Filipinos comprise the third largest group in the UAE’s hospitality as well as food and beverage industries serving in frontline positions because of their irresistible smiles, officials said.
“Our key strength of any hypermarket retail is the front end. It’s a customer service industry so we always consider our asset, the human resources, specifically the front end who are the ones who interact with the customers. That is totally controlled by our Filipino colleagues,” said V Nandakumar, Chief Communications Officer at LuLu Group International.
He added, “We have people working with us for 14 years, 17 years who have joined from the entry level positions such as clerks and risen up to become general managers, section heads, buying heads, procurement – we have a huge number. Almost a quarter of our staff are Filipinos.
In the hospitality sector, Vagelyn Tumbaga Federico, human resource director at a five-star hotel in Dubai, said Filipinos comprise a third of the industry’s workforce, working in positions from crew level to mid-management like unit directors.
“Filipinos are natural-born hospitable and friendly people. You can always see happiness and positiveness in their faces,” said Federico, who has been an HR director in various other hotel establishments for the past nine years.
SFC Group, which operates a hotel and chain of fast food restaurants, has up to 40% of its 2,500 employees being Filipinos. Why? “In the hospitality industry, they are the best staff,” said K. Muralee Dharan, the company’s managing director.
“Filipinos are very dedicated, very sincere. Whatever they do, they enjoy doing. For instance, when packing something, you will know the difference if a Filipino did it or other nationalities. They make a difference in whatever they do,” Dharan said.
Gerard Hotelier, vice president for operations – Middle East and Africa at the Swiss-brand, Movenpick Hotels and Resorts, said Filipinos are “very important because of many reasons. A. They are very qualified; B. They have great personality; and C. Their English is very good.”
