Tag: Recruitment

Fora9, A New Online Job Service For Women

MMM 1 Comment

Fora9Fora9 (read ‘Foras’, which means ‘Opportunities’ in Arabic) is a new free online job service out of Kuwait, created for women in the Middle East and North Africa, to make it easier for them to find job opportunities.

The idea came to life when the developing company was looking to build a team and faced difficulties getting to qualified women for certain positions even though they know they were obviously out there.

The design is simplistic and presents job opportunities under four different types which are part time jobs, full time jobs, telework, and volunteer work; and under several categories from IT jobs, to sales and marketing, to teaching and accounting, and more. Featured open job positions are also highlighted on the front page of the site.

The service also attempts to make it as simple as possible for companies and organizations to post their job openings that are tailored for women on the site, and reach a more targeted and qualified audience.

fora9

Fora9 is a product of Wasm Media, a Kuwait based company founded by Abdulmohsen Alajmi. It currently is available in Arabic only.

This isn’t the first time an Arab startup tries to tackle the women employment and jobs area; we previously covered Sudanese startup Twffaha that focused on the same point, which seems to have abandoned the effort at some point along the way.

Hozpitality.com, Hospitality Career and Networking Portal

MMM

hozpitality.comIn the backdrop of the continuing growth trail and potential of the regional hospitality industry, a new hospitality networking and human resources portal, Hozpitality.com, was launched yesterday by Dubai-based VR Online Group.

Promoters of the new portal said the sector’s rate of growth in job opportunities in the Middle East, North Africa and Levant is estimated to be at 24 per cent between 2008-2011 while in GCC it would be some 20 per cent in the next four years.

“The Middle East, North Africa and Levant is now the fastest growing region for global hospitality industry with approximately 300 new committed hotel projects coming up between 2008-2011, cumulatively adding up approximately 85,900 rooms.  Once the projects come on stream they will face an enormous need for manpower, which we estimate will be to the tune of 111,650 staff. In this context, we believe Hozpitality.com could play a salient role, be it global sourcing of manpower, hotel supplies or in offering an exclusive networking platform for industry professionals,” said Mr. Raj Bhatt, Director, Hozpitality.com.

He said that the aim of Hozpitality.com was to grow beyond the confines of a conventional portal and to add more value-innovations to its offer portfolio in tandem with the growth and sophistication of the regional hospitality industry.  

“Hozpitality.com is much more than an ordinary job portal. We are trying to build a dedicated hospitality company where everyone wins. Normally job boards have job postings and candidates applying and that’s it. We would have much more than this,” Mr. Bhatt said.

hozpitality.com

While recruitment will be the core activity on the website, the portal will be a platform where the entire hospitality community can network while posting jobs or applying for live jobs. Regular networking events for the hospitality community would also form one of the core activities.

Employers or Job seekers would have free access to focused hospitality supplier listing; registered employers can post any movements, promotions, transfers or post any announcements on the website. The portal would also extend services of professional CV designing to the candidates.

This move comes just a few months after the launch of Travel Yolk (previously reviewed here), that caters to the recruitment needs of the Travel industry, which signals a shift towards more specialized portals in such areas of service.

# Hozpitality.com

Travel Yolk, Travel Industry Online Recruitment Portal

MMM 5 Comments

travelyolkDubai-based travel industry technology solution provider TechTuners recently launched a new online recruitment portal named Travel Yolk that aims to address the staffing requirements of the Middle East’s travel industry.

Travel Yolk is built much like you’d expect a career website to be, providing the possibility for job seekers from the travel industry to build their CVs online, look for new job opportunities in the industry throughout the Middle East, get email notifications of interesting job vacancies and apply directly through the website.

On the other hand, employers can post their job offers and search the database of travel professionals to find people who best suit their vacant job positions.

As with most job sites, the service is free for job seekers, while employers will have to pay for posting their career opportunities. Different plans are provided to suit employers’ needs and activity.

travelyolk screenshot

An online forum where employees can meet their potential employers and vice versa should be added to the portal soon; making it easier and more effective for both sides to connect.

The website is available in English only for the time being.

# Travel Yolk

Akhtaboot, Online Career Network

MMM 4 Comments

Many Arab startups have given online job search/recruiting a go over the past years, with different levels of success. The latest addition to these job sites is Akhtaboot, which sells itself as a career network, and not just another simple job site.

Launched in public beta last year, Akhtaboot (Arabic for Octopus) describe themselves as an “online career network that is committed to providing a user-friendly way of linking the right person to the right career opportunity.”
They were initially set up to serve the Jordanian market, but now plan to serve as a career network for the whole Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

So basically, Akhtaboot takes a more networked approach to career building, giving job seekers the possibility to build their online CVs and profiles, including even a video; look for and apply to available jobs on the website; take the Myers-Briggs� MBTI personality test; as well as build their professional network of business contacts. On the other hand, employers can post their job openings and target specific communities to get more relevant applicants.

Akhtaboot also offers a number of training courses, in Jordan only for the time being, through what it calls a ‘Career Center’; the training courses cover several topics, including HR, Project Management, Marketing and Internal Audit courses.

The design is pretty nice, and the interface is quite straight-forward, although the many different steps you have to go through to setup your account details leaves you feeling it could be a bit better organized to become even more usable.

Overall, a really good effort, with a number of interesting features, worth checking out.

# Akhtaboot