ONE of the indicators that will be closely watched as the economy reopens is the employment figures.

       As more businesses prep for a post-Covid-19 market resurgence, FastJobs Malaysia general manager Joelle Pang says talent acquisition has become a more urgent business for many companies looking to fill vacancies that will enable them to operate at a higher capacity and capture the market rebound when the economy starts recovering.

       Over the course of the year, Pang notes that hiring activities have seen a slow, but steady rise.

       “While this most recent spike in Covid-19 cases have slowed down hirings, we anticipate this to be temporary.

       “As vaccinations continue to roll out and the economy begins to open back up, we anticipate talent acquisition to not only return to normal but in fact, spike to fill a slew of job vacancies as entire industries open back up,” she says.

       Such can be seen in markets like Australia where companies are facing a labour shortage. Tight border controls along with solid business confidence and profitability have helped tighten the labour market, with some sectors such as IT, engineering, hospitality and healthcare facing severe shortages.

       In Malaysia, the unemployment rate has been on a downward trend since February this year. According to the Statistics Department, unemployment in May was at 4.5% or 728,100 people – an improvement from the all-time high of 5.3% or 826,100 unemployed persons a year ago.

       Compared with April, the unemployment rate improved from 4.6% with 742,700 unemployed then.

       As is the case with most sectors, the talent acquisition space has been affected by the pandemic whereby there has been an overall decrease in job opportunities. Also, given that more entrants had joined the market prior to the pandemic, the landscape is now more competitive than before.

       But Pang views this as a good thing.

       “Both employees and employers will have more options to choose from.”

       FastJobs is a job platform for entry-level and non-executive employment.

       Pang says the increasing competition among recruitment firms will force them to be more creative and innovative as they look for opportunities to help employers fulfill hiring needs. Players have also changed their method of interface and interaction with clients as the market becomes more tech-focused.

       This, says Pang, is where FastJobs has a clear advantage as it is a tech-enabled company from the get-go, putting it in a position to capture opportunities in a digital environment.

       “With data analytics a big part of how businesses work nowadays, FastJobs is in a position where it can best serve the job seekers. With almost 1.5 million job seekers providing us with trends and insights on job seeking activities, FastJobs is able to then use that information to come up with even more innovative solutions that best serve both the employers as well as job seekers,” she says.

       With a greater emphasis on digital hirings during the pandemic, talent acquisition platform providers have had to step up with more services, tools and increased hands-on approach to help onboard employers who are relatively new to such hiring processes.

       Prior to the pandemic, platforms like FastJobs saw good traction among service-oriented industries such as food and beverage (F&B), retail and hospitality.

       But in the past year and a half, other industries such as manufacturing as well as logistics and warehousing have also hopped onto platforms for hiring activities.

       “These industries represented some of the major ones that were still able to operate at full capacity during the lockdown period, and some employers, like personal protective equipment manufacturers, had to operate well above their typical capacity to cope with the surging demand.

       “Also, with the spike in e-commerce and food delivery activities, the volume of hiring for last-mile fulfillment for logistics and warehousing increased correspondingly,” says Pang.

       One of the challenges that employers face when it comes to recruiting non-executive level talents is in reaching out to the right audience base effectively and efficiently. Unlike executive level employees, Pang points out that it can be more challenging to connect with non-executive level talent digitally.

       Additionally, employers are usually looking to fill many positions and not just hire one individual.

       But the lockdown has driven employers to conduct online interviews, which has actually resulted in an increase in the show-up rate for interviews.

       Pang explains that employers had trouble getting employees to attend interviews in the past because of the need to travel to the interview venues, and most job seekers end up dropping out.

       As the pandemic continues, she expects more industries to adapt and embrace technological adoption in their recruitment processes, shifting more of their hiring needs to platforms like FastJobs.

       In particular, companies in the hypermarkets, convenience stores, F&B and other fast moving consumer goods sectors have been conducting higher volumes of hiring through such platforms.

       Additionally, new features also allow businesses with multiple outlets that had traditionally relied on walk-in interviews and mass hiring campaigns to continue with their hiring needs amidst the movement restrictions.

       The company had introduced its e-FastRecruit offering, an online mass hiring solution that enables employers and job seekers to be connected and interviewed virtually. Pang says these virtual mass hiring campaigns have proven to be effective, with close to 500 candidates hired in the last six months across various essential services.

       “We take this as a sign of evolving hiring trends that are now matching the reality of businesses in a pandemic and soon, the post-pandemic world. It is also in line with the changing demands and desires of job seekers following a year and a half of working from home and through a pandemic.

       “In the near future, we anticipate even more industries to rely more heavily on talent acquisition platforms that prioritise innovation and a digital-first approach such as FastJobs, in times like this where a face-to-face hiring and more traditional hiring process would be limited,” she says.

       Launched in Singapore by Singapore Press Holdings in 2015, FastJobs made its entry into Malaysia in 2017. It currently has close to 1.5 million users on the platform with more than 250,000 active job seekers every month.

       Given that it focuses on non-executive level jobs, a significant portion of its users are from the B40 segment.

       According to Pang, its total potential employees have grown by 30% since the pandemic began with the majority of these potential employees consisting of younger, more tech-savvy users. Some 80% of the new job seekers who have registered for an account with FastJobs are between the ages of 17 and 35 years old.

       While there has been a lot of attention given to the future of work, Pang says there needs to also be a focus on the future of hiring to cater to the way job seekers are now envisioning their own participation in the workforce.

       “In the near term, we are focused on introducing our e-FastRecruit service and facilitating more employers in adopting the technology solutions and infrastructure necessary to restart their hiring and talent acquisition.

       “Correspondingly, we are leveraging data analytics to better understand our job seekers’ interests, experience and expectations so that we are able to more effectively match them to the right opportunities provided by these employers, fast,” she says.

       FastJobs is also in the process of rolling out more innovative products and services that will mirror the evolving job market.

       Notably, gig work is expected to play a bigger role in the Malaysian economy moving forward. The prolonged pandemic has certainly amplified this and both job seekers and employers are increasingly looking at more flexible work options.

       In today’s fluctuating market, Pang opines that these jobs offer immediate opportunities to work and earn an income and are seen to be gaining favour rapidly with job seekers.

       On the other hand, industries that were not considered conventionally as gig work-centric are now looking into building up a contingency workforce of their own through gig workers.

       “We envision that in the near future, the gig economy will take on more prominence and permeate other industries that have not conventionally been linked to gig work.

       “This is where FastJobs’ new product will come into play to enable job seekers who may not be able to or prefer not to work the traditional 9-to-5 jobs to still be connected to employers who are also beginning to explore flexible staffing options as a way of building out their contingency workforce.

       “We are in the midst of developing more novel talent acquisition tools that will soon enable gig-focused hiring approaches for a variety of new and niche industries and sectors,” she adds.