Five ways to put people to work on a UAE project, and how to choose between them: who directs the work, how long you need it, and how much of the job you hand over.
Most manpower requirements can be met in more than one way, and the arrangement you choose decides who supervises the work, who carries the employment obligations, and what you are left managing. This guide sets out the five arrangements we offer and the questions that point to the right one.
Labour supply: our workers, your supervisors
Labour supply puts trade-tested workers on your site to work under your own supervisors. You direct the work; we employ the workers. It suits projects that already have a site team and need hands: masons, electricians, scaffolders and other skilled trades, general helpers and other semi-skilled labour, or a complete MEP or civil and construction crew.
The workers stay on our visas and our WPS payroll, with medical insurance and housing handled by us, so adding twenty people to a site does not add twenty sets of paperwork to your office.
Contract staffing: supply set to the length of the job
Contract staffing is labour supply shaped by time. Long term contract manpower keeps one crew together for months or years on infrastructure projects, EPC programmes, manufacturing operations and hospitality openings, with leavers replaced on our side. Short term contract manpower covers a peak, such as a shutdown, a handover push or seasonal volume, and stands down when it passes. If a short requirement turns into a long one, it can move onto a longer contract.
Outsourcing: hand over a function
Outsourcing is different in kind. Instead of workers who take your direction, you hand over a whole function with an agreed scope and standard, and supervision is part of what we supply. It suits work that runs continuously and that your team would rather not manage day to day: facility cleaning, warehouse operations, packaging lines and logistics.
Recruitment: the people who manage the work
Recruitment finds individuals rather than crews: site supervisors, foremen, storekeepers and QA/QC inspectors, and site, MEP and planning engineers. Candidates are screened against the role before you meet them, and whether a placed person sits on our sponsorship or your own payroll is agreed before placement.
Payroll and sponsorship: the administration behind a workforce
Behind every worker we supply sits the same administration: visa processing, Emirates ID, medical insurance, WPS payroll, gratuity accruals and end-of-service formalities. We carry it under our MOHRE employment agency licence, so your HR team does not have to.
How to choose
- Who will direct the work? Your supervisors: labour supply. Our supervisors, against an agreed scope: outsourcing.
- How long do you need it? Months or years: long term contract manpower. A peak with a clear end: short term.
- Do you need hands, or the people who manage them? Hands: labour supply. Supervisors and engineers: recruitment, which can also come alongside a crew.
- Is the function core to your business? If it is not, and it runs every day, outsourcing takes it off your team entirely.
Many projects combine them: an MEP crew under labour supply, with site supervision recruited to run it, on a long term contract. Our office is in Sharjah, and we supply manpower across the UAE; see manpower supply in Sharjah, or send an enquiry with the work, the site and the timeline, and we will recommend the arrangement that suits it.
Related Guides
cleaning and facility crews, scoping a general helper request, direct hire or contract supply and how manpower supply works in the UAE.