Job hunting is quite a struggle for many people. It is hard enough being unemployed, plus having to go through the daunting process of seeking one? We have heard of job-seekers sending their resume to as many companies as they can, even when they don’t fit the listed requirements, just to try their luck.
Ever wonder why you don’t get a quick response to your job application? Out of the hundreds of possible reasons, one of them is this: recruiters sometimes take a long time (up to two weeks or longer) to review the information because the resume is first analysed by a software, Applicant Tracking System (ATS). In other words, an artificial intelligence (AI) determines whether one can ‘advance’ and is qualified to proceed to the next stage where they will be called in for an interview.
The AI does so by searching for specific keywords and filtering out potential candidates. This means our job is partially in the hands of an inanimate object/a human-replacing technology.
The pandemic has put our lives at peril, leaving many homeless and without a job. This dire time has witnessed an increasing trend of people looking for jobs, hence, companies can receive an overwhelming number of applications a day. This is made even more so with the abundance of job portals and recruitment platforms such as Jobstreet, LinkedIn and MauKerja accessible through electronic devices.
ATS is a time-saving approach, but are these ‘potential’ applicants really the right people when there is no human connection?
Let’s hear what the founder of Kabel, Camelia has to share. Kabel is the first and only Human-to-Human Career recruitment platform aimed at humanising the process of hiring and establishing meaningful relationships by employing a human connection concept.
After working in the recruitment industry for 16 years and observing recurring challenges faced by companies such as low-performance issues, broken terms and high turnover rates, she realised the conventional job searching is monotonous and uncertain (in terms of result). Camelia decided to play the field differently, and she came up with the idea which allows job-seekers to ‘swipe’ right on managers and vice versa, adopting a similar policy (like dating apps) in a different arena.
The recruitment process now works in a different fashion whereby Kabel, matchmakes job-seekers and managers, allowing those with mutual interest to meet and connect. It is a more casual concept and can ease the ‘interview nerves’ when one is invited to a job interview. With Kabel, when both parties are matched, they can go straight into chatting with smart interview questions.
“We believe working with like-minded people matters, and we know that line managers have a direct impact on the employee’s performance, satisfaction and career progression.
“If you are a manager and you post a job, you only get relevant candidates and don’t have to go through tons of resumes. If you are a job-seeker, you will be recommended suitable jobs based on your background.
“By encouraging two-way communication, a concrete answer can be developed more efficiently such as whether the person fits the job, team or the company. The app can build rapport and fill the missing gap of human connection which is irreplaceable by artificial intelligence,” she explained.
The app also helps accelerate the process by shortening the duration to identify a suitable candidate by 40 percent.
According to Camelia, the recruiters, on average, take about two weeks to sort applicants before line managers are able to speak to them. Hence, instead of dealing with overloaded paperwork, both parties can focus on communicating goals, values and expectations.
“We also hope to push the availability of the talent pool wide open. Before the pandemic, there were only 17 percent of the talent market actively applying for jobs while 83 percent are passive job-seekers. We envision an environment where a company can access a much larger pool of talent, even for passive job-seekers,” she highlighted.
Kabel’s 1-1-1 Movement is pledging to have 5,000 unemployed Malaysians placed in jobs. With zero cost of entry, the initiative aims for companies to list just one job, to match one job-seeker and successfully release one employment opportunity at a time.
For more information, visit https://www.kabel.my/1-1-1-movement .
Gisele Soo
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