Online portal for entry-level job-seekers, BoostMe360, has gone live, listing 6 000 job-seekers 10 months after it was introduced.
Founded in May 2018 by academic publishing organisation Pearson South Africa, BoostMe360 is an online job and skills development platform that connects SME employers with entry-level employees, who are located nearby.
The portal, which targets unemployed youth and job-seekers throughout SA, is now open to the public after running a pilot test for the last few months.
It uses artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help bridge the gap between employers and job-seekers, cutting out the time-consuming admin synonymous with the search for the right person for the job.
"During the beta test phase, BoostMe360 grew from 700 to around 6 000 listed job-seekers and 150 employers, with these numbers growing daily," says Carolynne Lengfeld, BoostMe360 project director.
"Employers around SA can now test the platform, load job listings and recruit from the BoostMe360s database of enthusiastic, talented staff. According to statistics, youth unemployment is double that of adults, 56% are non-matriculants and 35% of youth become unemployed work-seekers. The economy needs to grow on the back of contributing young people."
BoostMe360 offers employers searching for entry-level employees with on-boarding registration guidance, access to a large database of young working adults filtered to specific requirements, guaranteed placement for the first month of hire, and ongoing support for both the organisation and the chosen candidate during the job placement process.
The platform offers job-seekers career guidance and access to training content through free e-learning modules, aimed at helping them improve their soft skills and improving their chance of finding a job.
AI revolutionising recruitment
BoostMe360 seeks to introduce business owners to a new online human resources (HR) era, where automation and agile recruitment tools offer innovative capabilities to boost the traditional recruitment process, Lengfeld notes.
"Even when employers make use of online search engines to simplify the candidate search, they are often served with impersonal, incomplete CVs and pop-up adverts that slow down the process."
According to the 7th Annual HR Recruitment Trend Survey, conducted by MCI Consultants, local job recruiters believe AI will become mainstream in the next few years.
Some 42% of organisations use a recruitment management system, while 46% find a shortage of skills to be the biggest obstacle to attracting the best talent, the survey found.
"AI helps to reduce the volume of applications that need to be physically reviewed by recruiters by automatically matching required job skills and experience to candidate CVs," explains Rhett Davies, partner at MCI.
"AI also helps to reduce bias in the early stages of talent acquisition, as recruitment algorithms are geared to focus purely on matching the right skills and experience to an organisation's vacancies, resulting in higher output for HR, reduced time, admin and costs, and enhanced employer brand management."
Last year, BoostMe360 received multimillion-rand funding from the UK Department of International Development and Pearson UK.
The company says it plans an international rollout in future. "It is our long-term strategy to expand into Africa and other global growth areas that experience similar challenges around youth unemployment and skills development. Locally, we are collaborating with a number of private and public organisations driving the same strategic objectives addressing education and employability in young people seeking access to opportunities in the entry-level job market.
"We are also enhancing our platform to assist in unlocking career opportunities in various regions nationally," concludes Lengfeld.
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