Jobs online: Taking advantage of opportunities

Amanda Engole, the Everjobs sales team leader speaks at a previous function. She says she has found out that there are a number of jobs in various companies that have no been filled. Photo by Didas Kisembo.

What you need to know:

A number of companies have created online job portals with a view of making job searching easy. One of the companies is Everjobs. Julian Schulz, the Everjobs country manager Uganda told Didas Kisembo the company’s plans, investment and projections.

In March this year, German internet giant Rocket Internet announced it would launch a new online jobs portal called Everjobs. Its target is defined as fast-growing African and Asian markets.
Last month the company launched in Uganda, joining a range of other job portals, including Jobline, Brighter Monday, NFT Consult Jobs.co.ug and LinkedIn, most of which have thousands of job listings.

Everjobs on the other hand has so far amassed about 200 career opportunities from about 70 employers on the Everjobs platform, including a large number of public sector positions with non-government organisations and healthcare services.
Julian Schulz, the Everjobs country manager Uganda says they have already noted growth in traffic on the site and there is room for more growth.
“Our focus is not on the competition, but rather on our services offer,” he says.

In Everjobs’ case, Rocket Internet is partnered through subsidiaries with big telecoms, Qatar-based Ooredoo (in the Asian sites) and South Africa-based MTN and Millicom, which is also known as Tiigo (in the Africa sites) to boost its fortunes.
In Africa, its main partner is the Africa Internet Group, the leading internet platform in Africa, which is the parent group of ten successful and fast-growing companies in more than 30 African countries.
Its network of companies includes, Carmudi, Easy Taxi, Everjobs, Hellofood, Jovago, Jumia, Kaymu, Lamudi, Vendito and Zando.

However, not all is rosy with Rocket Internet. Known for its ability to expand fast, it also has the proclivity to close fast too, when one of its Internet businesses isn’t working.
A case in point, its online furniture shopping portal, Home24 closed in Singapore back in 2012, followed by another of its enterprises, the online shopping club Bamarang.
“We are in Uganda for the long haul. We have the experience and endurance to go all the way with the backing of our investors; Tiigo, MTN, Rocket Internet and the Africa Internet Group (AIG),” says Schulz.

Strategy
Schulz notes the company will employ a blend of new services – not available on other local online portals – to win over the market.
These include the inclusion of an interactive function on the everjobs website, instant user support, in addition to broader district amongst others.
“We are really strong on the CV. If you have an email address, you can sign up to our site and fill in your qualification details into our standardised CV interface,” he explains.

He says Everjobs seeks to streamline the filtering process through its online platform, as well as mitigate the risk of counterfeit.
“Heads of HR are currently receiving enormous numbers of paper-based CV’s every day. Everjobs has a standardised CV input system to make all data uniform,” he says.
Schulz adds that once an application is entered for a job. Everjobs then notifies the applicant of receipt of the application and then also of the results, whether positive or negative. “You get an email that your application has been received not considering the results.”

Aside from that, Schulz also says through learning interaction with HR managers, the site has been adapted to make it easy for them to sieve through the candidates.
“We have incorporated a filter; only available to the HR manager that organises the applications in the order of qualification, experience and so on. Depending on their preference,” he explains.
This makes it easy for them to make a pick an applicant rather than read through a pile of CVs,” he adds.
“It is super transparent and unbiased. Everjobs aims to streamline the filtering process in order to help promote employability in Uganda.”

He adds they have the advantage of spread since they have capacity to reach the entire country.
“Although the economy is very centralized, with most opportunities in Kampala, there are some positions in Mbarara, Tororo, Soroti, Mukono, Mbale, Masaka and Luwero. We are trying to source out opportunities in other parts of the country.” Schulz also says that in the coming weeks, they plan to focus on Small and Medium sized companies.
“We feel that is an area of opportunity that has not been exploited. Most Ugandans are in the informal sector and as such jobs in that area should also be provided for.”

Banking on local staff
So far Everjobs’s motive in all the countries it has ventured into, has been to send one expatriate into each market to start the site, who then hires local staff to do the sales. The teams usually range from three to eight people.
Uganda is no different, Schulz says as we have hired Amanda Engole to head our sales team.
“We are hiring two to three people for our sales team and service team that will go from company to company to explain how the service works”.
Schulz says the move seeks to aid Everjobs’ mission of getting more employers subscribe to its platform.
On her part Engole says she has so far had some good experience with Everjobs and sees great potential in the company.

“As an Everjobs employee, I have since discovered that there are many companies looking for employees, however, this information remains within the few who may be lucky to hear about it through a referral,” she says.
She notes the referral method of recruitment is one of the biggest stumbling blocks she has encountered in this line of work.
“…employers may have resorted to using referral method of recruiting to avoid all the pain involved in the recruitment process.”

What everjobs seeks

Everjobs was co-founded by Ronald Schuurs and Eric Lauer. Lauer who is the managing director of Everjobs Africa the company after he realized that people in Africa were more mobile and facing challenges to find quality information on career opportunities.
“In the meantime, those recruiting are still facing many challenges when searching for these talents,” he says.
A survey conducted by the Inter-University Council for East Africa in 2014 found that over 63 per cent of youth in Uganda lack employability skills, technical know-how and basic work-related capabilities.
In the same year, the World Bank reported that over 70 per cent of an approximated 400,000 fresh graduates in Uganda were deemed unemployable.