Job portal helps 50-plus play ‘second innings'

Mr Prabhakar Jerome and Mr Balakrishnan Kunnath, have both found interesting assignments in banking and market research through a job portal.

Nothing unusual about this, except that they are both in their 60s and were looking for ‘second innings' in their careers. And they both connected with their second employers through seniorexperts.org, a job portal for 50 plus professionals.

Launched by Ms Hema Ravichandar, the former Head of HR at Infosys Ltd and currently a Strategic HR advisor, the portal is part of a not-for-profit initiative called ExpertEase and gives free access to senior level talent across the country.

“We started this to help SMEs and NGOs access high quality talent,” says Ms Hema, who runs this initiative with her husband, Mr Ravichandar, a market research consultant. Ms Hema discovered that professionals, who have retired or have taken exits from their jobs, go through a slump (reasons are both financial and professional), and within a couple of years, again become active in the job market.

This is the right time for SMEs to tap into this talent pool, feels Ms Hema. “These people have the competency and the maturity that SMEs would need and they are not as expensive as the younger talent, making it a win-win for both parties.”

About 1,000 experts from banking, Defence, HR, marketing, education, and media are looking for gainful employment through seniroexperts.org and about 141 NGOs and 117 companies have or are in the process of using this talent.

Ms Hema says that the portal is currently addressing the needs of professionals and companies based in Bangalore, and would, in a few months, expand to other cities.

COMMENT NOW