KUALA LUMPUR: The recent Covid-19 pandemic has tested businesses’ limits like never before, with almost the entire global economy at a standstill in order to contain the spread of the virus.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) said more than 1.25 billion workers around the world, representing 38 per cent of the global workforce, face a high risk of a pay cut or layoff.
On the back of this scenario, SEEK Asia, a leading job site in the Asian region, is now putting more focus and strategies on how it could help solve this challenge, from both employer and employee perspectives.
“At SEEK Asia across the region, when we hit the pandemic lockdown across Southeast Asia in the month of March, we went back to the drawing board,” SEEK Asia chief marketing officer Ramesh Rajandran told NST Business.
“Whatever we had planned for the last six months really didn’t make sense anymore. Businesses are closed, people are stuck at home and they can’t go out,” he said, adding that SEEK Asia went back to data to find out what was driving intent at that point in time.
One major finding that came out very quickly was that, in a downturn, employees could be displaced or even lose their jobs and everyone in the organisation brainstormed for solutions.
“The Department of Statistics Malaysia had projected unemployment to hit 5.5 per cent within the next few months, so we all needed to work together as one,” he said.
“Our team came up with a brilliant idea – if you had lost a job due to the pandemic, we wanted your profile to be visible to employers who needed immediate help.”
As a result, the company launched a programme called #WorkNow and took it to market in four countries.
This initiative got an overwhelming response, with over 77,000 people tagging their profiles with #WorkNow, which showcased the fact that people actually needed jobs.
“We wanted to have a sense of purpose about helping the community around us, and I’m happy to say that more than half of those people surveyed found new jobs to date,” he said.
SEEK Asia is the Asian arm of Australian-based public-listed SEEK, which was founded by Paul and Andrew Bassat, and Matthew Rockman in 1997.
SEEK Asia comprises both JobStreet and JobsDB, which are known as leading online employment marketplaces in Asia, and operates in seven markets across SEA and Hong Kong.
Ramesh explained that SEEK Asia found it important to stand out among businesses that are trying to hire people and also jobseekers that are looking for jobs.
“While we’ve enjoyed being the leading job marketplace in Malaysia, we’re continuing to see how the job market is evolving. Consumers, as in jobseekers, would want to have a better experience, and that is not only in finding a job, but how a business like JobStreet, or SEEK Asia across the region, can help me to find a job that can help me be better in my career,” he explained.
In terms of standing out from the crowd, SEEK Asia wanted to connect with its audiences, to understand what their issues were, and how to deliver exemplary customer experience.
“Beyond a great app or website, it was about understanding the fundamentals of user behaviour and how the company could complement its customers. Standing out meant understanding what those customers wanted, when they wanted it, and how they wanted it to be presented.”
Ramesh also highlighted the need to understand customer data.
“Today, most businesses – including SEEK Asia – are online businesses. We collect information about you as an individual who wants to apply for a job, and as we collect it, trust becomes a very important component.
“As we run our business, we want to make sure that our jobseekers who come to our platform, and the businesses that interact with us, have a trust that their data is protected, and at the same time that they’re going after what is most important; their careers in the market,” he said.
SEEK Asia is starting to use artificial intelligence (AI) in a significant and holistic manner to make sure that it can place most of its candidates in better jobs going forward.
Since at least two years ago, the company has used machine learning and AI to send its users more relevant job advertisements and alerts.
Based on which ads jobseekers have perused, search histories, and profiles, SEEK’s algorithm works to locate jobs more suited to them and proactively alert them.
“We want to be their career and talent partner for every individual in our community. But the world has been changing rapidly in the last couple of months, so it’s super important to focus on how we are going to use data to guide our way moving forwards,” said Ramesh.
Prior to SEEK Asia, Ramesh was a ‘high achiever’ employee with global brands such as Microsoft and Accenture.
/ NST
