Tan Kin Lian - Perspectives Improve the process of searching for jobs
The headline of an article reads - Young Singaporean laments that he has been searching for a job for 4 months with no avail.

This is not the experience of one person. It is the experience of tens of thousand young people every year.

Can you imagine the wasted effort that is spent by people searching for jobs and by human resource managers reading through thousands of applications?

Surely, there must be a better way of handling the matching of jobs?

We can learn from the property market where there are a few popular portals showing the properties available for sale and rental. They are supported by many trained property agents who can help to match the buyers, tenants and property owners.

I am not suggesting that the property market is run efficiently. But I suspect that it is more efficient than the job market.

I believe that there are several job portals that are widely used. Perhaps they can be improved in the following ways:

a) Employers can post their jobs at low cost.
b) Each job should provide the minimum requirements of the candidates in terms of work experience and education, and show show the expected remuneration
c) The interested applicants should be screened by the portal, so that the suitable candidates are shortlisted for the interview.

Maybe, the job portals are already doing this tasks efficiently. I am not familiar with the current state of the market.

Quite likely, the portals are not doing it efficiently. If they are, why do I often read that employers are not able to find the suitable workers, and workers are not able to find the suitable jobs?

I remember that the government did set up portals to help in the matching of workers with jobs. I have used them on a few occasions in the past. I received unsuitable applicants. It did not work well.

Can I have your view about how this process can be improved?

Tan Kin Lian

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