Hi,
My name is Declan McCluskey, and I'm the owner of Motor Trade Jobs Middle East. I have been involved in the motor trade for over 18 years now, starting off in a dealership and moving through a range of roles. I have worked for a number of Manufacturers from volume to prestige; across Retail New, Used and Fleet; worked in Sales and Sales Management Consultancy; and for one of the biggest Leasing and Contract Hire companies in the UK.
I have been fortunate enough to have worked in a number of countries as a consultant, bringing the experience of the UK market to those that are less developed to accelerate their success. And indeed I also operate a specialist Motor Trade Consultancy based in the Middle East - Momentum Consultants.
For two years prior to starting the company I was working for one of the biggest global manufacturers based out of their offices in Dubai. My role involved working with dealers across the Middle East Region, helping them to implement various programmes including Used Cars and improving their sales processes.
During that time I met a great many professional business operators who really want to have the best businesses they can, but they struggle with many constraints upon their ability to find and employ good staff. One of the obvious restrictions is the desire to employ local labour wherever possible in some countries, and that has to be admired, but equally they find it difficult to know how and where to recruit from abroad.
I saw dealers struggle to find good staff and as the market growth was so strong have one dealer manager looking for sales staff say - 'If someone turns up who is well dressed, and is breathing, they get the job!'
I personally recruited seven staff in that time, and in order to find those people, I probably interviewed over eighty! I made job offers to a couple of people who had been through three rounds of interviews - only for my offers to be rejected when the reality of moving family away from their friends hit home.
This can make recruiting from overseas very time consuming, and very costly, and that's where Motor Trade Jobs Middle East came from.
We are not trying to compete with the big agencies in the UK, as we focus very closely on the roles for our clients and that meet their specific requirements - after all the market is much smaller in the Middle East than the UK. But we do have vacancies that they will never get to hear about because they are not in the Region the majority of the time as we are through our other activities.