JobsDB by SEEK introduces solutions to promote effective hiring to combat employment challenges

Recruiting in this day and age is a challenge. Getting ahead of unfolding developments in the market is essential for hirers who are looking for the right talent and a stable candidate pool. JobsDB by SEEK, the leading employment platform in Hong Kong, has always been dedicated to helping people to thrive in their career paths and workplaces, as well as helping organisations to succeed.

What makes JobsDB go above and beyond a job portal, is the innovative solutions which enable hirers to explore hassle-free ways of hiring and communication, whilst providing candidates with seamless job-seeking experiences and opportunities.

Bill Lee, JobsDB Hong Kong Managing Director, said that the company is committed to helping employees find their dream jobs and for employers to find the right talent.

Over the last 20 years of operation, the portal has matched 36 million candidates and services over a million employers.

Lee said that in its next digital transformation journey, it seeks to reach the benchmark of 500 million job seekers and 5 million employers in Asia.

The thriving job market in Hong Kong Pivoting from the pandemic, the employment market in Hong Kong is an ongoing topic and the demand for jobs is higher than ever.

According to Lee, three things stand out in recent years. First, market uncertainty remains, whether it be on the labour side or the opposite. Second, there is an accelerating need for digital talent in Hong Kong. Third is that there is a large mismatch in skills, leading to a discrepancy as to what employers want and what employees can provide.

In summary, the current situation shows that the supply is not catching up as the demand for newer technology and more skilled employees rise. On the other hand, Lee sees a silver lining in the employment market in Hong Kong. Primarily through the company’s jobs portal, its unification project provides a possible solution to the aforementioned problems.

“Such that when someone from Singapore looks for a job in Hong Kong, they can use the same app. Imagine a future where people across APAC can go to one place to find their dream job or best candidate; a future where it takes days or weeks, not months or years to innovate for customers; a future where our world-class technology, our people, and local know-how allow us to blow away global competitors. That’s what we’re working towards.” Lee explained. The talent shortage is not just a consideration across all jobs, but with HR functions as well.

For Lee, the question for employers is how they can continue to hire strong employees. In turn, the role of JobsDB is to discover possible solutions to that question. With all these considerations in mind and with a positive look at the general condition of the market, Lee said that he feels that the employment market in Hong Kong will remain strong.

Flexi Ad Budget Model

The newly introduced Ad Budget model provides hirers with the flexibility and control to choose ad types for individual listings, as opposed to the current system of fixed costs for specific ad types. This serves as a solution to not only encourage hirers to plan and utilise their budgets more effectively, but also aid organisations such as small-medium enterprises and startups, that might have tight hiring budgets to win in the hiring market.

“This new commercial model brings flexibility and control, fair pricing, and valuable solutions to our hirers which is absolutely needed in our current environment,” Lee explained.

In developing and leading the company in this newer direction, JobsDB also put emphasis on having a lot of value-added solutions. Lee explained that HR has developed to be more modern and allrounded, and this includes being more complex and being able to expand overseas.

As economics and the employment market are kicking back into gear, employers are rebuilding their workforces, generating a demand for talent who are more adept in an increasingly digital world. To come to grips with the growing talent shortage, a few cited examples from JobsDB introduced are applicant tracking, payroll and HR management, learning and development platforms and candidate assessment as an enhanced service package for hirers.

A unified experience with A.I. What made a significant difference, however, was the introduction of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) into the portal.

“[We invested] in A.I. A lot of competition out there have search functions but not AI search functions,” Lee said.

This A.I.-powered portal brought better service to its users and in turn produced good results for the portal’s performance.

Usage was up by 20%, primarily attributed to being able to provide more relevant and accurate searches to all users.

Accurate searches are considered important as it improves the overall experience of browsing through thousands of jobs in the job portal. Another reason is that it brings more value to applicants and hirers.

Another interesting outcome of this transformation was in the job search itself. The A.I. was shown to be able to recommend similar job results which the applicant did not originally intend to search for. This expands the reach of employers who have posted various openings on the portal and likewise benefits employees as it shows other parallel roles or jobs that match their current skills and background.

A growing investment

Compared to other job portals in Asia, JobsDB stands out mainly because of its services. Lee said that the company continues to make a lot of investments and commitments in the market.

“We have invested over AU$125m and we will continue to make that investment as a sign of commitment. We are also in every local market that we operate in, understanding every need and requirement of the highest-end candidates in the market,” said Lee.

The company’s current commitment is to expand on technology. Integrating A.I. into the job portal is only one of its plans that have grown into fruition.

Tying up the interview after zeroing in on this tech, he said “It’s what’s gonna make a difference for us and it already is [doing that.] It will make a difference for us and in the coming many years and decades ahead.”

For this milestone, JobsDB Hong Kong was well recognised in the recently concluded Hong Kong Business Technology Excellence Awards.

The awards programme recognises outstanding companies that made exceptional contributions in pursuit of technological innovation. The programme crowns the best first-rate firms with the most innovative and unique IT initiatives and solutions that helped enhance their company’s business in Hong Kong.

It was given the A.I. - Human Resources Consulting award for championing the development of its job portal. This transformation is considered an important growth in the industry and will help as well in the improvement of the job market situation in Hong Kong.

JobsDB is the leading employment platform in Hong Kong and Thailand, helping people live more fulfilling and productive working lives and helping organisations succeed. It is a subsidiary of SEEK, a diverse group of companies comprised of a strong portfolio of online employment, educational, commercial and volunteer businesses.

SEEK is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and has a strong presence across the APAC region, including six Asian markets – Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand – through the JobStreet and JobsDB brands. SEEK attracts over 500 million visits a year in Asia.

SEEK currently has a global reach of approximately 55 million candidate relationships, approximately 400k hirer relationships, and approximately 900 million population exposure.

Today, the world is undergoing rapid changes due to technological advances.

The COVID-19 pandemic has further accelerated the shift to a digital-first world. Therefore, a seamless and customised experience must be provided through digital and physical models to grow and thrive in today’s economy. As consumers increasingly demand more engaging experiences, it is paramount that brands are able to deliver compelling content at the right time, on the channel of choice, for the right customers. Upgrading business operations and decisionmaking processes by harnessing technology is the key to creating a connected customer experience with consistency and quality.

A design-led approach to business transformation

Inspired by the customer-first transformation, Deloitte Digital has crafted a solution governed by the ecosystem business model design, with New World Development (NWD) being the pioneer company. The common challenges faced by companies include low data connectivity across different business units, a fragmented operations platform and inflexible system support. On top of this, customer data can become stagnant in the system, sometimes prompting companies to switch vendors, which results in high operation and maintenance costs.

As a leading conglomerate in Hong Kong, NWD has recognised the need to interact with customers at every touchpoint of their journey, with flexibility, capability and scalability.

As a trusted digital partner of NWD, Deloitte Digital embeds design thinking methods and CRM software to produce an integrated ecosystem offering that will create new value pools for the business.

“Customers now demand that organisations provide them with an integrated experience, and through our alliance with Deloitte Digital, we are able to innovate at scale and develop cross-sectoral user experience across all of our business units with a deeper understanding of our customers,” said Paul Sin, Director of Technology and Transformation at New World Development.

One of the project goals is to provide a top-class customer experience to NWD’s customers by staying connected with all bespoke members, customer engagement staff, and retail tenants. NWD will be able to deliver higher synergies and crossbusiness unit innovation across Hong Kong and Mainland China regions, facilitating cross-selling that otherwise would not have been achieved.

“Our services cover the entire digital spectrum, from strategy to design to enablement and operations with an ecosystem business model. We worked closely with NWD to harness the synergies of multidimensional data, for them to make informed decisions and create a unified CRM journey,” added Ivan Cheung, Partner at Deloitte Digital.

The Customer 360 platform, powered by Salesforce, bridged the gap between NWD’s home-grown CRM and fragmented platforms across different business units. To illustrate this, Deloitte leverages an integrated omnichannel strategy, along with Customer Data Platforms, enabling NWD to decipher and analyse data more accurately, which informs the creation of journeybased campaigns.

The project focused on applying design principles for front-end customers and back-end business processes. Business processes, data and technology are integrated to make all areas more informed, actionable and efficient. Using a hybrid agile strategy and “oneteam” approach, Deloitte provided comprehensive scope within a short timeframe, driving retail and office tenants’ life cycle, delivering loyalty programme design and strategy, and unlocking insight by unifying fragmented customer data across touchpoints, applications and platforms. At its core, digital transformation provides the technology and tools that allow companies to achieve operational efficiency, increase customer-centricity and make insightful decisions to navigate today’s business challenges.

Industry Recognition across APAC

Deloitte is a leading global Salesforce consulting partner in APAC that offers world-class expertise and the capability to help clients resolve complex challenges. Winning The HKB Technology Excellence Awards highlights Deloitte’s role as NWD’s trusted strategic partner and recognises Deloitte’s dedication to shaping innovative solutions that combine industry insights with technology expertise.

The companies jointly bagged home the NFT - Food & Beverage award at HKB Technology Excellence Awards 2022.

Tam Jai Internat ional (TJI), the leading and renowned mixian-specialised fast-casual restaurant chain, always takes the lead to bring innovation and excitement to the market. As the trailblazer of the industry, the company has taken a step further by creating the first charitable NFTs, Souper Hero to embark on its groundbreaking entry into Web 3.0, powered by the Strategy & Technology Consultant, EY Mtel in May 2022.

To uphold the spirit of “Originality with Innovation”, TJI always amuses the market with excitement, but at the same time, manages to keep abreast of the appetite of its target audiences. “We did not jump on the bandwagon. Instead, we understand that many of our target audiences embrace a techsavvy lifestyle. To engage them, I believe that we have to be attentive to the market trends and react agilely,” Agnes Lung, Executive Director, Group Chief Marketing and Digital Officer of TJI said.

Not only did the project showcase how TJI revolutionise customer journey with emerging technology, but it also serves as the company’s long-term commitment on corporate social responsibilities to promoting digital arts, under collaboration with the campaign’s beneficiary, Hong Kong Arts Centre which advocates the mission of “Arts for All”, echoing TJI’s mission of creating fulfilling and affordable food for all.

Innovative NFT projects

The Souper Hero NFTs are priced at a very friendly cost of HK$500 each and can be purchased via fiat money such as credit cards, supported by Artzioneer, the project’s official marketplace, enabling the purchase highly accessible to all. all, not just to a limited group of affluent investors. Meanwhile, TJI is paving the way to build its ‘edutainment hub’ on its land in The Sandbox metaverse, where avatars and NFT items created by community members will be showcased. It will become a perfect place for interactive virtual exhibitions and a platform where Souper Hero NFT holders convene, exchange insights, and participate in mixianthemed mini-games.

In addition, it will also enhance the loyalty programme of TJI by creating the first CRM with NFTs as loyalty valuators within the industry, showering members with an array of privileges such as free mixian redemption, and numerous offers online and offline for a fantastic O2O experience.

The Souper Hero project was well acclaimed even in the downtime of the crypto market, with overwhelming response in both whitelisting (with subscription 10 times over the quota) and public sale. A total of 10,000 NFTs were sold out within six days, winning massive media coverage of over HK$28M PR value in just one month.

The project is also well received by leading figures in the IT industry, such as The Sandbox’s co-founder Sebastien Borget by sharing the campaign on his social media.

The Souper Hero NFT project is unique in the sense that it carries a lot of cultural values and exclusivity. It is, at the same time, a charitable project that aims to nurture homegrown artists and make digital arts accessible to

As a local brand beloved by many, TJI never ceases to bring innovations to customers and supports meaningful initiatives in Hong Kong. Being a trailblazer in the industry, the Souper Hero NFT project will not only be a fun and engaging edutainment experience, but also a transformation in lifestyle harnessing emerging technology. The company will continue to bridge innovation with technology to amuse the market going forward.