respondents say that remote work positively impacts team collaboration within their company, 11% say it has a negative impact and 18% say that remote work has no impact on team collaboration. MENA companies are using a variety of tools to facilitate remote working – including team collaboration tools (48%), video conferencing app (24%), project management software (15%) and cloud storage services (14%).

In addition to increasing organizational productivity, teamwork gives employees an opportunity to strengthen their knowledge and develop their skills. Poll respondents gave a variety of insights about why they find it more motivating to work in a team – including working with different people and being inspired by diverse perspectives (47%), sharing ideas with other people for validation and support (28%), taking a leadership role when working with others (14%) and being able to divide workload for higher efficiency (11%).

Companies in the MENA are now focusing on creating a workforce that is not just happy, but engaged and motivated to be productive through teamwork. 84% of respondents say that their companies encourage team building.

Challenges of teamwork

In terms of challenges, personal disagreements take the top spot (31%), followed by group think [adopting the popular opinion] (24%), unequal work distribution (25%) and lack of accountability (20%).

Data for the Teamwork in the MENA Workplace Poll was collected online from March 3 to April 2, 2023. Results are based on a sample of 2,077 respondents from countries including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Sudan among others.