In a difficult employment scenario both locally and globally, efforts are underway throughout the region to streamline the employment sector by better matching opportunities with talent, with leading online recruitment resource, Bayt.com, spearheading the effort.
Emphasising the need for more accurate information about individuals, jobs and employers, a top Bayt.com official pointed out that employers in the region were now becoming extremely selective in hiring people for job vacancies. This discerning attitude means that the huge number of qualified labour needs to be more resourceful and prepared to be suited for their dream job.
"Employers today are extremely demanding when it comes to hiring their workforce and hence, job-seekers need to be adequately prepared with the necessary knowledge to be able to land their dream job," explained Mona Ataya, Vice President, Marketing, Bayt.com.
Bayt.com's announcement comes close on the heels of a report by the United Nations Development Programme, which says that the Middle East's "labour markets are traditional, severely segmented and dysfunctional. Labour-market intermediation, for example, through employment exchanges, is ineffective."
Ataya said that this scenario needs to be tackled at the earliest by changing the traditional recruitment process where the challenges of finding the right people across a diverse, fragmented and heterogenous environment has been historically difficult.
She observed that in the past employers often found it tough to hire local talent simply because it was difficult to find them and match the right candidate with the right opportunity. This led to a great deal of regional and local workforce without work or unhappy in the wrong jobs.
At the same time, international job-seekers who wished to take up employment in the Middle East often faced the tough task of networking and finding the right opportunities in the region. On the other hand, for employers, sourcing the right international talent often meant a long, difficult and expensive exercise.
"Thanks to the steady spread of Internet usage in this region, companies can now shrug off traditional methods of hiring staff and look to searching for talent, locally, regionally and globally," Ataya explained. "Websites such as Bayt.com have shown their ability to increase the possibilities of matching the best local and regional talent to available jobs in record time. At the same time, companies that wish to continue sourcing international talent can do so much faster."
One of the greatest advantages of the Internet in this effort is that its reach goes beyond that of the traditional print media and attracts an instant response from the region and around the world, she explained. "This gives employers in the region a wide range of choices to choose the right person for the job, especially at a time when employers need to be extra careful that they are getting the "best fit" people for the available vacancies."
Ataya added that besides offering advice on career enhancement, Bayt.com consultants provide job-seekers with free personalised online assistance on questions ranging from information about the country they wish to work in, immigration and visa formalities and local laws.
Bayt.com empowers its users with the tools and information to make educated choices and change their lives, starting with finding the right job.
Already, more than6,500 leading employers in the region have access to Bayt.com's global talent pool of273,000 professionals, (growing by an average of1000 new job seekers daily) which encompasses all career levels from entry level to senior management and spans over90 industry categories in various locations around the Middle East. This makes Bayt the single largest database of corporations and pro fessionals in the region.
Bayt.com also provides customised career tools and content to32 online entities, including leading online Arab communities such as Maktoob, Arabia, Ajeeb and Naseej, to reach a wider Arab audience. With these alliances, Bayt.com today is estimated to reach over70 per cent of the total Internet population in the region and116 nationalities.