التحديات في تحقيق نسب التعمين المستهدفةChallenges in Achieving Target Omanisation Rates

We often hear across both the public and private sectors about target Omanisation rates and the percentages that have been achieved. With the frequent use of these figures and indicators, the concept of “Omanisation” has become directly associated, among a broad segment of society, with the availability of jobs for Omanis, to the extent that it is often viewed as synonymous with employment alone.

However, Omanisation in its broader sense goes beyond simply providing employment opportunities for citizens. It is one of the key pillars of In-Country Value and Local Content in the Sultanate of Oman. Its impact is not limited to job creation, but extends to building national capabilities, transferring knowledge and expertise, and strengthening the participation of Omani talent across various economic activities. From this perspective, Omanisation rates have become one of the main tools used to encourage institutions and sectors to increase the participation of the national workforce.

Yet practical experience raises an important question:

Is setting a target Omanisation rate enough to ensure genuine and sustainable localization of jobs?

The answer does not depend on the percentage alone. Achieving target Omanisation rates is influenced by several factors, including the nature of the sector and the occupations required, the availability of qualified talent, job attractiveness, project duration, salary levels, career development opportunities, and the ability of organizations to attract, develop, and retain Omani employees.

Therefore, discussions around the challenges of Omanisation should not begin solely with the question, “What is the Omanisation rate?” Instead, they should address deeper questions concerning the quality and sustainability of jobs, the readiness of the labour market to provide the required capabilities, and their alignment with Oman Vision 2040.

Omanisation: A System, Not a Number

Oman’s Labour Law defines Omanisation as an employment system aimed at achieving the targeted employment and replacement of Omanis. It also provides that Omanisation rates are determined according to economic sectors, activities, and occupations, taking into account the circumstances of each sector or activity and the availability of the required Omani workforce.

This distinction is important because it confirms that Omanisation, by its very nature, cannot be separated from labour market realities and the composition of the workforce within each economic activity.

However, in practice, organizations face several challenges in implementing this approach, particularly because the commonly understood meaning of Omanisation is often limited to recruitment and compliance with required percentages. This has created a number of misunderstandings between the entities responsible for monitoring Omanisation rates and the organizations required to achieve them.

Challenge One: The Labour Market Is Not a Single Sector

One of the main challenges facing private-sector organizations in particular is that employment conditions vary significantly between sectors. The workforce structure of the construction sector, for example, is fundamentally different from that of the financial, industrial, or logistics sectors. It would therefore be unfair to treat the labour market as a single uniform structure when setting Omanisation and employment requirements.

Data published in the 2026 Annual Statistical Book, issued by the National Centre for Statistics and Information and covering 2025, clearly demonstrates these differences. In the construction sector, approximately 83,000 Omanis were recorded compared with more than 432,000 expatriate workers. Financial and insurance activities recorded approximately 20,000 Omanis compared with around 3,100 expatriates. In transportation and storage, approximately 45,000 Omanis were recorded compared with nearly 73,600 expatriates.

These differences do not necessarily mean that one sector performs better than another. Rather, they reflect differences in job structures, skills requirements, and business models across economic sectors. A sector that relies heavily on field-based and temporary employment cannot be assessed in the same way as one built around stable office-based or specialized roles.

Omanisation percentages therefore become more effective when supported by a detailed understanding of occupations, skills, and the specific labour market conditions of the targeted sector.

Challenge Two: Company-Level vs. Project-Level Omanisation

The issue becomes more complex in major projects, where contracts may impose additional In-Country Value and Local Content requirements, including specific Omanisation percentages and designated positions within the project itself.

Here, it is important to distinguish between two different levels. The first is Omanisation at the establishment or company level, in accordance with the applicable regulatory framework. The second is Omanisation at the project level, where the project owner establishes contractual workforce targets linked specifically to that contract.

A company may therefore be fully compliant with its regulatory requirements under the Ministry of Labour framework while still facing challenges in meeting a contractual Omanisation requirement within a specific project, particularly when the requirement relates to particular occupational categories.

This challenge is especially evident in construction projects. Workforce numbers may increase significantly during the construction phase and then decline when the project transitions into operations. Certain specializations may also be required for only a few months. Employing an Omani national in a role associated with a short project phase therefore requires early consideration of what will happen to that employee once the role is no longer required.

For this reason, project Omanisation requirements and targets should be preceded by a clear workforce plan identifying required positions, the duration for which they are needed, necessary skills, replacement potential, and opportunities for employees to transition between project phases or move to other projects.

Short-term employment may not accurately reflect a private-sector organization’s commitment to sustainable Omanisation and the retention of Omani employees. It may also fail to provide relevant authorities with a clear picture of employment quality and sustainability.

Challenge Three: Job Attractiveness

Another factor that cannot be overlooked is that the availability of a candidate does not necessarily mean that the individual is able or willing to remain in the position.

Salary is not the only factor influencing employment decisions. Working hours, shifts, remote locations, job security, workplace environment, training opportunities, the nature of the role, and career progression all contribute to job attractiveness.

An organization may successfully recruit the required number of Omanis and achieve its target percentage during a particular period, only to return to its starting point if a significant proportion of those employees leave shortly afterwards.

National workforce turnover should therefore form part of the assessment of Omanisation performance. Organizations should not only be asked, “How many Omanis have you employed?” but also, “How many are still working with you after two or three years, and why did the others leave?”

From Omanisation Rates to the Quality of Omanisation

Perhaps the most important future challenge is how to move from simply calculating Omanisation percentages to evaluating the quality of Omanisation.

Two organizations may achieve exactly the same Omanisation rate while producing entirely different economic and developmental outcomes. In one organization, Omani employees may be concentrated in a limited number of positions. Another may integrate Omanis across different organizational levels, train them in technical specializations, prepare them for supervisory and leadership positions, and link their development to structured replacement and knowledge-transfer plans.

It may therefore be appropriate to incorporate the concept of Omanisation quality into monitoring and assessment frameworks.

Alongside the percentages companies are required to achieve, additional indicators could include:

What percentage of Omanis work in technical and specialized positions?

What percentage have been promoted?

How many employees have completed professional programmes accredited by the Ministry of Labour?

How many positions have genuinely transitioned from expatriate expertise to national capability?

What percentage of Omani employees remain with the organization after two or three years?

Through this approach, Omanisation evolves from a compliance indicator into an indicator of national human-capital development.

In some specializations, it is unrealistic to expect the labour market to provide companies with candidates who are 100% job-ready. Building expertise is a shared responsibility.

Relevant authorities and companies can therefore transform some of these gaps into opportunities through on-the-job training, graduate programmes, professional certifications, mentoring and guidance, individual development plans, and gradual workforce replacement.

Knowledge transfer is particularly important in projects that rely on specialized international expertise. In such cases, the value of an international expert should not end when their contract expires. Instead, the engagement can be structured so that knowledge is transferred to Omani employees who can subsequently perform the same role.

This demonstrates the true connection between Omanisation and In-Country Value: value is not represented solely by wages spent within the economy, but also by the expertise, knowledge, and capabilities that remain within it.

Proposed Solutions: Omanisation as a Shared Responsibility

It would not be fair to place responsibility for solving all Omanisation challenges on a single party.

The government is responsible for developing legislation, policies, and labour-market data. Educational and training institutions are responsible for aligning academic and training programmes with future employment needs. Companies are expected to provide opportunities, training, suitable working environments, and career pathways. Project owners can use contracts and procurement as tools to build national capabilities. At the same time, jobseekers and employees must take responsibility for developing their skills and being prepared to learn and adapt to changing job requirements.

When these stakeholders operate separately, achieving the percentage can become an end in itself. When they operate as part of an integrated system, the percentage becomes a natural outcome of successfully building the national workforce.

There is no doubt that Omanisation rates are necessary. They establish targets and encourage organizations to identify and employ national talent. However, the real challenge is not simply reaching the required percentage at the end of a month or quarter, but maintaining it, developing it, and transforming the positions held by Omanis into sustainable career pathways.

If we are to address the Omanisation challenges outlined above, the first solution should be to link Omanisation rates and employment data to each sector separately rather than treating all economic sectors in the same way. This would help avoid addressing employment challenges in one sector through measures that could indirectly affect the stability of another, while allowing Omanisation rates to remain flexible based on labour-market conditions.

This should be followed by clearly defining the administrative and employment structure of each organization and making this structure transparent to the Ministry of Labour. This would help identify positions that can be Omanised immediately, those in which new employees require accredited training, and those that should form part of future replacement plans.

For highly specialized positions that are difficult to Omanise in the short term, clear knowledge-transfer and national capability-building plans can be established to ensure genuine added value for the local economy.

With regard to Omanisation across companies and projects, it is important to distinguish between Omanisation at the organizational level and Omanisation at the project level.

Each project has its own execution structure and workforce, which changes according to its different phases. Projects also involve multiple subcontractors, which may result in workforce numbers at the project site being significantly higher than the permanent workforce employed directly by the main contractor.

Assessing project-level Omanisation therefore requires a methodology that takes into account the project’s nature, duration, phases, and workforce composition.

Given the significant overlap between the workforce of the main contractor and that of subcontractors, there is a need for an independent methodology to measure and manage Omanisation at project level. Under such an approach, all Omanis actually working within the scope of the project—whether employed by the main contractor or subcontractors—would be included within a unified Omanisation rate specific to that project.

At the same time, this workforce would be recorded within a clear framework demonstrating its connection to the specific project and its management team, while keeping this measurement separate from the company’s overall Omanisation rate.

Such an approach would provide a more accurate picture of national workforce participation within each project while avoiding confusion between the overall performance of a company and the performance of the individual project it is executing.

In conclusion, early workforce planning, accurate labour-market data, training and qualification programmes linked to genuine needs, replacement and knowledge-transfer plans, employee-retention and career-development indicators, job quality, and clear administrative and employment structures all form part of a comprehensive solution to Omanisation challenges.

When these elements are properly considered, analysed, and applied in a structured manner, Omanisation can evolve from merely a percentage that organizations are required to achieve into a long-term investment in Omani human capital, one of the most important and enduring forms of In-Country Value.