AKM Fahim Mashroor
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AKM Fahim Mashroor, chief executive officer of bdjobs.com, the country's first on-line job portal
'There is no shortage of jobs,' said AKM Fahim Mashroor, chief executive officer of bdjobs.com, the country's first on-line job portal. 'But there is a dearth of skilled human resources to fill the vacant posts'
Each nation strives to generate new jobs for its eligible-to-work population. Employment means more purchasing power of the citizens and in essence, their well-being.
Even though Bangladesh is not able to create the required number of jobs, a large number of posts remain vacant due to a dearth of skilled manpower.
“There is no shortage of jobs,” said AKM Fahim Mashroor, chief executive officer of bdjobs.com, the country's first on-line job portal. “But there is a dearth of skilled human resources to fill the vacant posts.”
Currently, the company has 5,000 registered employers and is linked with more than 300 global recruiting agents. They can supply manpower to the global market, free of cost.
Around 30,000 jobseekers visit the job site a day and nearly 1.5 lakh people have been employed through the site in the last 10 years. Of the people employed, 1,500 now work abroad.
There is a stark shortage of skills across a large variety of specialised areas. As a result, foreign multinational companies in Bangladesh have to import a significant number of workers from India and other countries, to find the skilled ones. “The number of such companies is nearly 80,” said the bdjobs chief.
“We see that many leading companies in Bangladesh fail to hire the desired number of people,” said Mashroor, “because they are unable to find the right person for the right post.”
The recruitment process in Bangladesh, however, has seen positive changes in recent years. Most companies have to recruit the best possible candidates because they now compete with global as well as local markets.
“A decade back, most companies recruited employees based on references,” said Mashroor, who started the job portal in 2000 from his living room. “The scenario is changing because companies are hiring based on skills rather than references.”
The major sectors that contribute to employment generation in the last few years are garments and textiles, IT and telecoms, said Mashroor.
Poor communication skills and a lack of in-depth knowledge on a particular subject are the main weak points of job seekers, he added.
The bdjobs chief explains that fresh graduates suffer from a lack of in-depth knowledge on a particular subject because they acquire overall knowledge at shallow levels in their study and as a result, they cannot develop expertise on a particular field.
“We observe that a large number of people have low English language skills, especially in writing,” said Mashroor. “So they face difficulties in writing something correctly.”
It is also common to see in recent times that most freshers on the job not only lack an appropriate sense of quality but they also have little passion for work.
Most entry-level employees are not serious about time management and punctuality, and they are not able to meet deadlines, said Mashroor.
He said they try to sieve out the capable candidates based on applicants' curriculum vitae (CV). “We identify a job-seekers' sense of organising and people management skills by checking their extra-curricular activities.”
If a person's CV shows that he is a good sports person, it indicates he has the ability to work in a team.
Similarly, an ability to organise programmes will be stronger when the candidate has experience in arranging events like cultural programmes and study tours, said Mashroor.
He urges students to develop their people management skills, language, and ability to organise things by participating in debates, workshops and other university or college programmes.
-Daily Star