AS of November 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused the country’s unemployment rate to increase 4.8%, leaving over 764,400 Malaysians without jobs. That was back when the COVID-19 daily infection rate was within the 1,000 range.
Now, at the country’s economy is pushing towards recovery, despite the fact that daily new COVID-19 cases are still within the 10,000 range, employers would need to prepare themselves in terms of talent acquisition in a pandemic-stricken job market.
On this, a tech-driven job platform, FastJobs Malaysia announced its latest mobile-first e-FastRecruit service that enable companies to undertake 100% digital and online mass hiring campaigns, allowing the companies to effectively and efficiently hire new candidates.
According to FastJobs Malaysia general manager Joelle Pang, entrepreneurial businesses are still struggling to pivot its sales and marketing strategies while mitigating the start-stop nature of the varying degrees of the movement control orders (MCOs).
Businesses are preparing for a future after COVID-19, which is shown by the most recent unemployment rate data from the Department of Statistics Malaysia, indicating that there have been an increased number of hiring activity compared to last year, ranging across various industries.
“Our e-FastRecruit service has already played a part in alleviating unemployment, allowing companies to forge ahead with their hiring plans, no matter how large, as we are unaffected by the MCOs,” Pang stated.
In the initial phase of introducing the e-FastRecruit service, FastJobs has successfully worked with Don Don Donki, 7Eleven, Hero Market and Family Mart and emart 24 over the past 10 months.
These campaigns have resulted in over 11,000 applications, 730 interviews, and 380 hires – all of which occurred exclusively online.
Among the key industries and job sectors that are currently hiring are sales/retail, warehouse focused jobs, admin/ accounting, information technology and hospitality, among others.
Over the past six months, these sectors account for 60% of all job hiring through the FastJobs platform.
“Our feedback has indicated that the pandemic has fundamentally changed the way we work. Priorities have shifted and an increasing number of people are now looking for greater freedom in their jobs and careers.
“In today’s fluctuating market, the flexibility of gig work that offers quick wins seem to be gaining favour rapidly, even in sectors that conventionally would not be considered as gig work-centric,” she explained.
FastJobs is also in the midst of developing more novel talent acquisition tools that will soon enable gig-focused hiring approaches for variety of new and niche industries and sectors.
“Soon, maybe the very definition of gig work needs to be relooked to accurately capture this rapidly growing market space,” Pang concluded. – July 21, 2021
