I’ve been thinking about how many jobs adverts I see on social networks and the internet in general. So many I had to unlike a page that kept posting jobs on my facebook homepage. There are entities on twitter offering information on new job openings in the region. A simple Google search will yield thousands of online job listings in the country. Numerous company websites offer instant job notifications sent to your email as soon as there is a job opening, sometimes they offer online portals where jobseekers can create CVs for consideration whenever there is an opening.
In short, the internet is awash with information of new opportunities for employment. This is by no means an indicator of the number of jobs out there, it is not even certain that the links and information provided on these pages and blogs can be trusted, but it is a clear demonstration that the internet is the first place to go to when looking for a job.
Services such as the N-Soko database link employers to possible employees through the internet. The listings keep growing, which begs the question: How can Kenyans who have no access to the internet get hold of this information?
The answer is simple; mobile phones.
To demonstrate this, it is necessary to consider a few figures concerning mobile phone usage and internet subscription. 99% of Kenyans with an internet subscription (6.49 million as at 31st March 2012) access the internet through mobile devices (I keep worrying about what would happen if all networks were jammed). With 30 million mobile subscribers, and a mobile penetration of 71.3%, it means that there is a huge part of the population (approx. 25 million) is without access to job listings posted online.
It follows, then, that companies should find ways to reach people who for one reason or another do not have access to the internet or have no strong social networks. We’ve definitely seen it work with targeted ads and other campaigns. If a company develops a mobile-based customer base, why should it not advertise job opportunities through the same phones?
I would expect that more focus would be directed towards bridging this gap between employers and the rest of the population. This is the ideology behind the 2013 World Development Report on jobs, especially concerning the role of innovative technologies in job creation.
Customised mobile phone ads is one platform through which employers can take advantage of technological advances to get access to the talent they are looking for. This would include text, voice and applications, all of which would be intended to provide people with notifications and information on new jobs. There are two approaches on how this could work. Companies might opt to do the recruiting through direct contact with possible employees, or they could use an intermediary. The later initiative is not new in the country; you’ve probably heard about SMS services which will send job notifications to your phone through a daily subscription.
But why should employers worry about their job listings reaching more people, isn’t it the responsibility of the seeker to ‘seek’? The mobile phone based approach has perks to both the employer and employee (ask the good folks at M-Kazi, they’ll tell you a thing or two). According to the report, possible positive outcomes of this approach are reduction in time used to look for employment, companies get more qualified staff and minimise the cost of hiring.
Such an initiative also has its challenges, the most obvious of which is how to measure the impact of the initiative. It does not address the gross imbalances in skills among job seekers. For instance, it is safe to assume that a person who has been exposed to the internet has better a skill set than the marginalised person. It means he knows his way around a computer.
The role of this approach would be to provide equal opportunities to job seekers, making sure that marginalised people have access to the same information as anyone else. Another concern arises when such services are not regulated. This is Nairobi, after all. We are not new to mobile con schemes. Proper regulation is important to protect both employees and employers.