Mace reviews

Note that my review below mainly applies to Mace at the Middle East and Africa (MEA Region) with focus on KSA. Cons 1) There are a lot of "pretentions" about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. However, when it comes to real practice on the ground, almost all serious career opportunities (e.g., promotions to Operations Director grade/level or above, or serious Leadership Development courses) are reserved only for British/Australian/Western expats. It is not necessarily about the "skin color" but it is mainly about the passport that you hold (e.g., you can have a brown skin but if you were raised in the UK for the whole of your life and have a UK passport, you stand a much higher chance to be promoted to serious leadership positions than non-British nationals). The main issue is the "discrepancy" between the words and actions of senior executives in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region who pretend in public speeches that the Company is "multinational and inclusive" while in practice you can see very clearly there is a strong bias in promotions/leadership development and even in providing a high starting salaries for new employees. The MEA management is VERY ethnocentric and biased to the UK in culture and in selecting individuals for management positions. Also, there is a perception held by multiple senior executives that the "British" practices and doing business is superior to all others. 2) On multiple occasions and based on interviews with multiple colleagues from different nationalities, what the Company promised them during the job interview was not provided after they joined the company (e.g., Employees who joined through third-party manpower provider like TASC and BIC got a medical insurance that is very different (and much lower) than those directly sponsored by Mace Arabia. 3) The Company does not take nationalization of certain job families and of the organization as a whole seriously as dictated by the Saudi Ministry of HR. For example, there is not even a single Operations Director level Saudi employee and there were only 1-2 Associate Director level Saudi employees in the entire 750 employees based in Saudi Arabia. When I asked the HR Team why they don't recruit Saudis on these positions, the answer was "these positions are too senior and the expertise is still not there among locals." Several Saudi nationals, especially at the junior-level jobs, were recruited ONLY to satisfy the government-mandated quotas and minimum numbers required by government without really "empowering" them in their roles and giving them real "responsibilities" and decision making. 4) Sometimes British/Australian nationals get away with bad behaviors (e.g., taking a sick leave for 1.5 months in Australia without a serious penalty). Such behaviors, if committed by other nationals including Saudis, would result in a serious punishment including warning letters or contract non-renewal. 5) There is no job security in some programs offered to the clients because the client simply has the upper hand in keeping/terminating an employee. As such, few employees were let go of because the client did not like them. I have to be fair and say that on some occasions, the company management try to secure another a job for the impacted employee with another program in KSA or outside KSA but this was not always and not consistently done especially if the impacted person is not British/Australian.