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There is an inevitable shift in the labour market in Myanmar these days. There are no more lifetime secure jobs or full-time permanent employments only. The market dynamics are and will be changing dramatically, due to an influx of foreign companies, tourism and new industries. The use of online tools to recruit in the difficult labour market is one of the strongest contributors to these changes.
Online recruitment market
Online recruitment emerged in the late 90s, initially as a partial replacement to the print market. Born initially in North America, Europe and Japan, the market has steadily grown and spread throughout the world to reach a plateau in activity in 2011. Myanmar has proven that it too will follow this path.
The online recruitment market is estimated to be around a $3 billion industry. There are around 3,000 job boards worldwide, from which around 1,000 are professionally managed and developed.
There are two main sub groups of e-recruitment in the world, namely online job boards and professional social networks like LinkedIn, StepStone, Careerbuilder or Recruit Holding.
In a nutshell: online recruitment makes the hiring process more efficient and much shorter.
Only a few years ago across the world, looking for a certain position simply began with buying a newspaper and circling possible positions of interest. It was actually very inconvenient, and slow, and this practice persists in Myanmar.
Many constraints such as geographical area, time zone or cultural considerations are mitigated by searching for jobs online.
Companies can post a job in less than 10 minutes and start receiving CVs immediately. Compared to traditional hiring methods like job fairs, print, and shortlisting, it is comparatively still very cheap.
However, many companies in Myanmar still do not have their web pages or email, even today, but this problem will slowly fade away.
Myanmar recruitment drawbacks
I am surprised and disappointed by some recent market developments even in human resources.
People are taking jobs for granted. Candidates have unrealistic salary expectations, asking for double digit percent salary increases when changing jobs, regardless of their skills or knowledge.
There is already a knowledge and skills gap felt on the market now. Imagine what that would be if a real job boom starts. Many employers complain that loyalty and trust do not count in the job market, with many candidates changing jobs.
There is still a lot to catch up with the world in terms of skills and knowledge of the work force. Unfortunately, the workforce wants to catch up quicker in terms of salaries and benefits. It could make the Myanmar economy even more uncompetitive.
Paradoxically, it can boost the influx of expats to Myanmar as the labour cost advantages would diminish and the local qualities and skills would not match those of the expats. This is a normal feature for an immature development market and time will probably heal that.
Steady improvement
There are some other tools rather than checking CCs, cover letters or candidate interviews.
Online assessment is a procedure which allows specific abilities or characteristics of a candidate to be evaluated via the internet. Such assessments are most frequently used in the area of personnel selection, in order to determine how suitable a candidate is for a specific job.
Online assessments consist of several tests or questionnaires to be completed by the candidate. For example, an online assessment could consist of tests for memory and concentration as well as for language skills and could also include a personality questionnaire.
There are several different tests that can be categorised as follows: If the aim of a test is to determine abilities such as concentration, logical conclusions or text comprehension, they are referred to as performance tests.
Qualities such as willingness to cooperate, ambition or sensitivity are determined with the aid of personality questionnaires; specific professional knowledge is determined with the help of knowledge tests.
Surely everything cannot be tested or measured in an online assessment. For example, it is difficult to assess social skills. These requirements therefore are mostly determined in interviews or group discussions.
Online assessment has some very clear benefits in comparison to traditional assessments: Firstly, no supervisors or invigilators are needed. This means that ‘gut feeling’ plays no role, as the assessment can be made to be very objective.
Secondly, online assessment can also predict, with a relatively high degree of accuracy, how suitable a candidate is for a specific position.
An applicant can complete the online assessment at anytime from anywhere, which saves travelling costs and also allows the test be performed in the applicant’s familiar, stress-free environment.
From a company’s point of view, the relatively limited amount of time required is one of the main attractions, as it enables the inclusion of a large number of candidates in the pre-selection process.
Online assessment provides immediate, independent and highly professional evaluation of the candidate. It is online set of aptitude tests and questionnaires for different level of skills and functions.
Vladimir Neduchal is Founder and CEO of jobsinyangon.com and Partner of Roger Quest International Executive Search Myanmar. Views and opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and don't necessarily reflect Myanmar Business Today's editorial opinion.