HR Software Saudi Arabia: GOSI Compliance, Nitaqat Tracking and Vision 2030 Workforce Management

Saudi Arabia is in the midst of the most ambitious economic and social transformation in its history. Vision 2030 is reshaping entire industries and placing HR and payroll teams under a dual pressure unique to the Kingdom: they must simultaneously maintain strict legal compliance — GOSI contributions, Saudi Labour Law, the Wage Protection Program (WPP) — while actively driving Saudization (Nitaqat) targets to retain access to expatriate work visas.

Mawered is a multi-tenant HR SaaS platform built for the Gulf and MENA markets. Its payroll engine is natively configured for Saudi regulations: GOSI calculations for both Saudi nationals and expatriates, real-time Nitaqat compliance dashboards, EOSB provisioning per Saudi Labour Law, Ramadan reduced-hours scheduling, and expatriate document tracking. The platform is available in Arabic, English and French with native RTL Arabic rendering.

GOSI: Social Insurance for Saudi Nationals and Expatriates

The General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) applies fundamentally different rules to Saudi nationals versus expatriate workers.

GOSI Contributions for Saudi Nationals

Saudi national employees are covered by pension, disability, death benefits, occupational hazards, and the SANED unemployment insurance programme:

• Employee contribution: 10% of insurable salary
  • Annuities branch (pension, disability, death): 9%
  • SANED (unemployment insurance): 1%
• Employer contribution: 12% of insurable salary
  • Annuities branch: 9%
  • Occupational hazards: 2%
  • SANED: 1%

GOSI contribution ceiling: SAR 45,000/month. Declarations and payments due by the 15th of the following month via the GOSI portal.

GOSI Contributions for Expatriate Employees

• Employee contribution: 0% — no deduction from the expatriate's salary
• Employer contribution: 2% (occupational hazards only)

The Mawered payroll module applies these rules automatically based on each employee's nationality — no manual switching. Monthly GOSI declarations are produced in portal-ready format.

Nitaqat / Saudization: Real-Time Compliance Dashboard

The Nitaqat programme requires private-sector companies to maintain a minimum percentage of Saudi national employees, varying by company size and ISIC sector. Companies are assigned one of four tiers:

• Platinum: above the Platinum threshold — expedited visa processing, additional work permit allocations
• Green (High / Low): meeting minimum compliance — full access to work permits
• Yellow: below minimum — grace period, some permit restrictions begin
• Red: critical non-compliance — suspension of new work permit applications, financial penalties

Mawered's Nitaqat compliance dashboard calculates your current Saudization percentage in real time and compares it against your sector's tier thresholds. Run simulations: what happens to your Nitaqat tier if you hire two Saudi nationals this month, or if a high-eligibility-role expatriate resigns? These simulations make Nitaqat management proactive rather than reactive — critical in sectors where a Yellow classification represents a direct business continuity risk.

Vision 2030 Sector Targets

Vision 2030 sets ambitious nationalisation targets beyond baseline Nitaqat quotas in priority sectors: mining (up to 75% in some sub-categories), tourism and hospitality (progressive targets as the sector scales), retail commerce (mandatory Saudization for specific categories), and ICT (strong incentives for hiring Saudi tech talent). Mawered lets you configure sector-specific targets at the establishment level and generate monthly board-level compliance reports.

Saudi Labour Law: Leave, Absence and Working Hours

The Saudi Labour Law (Royal Decree M/51 of 2005) governs all private-sector employment. The Mawered absence management module is pre-configured with these entitlements:

• Annual leave: minimum 21 days after 1 year; increased to 30 days after 5 years with the same employer
• Hajj leave: 10 days, granted once during the employment contract to Muslim employees who have not previously performed the pilgrimage — tracked and enforced at the individual employee level
• Sick leave: up to 120 days/year — 30 days full pay, 60 days half pay, 30 days unpaid
• Maternity leave: minimum 10 weeks, at least 4 weeks before the expected delivery date
• Ramadan hours: Muslim employees are entitled to a maximum of 36 hours/week (6 hours/day) during Ramadan vs the standard 48 hours. Mawered automatically applies Ramadan schedules to eligible employees when the month begins — no manual reconfiguration required across potentially hundreds of employees
• Public holidays: National Day (23 September), Founding Day (22 February), Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha — natively integrated

EOSB: Provisioning Saudi Labour Law Entitlements

Mawered provisions each employee's EOSB liability in real time using the Saudi formula — one of the most complex in the Gulf because the entitlement depends on both length of service and reason for termination:

• Resignation before 2 years: no EOSB
• Resignation 2–5 years: one third of the full EOSB
• Resignation 5–10 years: two thirds of the full EOSB
• Resignation after 10 years, or dismissal without fault: full EOSB — 1 month of basic salary per full year of service

The EOSB dashboard gives the CFO and HR Director a live consolidated view broken down by department, contract type, nationality and seniority. Instant settlement calculation on employee departure.

Attendance and Biometric Integration

The Mawered attendance module connects natively to ZKTeco biometric terminals via the ADMS protocol — widely deployed on industrial facilities, construction megaprojects (NEOM, Red Sea Project, Diriyah Gate), university campuses and corporate offices across Saudi Arabia. Punch data is transmitted in real time and matched via registration number. The AI-powered AnomalyResolverAgent continuously flags missed clock-outs, out-of-schedule attendance, and unexplained absences.

For dispersed field teams in Tabuk, Jubail, Yanbu or Abha, Mawered supports GPS-based mobile clock-in without requiring physical terminal infrastructure.

Recruitment: Saudi Nationals and Expatriates

The Mawered ATS module manages both concurrent pipelines: Saudi nationals (Hadaf partnership workflows, Arabic employment contracts with Saudi Labour Law mandatory provisions, real-time Nitaqat impact tracking) and expatriate hires (sponsorship workflow, work visa tracking, Iqama checklist, medical insurance registration). The org chart module highlights positions currently held by expatriates designated for localisation as part of the company's Vision 2030 nationalisation plan.

Trilingual Interface: Arabic, English and French

Mawered's interface is available in Arabic with full RTL support, English and French. Payslips for Saudi nationals are generated in Arabic; for expatriates, in English or French. For French-speaking HR directors, Francophone consultants seconded to Saudi Arabia, or companies with French headquarters managing a Saudi subsidiary — the French interface is a meaningful differentiator that most Gulf-focused HRMS competitors cannot match.

PDPL Compliance and Data Security

Saudi Arabia's Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL), fully enforced since 2023 by SDAIA and the NDMO, imposes strict data processing obligations. Mawered supports PDPL compliance: documented lawful basis, defined retention periods, subject access request workflows, and breach notification procedures. All data in transit is encrypted via TLS 1.3; at rest via AES-256. Regional cloud hosting within Saudi Arabia is available for data residency requirements.

Why Companies in Saudi Arabia Choose Mawered

• GOSI calculated automatically: Saudi nationals (10% + 12%, cap SAR 45,000) and expatriates (2% employer AT only) — correct from the first run
• Real-time Nitaqat dashboard: current Saudization % vs tier thresholds, with hire simulations
• Live EOSB provisioning: 1/3, 2/3, full entitlement tiers applied automatically
• Ramadan scheduling automation: auto-switch to 36-hour week for Muslim employees
• Hajj leave tracked individually: one-time entitlement, full audit trail
• Trilingual Arabic / English / French with native RTL Arabic
• Multi-site consolidation: Riyadh, Jeddah, Khobar, NEOM, Jubail in one dashboard
• PDPL-compliant with optional Saudi-region cloud hosting

Request Your Free Demo for Saudi Arabia

Our HR specialists will build a personalised demonstration using your real parameters: headcount and national-to-expatriate ratio, sector Nitaqat targets, salary structure (basic + housing + transport + allowances), existing EOSB backlog and Ramadan scheduling rules. 30-day free trial, no commitment, full data migration from Excel, SAP, Oracle or another HRMS.