On this M’sian job site, employers don’t pay the fees—job seekers do. The founders explain.

[Written in partnership with Supernewsroom, but the editorial team had full control over the content.]

What do you do when looking for a job? The easy answer is to go on the many job-hunting platforms available in Malaysia.

They’re free anyway, and for many job seekers, there isn’t much to lose in mass-applying for jobs and seeing what sticks.

While job seekers don’t feel the effects of this behaviour, employers do. Recruiters end up with many job applications to filter through, some of which don’t even fit the job requirements or have the demanded skills for it.

That’s what JOBJOM wants to fix. It’s a new job portal in Malaysia that is committed to helping employers find only serious applicants. 

How? Jobseekers need to pay a registration fee to even use the portal (but more on that later).

The cost of hiring

To those unaware, most job portals require recruiters to pay a fee, sometimes in the form of credits, to post job ads. It’s no issue for most companies, but it can be for small businesses operating at a minimal cost.

While there may be free options such as LinkedIn and Facebook, companies with more funding are able to pay a fee to “boost” their job ad, so it’ll be seen by more eyes. Meaning, fewer eyes on those that don’t pay. That’s just how the algorithm works.

Using a free job portal also means that there are no ways for employers to filter the applicants looking at the job ad. In turn, job seekers may just apply for any opening they see, as I pointed out earlier.

Thus, JOBJOM makes it free for employers to post up job ads in a fair manner where “boosts” are non-existent. This is in hopes of facilitating a place where there is an abundance of job postings from small to large companies, no matter the industry, or position they’re looking for. 

Self-serviced headhunting

Of course, employers who wish to have better and faster results are offered a headhunting feature of sorts on JOBJOM called TalentMore. It’s the platform’s paid and self-service feature for registered employers to search for their own candidates by setting filters on the platform’s talent pool.

Employers paying for Talent Credits can then download the profiles of their prospective hirees to suss out whether they’re suitable for a job posting and fit into their company. One profile costs one Talent Credit to access.

Packages for Talent Credits are: 

• RM99 gets you 10 Talent Credits, valid for 30 days;
• RM199 gets you 25 Talent Credits, valid for 90 days;
• RM299 gets you 40 Talent Credits, valid for 180 days.

The option to use JOBJOM’s TalentMore feature is an alternative to hiring a headhunter to find the exact candidate an employer is looking for.

Headhunters, according to JOBJOM’s team, tend to charge a success fee equivalent to a month’s salary or up to 25% of annual income of the successful recruitment. The higher the position (for example, a manager), the higher the fee.

“This feature will be promoted more strongly when we have big enough jobseeker database,” JOBJOM’s team added.

Serious applicants only

JOBJOM charging job seekers a registration fee of RM9.90 (which is charged annually) to use the platform is meant to filter only serious job candidates from the start. “RM9.90 is equivalent to a McD or Burger King meal, a Starbucks coffee,” joked Directors, Will Ong and Lennon Chu.

Confident that JOBJOM’s portal will have an abundance of job listings by allowing companies to post them for free, they believe that this is an incentive for job seekers to pay the fee. On top of that, candidates with two or more years of work experience will be featured on TalentMore for employers to find and hire them.

The job portal also has a Refer-A-Friend programme where those who’ve registered can share their unique link with others for a validity period of 12 months. Each successful registration through their link will earn them RM1.

Job seekers on JOBJOM will also be granted access to the platform’s Knowledge Hub and Download Centre. “These will help prepare candidates with information for their next big interview, or tips to improve resumes and cover letters,” explained the team. 

Content will also be continuously updated and will remain fully accessible with a registered account. “[This is] a perk only available at JOBJOM, as other platforms charge per content access,” claimed the team.

But there are many free articles out there published about the same repetitive “Tips For Your Job Interview”, or “Common Resumé Mistakes You Should Avoid”. It’s hard to imagine that JOBJOM’s content will be any different or worth paying for.

“We wish to compile the content in a one-stop centre. There may also be free content elsewhere, but a serious job seeker will search, the lazy ones may not,” argued JOBJOM’s team. “We realised companies nowadays require more than just work-related experiences.”

Freelancers may also find value in JOBJOM as it also offers an ad-based model to advertise their work at a fee:

• RM29.90 for 30 days;
• RM99.90 for 180 days;
• RM169.90 for 365 days.

By building higher awareness for their services, potential clients can contact them directly and negotiate and transact from the portal. Freelancers can also keep 100% of the fee they charge.

Milestones for the year

By the end of 2022, JOBJOM hopes to have 10K employers, 10K jobseekers, and 10K freelancers on its platform. 

“We believe this is the magic number for the compounding factor to happen,” the team stated.

To increase adoption, they hope to collaborate with universities and local organisations, corporations, SMEs, and MNCs in Malaysia.

In the long term, JOBJOM aims to achieve a 10% market penetration rate to 7.59 million active EPF contributors.

While what JOBJOM is trying to do borrows elements from existing solutions across the market, there is merit in providing a solution to those in the market who have somewhat been left out.

Though they intend to help out employers in posting job listings for free, they’d also have to make sure they’re able to offer a unique proposition to jobseekers to maintain the demand.

• Learn more about JOBJOM here.
• Read about other Malaysian startups we’ve featured here.

Featured Image Credit: Will Ong and Lennon Chu, Directors at JOBJOM