Bayer launches recruitment drive in Saudi Arabia

Bayer, a German multinational pharmaceutical and life sciences company, has launched a focused campaign “Move Forward with Bayer” in Saudi Arabia, designed to drive the recruitment of Saudi nationals within its pharmaceutical business in the region.

The digitally led campaign is designed to appeal to pharmaceutical graduates, with a dedicated micro-site and animated characters, Mouna and Youssef, helping in bringing it to life. By 2021, the company aims to recruit more than 140 additional team members within its pharmaceuticals division for prescription-based medicines and its over-the-counter consumer health division, specifically recruiting for the roles of product specialists and medical sales representatives.

The “Move Forward with Bayer” campaign is aligned with the broader initiatives of the government of Saudi Arabia to nationalize its workforce in key industries, driving the diversification beyond oil and the Saudization of both public and private sector employees.

Hussein El-Hakim, managing director — Saudi Arabia at Bayer, said: “Since we first launched operations in Saudi Arabia, our goal has been not only to bring our philosophy and purpose of ‘Science for a Better Life’ to the market, but to identify and nurture Saudi talent in our commitment to the localization of our business activities and the creation of rewarding employment opportunities for nationals.

“Our ‘Move Forward with Bayer’ campaign underlines our support of the goals of Saudi Vision 2030 and we look forward to a successful outcome through effective partnerships that will drive the upskilling of Saudi talent.”

He added: “For many years, Bayer has been committed to achieving gender balance in its workforce and this is very much the case in Saudi Arabia as we continue to expand our operations across our pharmaceuticals division. We look forward to building on our existing, diverse team with new talent and to promoting a culture of inclusion and diversity.”

Reda Zaidan, human resources business partner — Saudi Arabia at Bayer, said: “In line with our global practices, fostering employees’ individual abilities in Saudi Arabia in terms of talents and strengths is key to Bayer’s future growth and success. Sustained success is only possible if we create working conditions that allow all employees to utilize their talents optimally and contribute to innovative solutions, enabling them to truly ‘Move Forward with Bayer.’ We hope this campaign goes some way in attracting Saudi talent in the health care sector and supporting not just Bayer’s corporate vision of ‘health for all, hunger for none,’ but the broader goals of the nation in terms of health care provision and Saudization targets, too.”