On the job, bust or bubble

L.N. Revathy

A FORRESTER Report released early this year has estimated that online recruitment will account for 80 per cent of global recruitment by 2008.

Though e-recruitment is still in its nascent stage in India, job-hunters are logging on to the Net and keying in their resume with quality job sites. Promoters of these sites claim that it is an international Internet platform linking job seekers and employers.

JobStreet.com, one of the earliest players in the online career market, allows companies to get instant alerts and updates when a potential job seeker files his resume online.

Set up in the Penang Trade Free Zone in 1995, the company originally catered to the human resource needs in and around Penang. The Penang office now functions as a research and development house for the flagship Web-enabled product.

In the first round of funding, the company received close to $2 million from the San Francisco-based venture capital company Walden International (in early 1999). In the second round, (which concluded only recently) it received a like amount from Sumitomo Corporation Capital Asia (based in Japan), Walden International and Intelligent Capital.

N. Muralidharan, Vice-President and Managing Director of JobStreet.com, India, says the company is on a strong wicket, growing at 200 per cent year-on-year. He shares his perception of online recruitment and his company's future plans with eWorld; Excerpts from the interview:

How does e-recruitment work in India?

The concepts are pretty simple, because of technology. We name the profiles of jobs and job seekers and match them -- the right job to the right person. Since there are so many applying for jobs, there is a need to track and rank them, so recruiters do not have to spend a lot of time in finding the right candidate. The technology used includes database management, matching and evaluation algorithms, skill classifications and of course, good user interface for companies to manage the resumes with least manual work. The advantage of the Net is speed, cost, reach and most of all scalability.

Our survey has shown that the recruitment cycle can be reduced to 15 days from 120 days, by using our online solutions.

Has there been a rush in online recruitment traffic?

In India, the sector is nascent. However, people are realising the benefit of keying in a resume. It is, in fact, being recognised in a big way -- everyday we get about 1000 resumes in India alone -- this is a big number, and an indication of where e-recruitment is headed in the near future.

Talking of your growth ..

We have grown at the rate of 200 per cent year-on-year since inception. We have over a million jobseekers and 10,000 corporates, who have benefited from our online recruitment solutions. We are a people2people company.

Ofcourse, our exponential growth has its issues -- the advantage of being a technology and Internet company. We are able to scale with fewer people. Overheads are comparatively less.

We are profitable in the Philippines and Malaysia, and will be reaching break-even as an organisation next month.

What do you think sets you apart as a service provider?

Some of the well-known job sites in the country are Naukri, Stepstone, Prizedjobs etc. But there are some key differentiating factors between them and us..

We operate as an ASP model. SiVA can automate recruitment processes and act like a Web-based recruitment department for the company... this software won the ``Best ASP Software in Asia-Pacific 2001'' award.

Rather than operate as a pure media space selling device, we focus on delivering success to our clients. We also offer customised solutions ranging from corporate career page management to integration services, which includes other jobsites to newspaper recruitment ads integrated to our recruitment software, the way our clients want it..

What about your marketing strategy?

Our strategy is focussed on the job seeker and the corporate. The corporate is the paying customer. Nevertheless, the job seeker is equally important. We intend to drive home our brand message to both the segments on a continuous and consistent basis.

What about your revenue sources?

They are corporate job posting, ASP software services, corporate career page management and recruitment solutions for large MNCs.

What are your plans for the current year?

Our long-term goal is being Asia's largest human capital bank. Immediate goals include reaching two million users by the end of the year, doubling our sales this year, and most importantly, increasing the recruitment rates.

We plan to expand our services to newer markets in North Asia and Japan leveraging Sumitomo's strength. Here too, we will continue to expand. We have five offices -- at Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi and Pune. Before year-end, we will be looking at opening offices in other regions.

What is your outlook for the future?

The war is far from over for this battle-hardened team. We want to make jobs more transparent to jobseekers. Flexibility in the cyber as well as brick-and-mortar worlds could prove vital. We are now starting to offer offline search and selection services for companies too busy to handle their own career and job search tasks. This was kicked off in Singapore in January.

Online, JobStreet.com has also begun to experiment by offering its services on wireless platforms.

Pic.: Mr N Muralidharan