While more Singaporeans found jobs in the first half of 2018 as compared to the first six months of 2017, with local employment growth 1.5 times higher, the resident unemployment rate rose from 2.8 percent in March to 2.9 percent in June. As per the Manpower Ministry (MOM) statistics, more people entering the labor force is the reason behind the increase in unemployment. Employers are facing a challenge in finding the right person for the job. Employees, especially freshers struggle to find a suitable role and this is primarily because of the skills mismatch. Although, there are many job sites like Indeed and JobStreet that cater to the job requirements of mid to senior level, however, entry to mid-level staff face a lot of trouble to find jobs. 

Identifying the absence of a platform that caters to the job requirements of entry to mid-level staff and realizing the struggle of industries like food and beverage (F&B), hospitality and retail in attaining employees for these positions, Emmanuel Crouy and Mark Melo found GrabJobs in 2016. 

“With GrabJobs we wanted to solve two things: efficiencies on the employer side and the building a solution that caters to the entry-level staff with an intent to make the lives of both candidates and employers easier,” says Emmanuel Crouy, Cofounder and CEO.

Mobile-first recruitment 

It is no news that the usage of mobile phones as compared to desktops is increasing every day. As employees today are spending more time on smartphones, Emmanuel felt that there was a need to create a mobile-first recruitment solution. 

Emmanuel shares, “We wanted to create an app where anyone and everyone can quickly create a short profile and find jobs on the go.” The job seekers on the app can look for jobs near them with filters such as location and categories as per their preferences. But this feature is probably something you would find in many other job sites and apps. Then what is it that makes GrabJobs’ solution unique? 

Multi-channel strategy 

The main differentiator that GrabJobs has versus the other competitors in terms of key features include a multi-channel strategy, live chats and interview schedulers, explains Emmanuel. 

GrabJobs has partnered with eight other global and regional job sites like JobsDB and Jooble and whenever someone shares a job post or requirement on GrabJobs, it automatically gets uploaded in the eight other platforms as well. This feature expands the prospects of both the job seekers and companies and hence increases the probability of response. 

The AI bot screens the candidate as soon as one applies for a particular role. The recruiter on GrabJobs platform can customize the pre-screening questions as per requirement and on the basis of the answers to those questions, the bot ranks all the candidates from most suitable to least suitable, making it easier for the recruiter to pick and contact the most relevant applicant. This feature saves recruiters time as otherwise, they would have to go through hundreds of profiles they receive. The bot comes with another feature for assisting the recruiter. The interviewee can enter their calendar availability and the bot automatically schedules the interview for them. 

“As an employer, all you need to do is post the job and then everything from screening the applicants to scheduling interviews will be taken care of,” says Emmanuel. 

Another interesting aspect of GrabJobs is its business and pricing model. While most job sites charge companies for all the jobs they post, GrabJobs doesn’t charge employees for the job posts. Rather it charges the employer only for the applications that they close --the final applications they wish to reach out to. 

One-stop shop for recruitment

With a background in software engineering and experience in headhunting, Emmanuel was well aware of the staffing challenges across industries in Singapore market. 

Remembering the initial days of his venture, Emmanuel reminisces, “When we first started, we were focusing on food and beverage, hospitality and retail sectors in Singapore because we knew from our own experience the staffing challenges prevalent in the market.

He further adds that while Singapore is the most performing market for them, GrabJobs has also expanded in other countries like the Philippines and Thailand. He shares that the Philippines being a major hub of BPOs, there are bulk hirings on a monthly basis and presence of a platform like GrabJobs makes it easier for the employers to quickly access and hire through the chatbot. 

With about 5,000 employers on board, Emmanuel now aims to expand in other regions with a vision to become a global one-stop shop for managing the entire recruitment process. Confirming the rumors about GrabJobs raising another round of funding, Emmanuel reveals, “Earlier, we raised SGD 1.6 Mn in seed funding and we are currently in talks with a few strategic VCs to raise Series A in Q1, next year.”

The startup will utilize the money raised towards their growing in their current markets and in expanding into new markets. 

“Two big markets that we have not explored yet are Indonesia and Vietnam. Then we are also looking at Australia which is potentially a high growth market,” shares Emmanuel. 

GrabJobs would also be looking to improve its current offering and integrate a skill assessment feature, to further empower the recruiters.

As  GrabJobs continues its endeavor to disrupt the traditional methods of hiring, it also competes with many other brands in this space. Further, it can also not ignore the other players in the recruitment tech market that are slowly and gradually proliferating. For instance, Blonk offers a mobile job matching application and SwypeJobs.com also connects employers to candidates through a mobile app. Then there is ‘wanted,’ a referral-based recruiting platform that leverages the power of social networks and P2P referrals to help companies recruit the right talent. 

In the presence of a rapidly increasing competition and a host of recruitment solutions available in the market, how GrabJobs will continue to ensure its uniqueness and scale towards its vision of becoming a one-stop shop for recruitment is something to look forward to.