By Brian Yatich
Over the past few years, we have noted how the world is rapidly making a complete shift from the traditional way of doing things to embracing the digital shift with technological advancements.
E-recruitment is well on its way to change the employment landscape, significantly easing the processes by Human Resource (HR) administrators in job placement and creating a further needed opportunity in the labour market for job seekers where getting a job has proven futile..
Thousands of graduates go out every year seeking job opportunities matching their skills. Employers, in turn, are uncertain how to assess the abilities of their applicants in their pursuit to hire the right candidate.
An increasing number of tech-savvy entrepreneurs are looking to solve the unemployment crisis with tech-based solutions that seek to improve access to job opportunities and ensure employers are matched with the right talent.
One such start-up is FUZU, an online-based system that churns talent using a computerized algorithm to find the best talent and match them with suitable employers.
The online firm was established on the premise of curbing the unemployment rate, which is rife across many African countries.
According to World Bank report on Youth and Opportunity, close to 800,000 youth enter the Kenyan job market annually. Out of this, only about 70,000 may succeed in securing employment in the formal sector.
The report further indicates that Kenya’s unemployment rate currently stands at approximately 40 per cent up from 12 per cent in 2006. Youth between 15 and 34 years constitute more than 40 per cent of the estimated national population at 43.5 million people. This accounts for a massive 70 per cent of the unemployed workforce.
With an estimate of 15 million unemployed youth in the country, this presents a massively worrying situation.
“In Kenya and more broadly the African market, there’s a problem where people calibrate their expectations poorly, so they apply for jobs that are well above their qualifications, some go way too up or down” Jussi Hinkkanen, Chief Executive Officer at FUZU.
Jussi notes that the recruitment sector is going to have a bigger impact on the future of the continent.
“The e-recruitment is a market that is globally in a transition, the traditional job boards are coming to the end of their journey, and we see different types of companies coming on board upping the game and bringing in new tools with a lot of innovations which is good for job seekers,” He says.
Fuzu is focusing on allowing jobseekers to learn new skills in order to obtain better employment.
“It’s not so much about credentials, whether you have a degree or not, it’s actually more of; Can you do your job?” Jussi points out.
How it works
The Fuzu platform allows access to users who are either searching for a job or are employers looking for personnel. The platform uses competency-based hiring algorithm by deploying a rigorous process in analysing and finding the best candidate for a specified job.
“For employers, Fuzu offers a set of tools to automatically analyse the job seekers’ curriculum vitae (CV’s), testing the candidates through online psychometric and talent tests at the same time marketing the company as an attractive employer,” Jussi says.
For the job seeker experience, Fuzu provides career counseling, learning solutions and gives information about open positions and industry updates; providing support and guidance at different stages of the user’s career.
Once a registered user has selected a specified job, he or she is prompted to outline their career goal and apply for jobs that are specifically matched to their skills.
“If a user opts for a premium package, he or she will then get an automated instant feedback, where they will get a detailed analysis of what skills, personalities, and experience other candidates for the same application have compared to them, we then give you access to top 10 CV’s with their details removed. So that you can benchmark from others and have a snapshot of what the market requires,” Jussi adds.
To wade off competitors and rank top from other job boards, Fuzu offers career-planning tools including personal career advice and provide access to professional coaches and giving instant personalized feedback to users to develop the job seekers skills and competencies.
In March, the online firm partnered with Google Africa to allow job seekers to use the new Google Job Search experience, where Fuzu will be able to integrate its content through Google’s open structured (Schema) to help them quickly and easily find opportunities across the web, and refine their search to meet their specific needs suited for them.
Fuzu has also closed partnership deals with several global and regional giants like Techno Brain, Microsoft, McKinsey, Accenture, Facebook, Rockefeller Foundation, and Multichoice.
The Finnish Kenyan-based firm now has access across East Africa, with a talent pool of over 400,000 profiles with a usage of over 1 million.
