JaminKerja initiatives eases recruitment process

KUALA LUMPUR: Employer groups have lauded the JaminKerja initiative for easing the recruitment process, saying they hoped it will help them to hire people with the right skill sets.

SME Association of Malaysia president Ding Hong Sing said the initiative was a win-win situation for both employers and employees as it would save companies from the hassle of advertising for vacancies while jobseekers could apply for a job through the job fair or online.

“It is easier with the MYFutureJobs portal,” he said.

Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Christina Tee said the initiative was good but the application process must also be smooth and easy.

As industries are facing a huge challenge in the form of a shortage of talent pool, she said the initiative would help in addressing the issue.

Tee said concrete and immediate action was needed to attract highly-skilled people especially in IT and automation, given the shortage of engineers.

“There’s a preference towards gig economy work and manufacturing has become ‘unglamorous’,” she said.

The government has allocated RM4.8bil to create 600,000 job opportunities this year under the JaminKerja initiative, which was launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob yesterday.

Malaysian Employers Federation Datuk Dr Syed Hussain Syed Husman JP said JaminKerja would reduce the unemployment rate to about 4% as it was regarded as full employment.

“However, JaminKerja initiatives need to be complemented with initiatives to attract locals to fill the available vacancies in various sectors of the economy such as plantation, construction, manufacturing and the services sector,” he said.

He also said that employers needed to implement automation and mechanisation and adopt more robotics to be more efficient and productive in their operations.

“Employees need to be upskilled and reskilled to be able to work with new technology at the workplace,” he added.

Syed Hussain also said there was a need to find ways to manage talent by shifting focus to quality job creation, and to help workers equip themselves with the right skills to secure jobs in growth sectors.

“The country needs technical resources to cater for more technical resources requirements. We need to clearly provide alternative skill education to complement the needs of the country,” he said.

Popular Meadow Sdn Bhd Group of Companies director Datuk Chia Hui Yen said that as a business owner, she was able to find more trustworthy candidates, noting that JaminKerja would also help them to screen candidates.

“Presently, as the market has just reopened, we have many vacancies and we need the manpower to support us to rebuild the business. Before Chinese New Year, we advertised 10 vacancies on MyFutureJobs and we have already closed five positions from there,” she said.

Chia noted that the system reached out to more people nationwide, adding that this would give them a diverse field of candidates from different states.

“I hired one candidate from Kuantan and (another from) Sabah as they happened to want to work in Kuala Lumpur. So this initiative also gives us the opportunity to help out with the unemployment rate in other states,” she said.

Ammar Fadzli Ahmad Lutfi who is now employed as a sales assistant, said this initiative would help graduates like him.

“This initiative is easier for us as all the employers are under one roof. We only need to provide our academic certificates and we are able to get interviews quite quickly. It is really convenient,” he said, adding that he managed to secure a job within a week of submitting his application.