A local drug company, however, is taking a detour to reach potential employees ahead of the pack. Wyeth Philippines has for the past two years enlisted the services of JobStreet Philippines to help it fill its ranks. And increasingly, "we have been using JobStreet more and more instead of print ads or headhunters. In the past we used to put ads in the newspapers, usually on Sundays. But recently, we use mainly JobStreet," said Joaquin Sumpaico Jr., director of human resources and development at Wyeth.
JobStreet.com is one of Asia’s leading online recruitment companies. It was founded in Malaysia in 1995 by the company’s current CEO Mark Chang and now operates out of nine offices in Asia, including Singapore, India and the Philippines. JobStreet provides online recruitment services to 8,000 clients across the region, all of them able to easily pinpoint the right candidate from among JobStreet’s 1.5 million subscribers.
The company set up its Philippine operations in 1999 and has since served some 1,200 corporate clients, among them Wyeth Philippines, Smart Communications and Warner Music Philippines. Its local job seeker base has grown rapidly from several thousands to more than 300,000.
Among JobStreet’s services that Wyeth heavily relies on is online job posting. "About 50 percent of our recruitmnent is done through JobStreet. The time you spend in the recruitment process should be short enough because there are so many companies out there looking for the best. We have to get them fast," said Sumpaico.
For a minimum fee of P5,000, companies can post their ads on JobStreet’s website where it will be exposed to thousands of professionals who visit the site everyday. Suitable candidates in JobStreet’s extensive database will also be notified instantly of the new job vacancies advertised through e-mail.
For maximum exposure, companies could also place banner ads and customize their job postings. JobStreet also provides an exclusive corporate recruitment page where all vacancies in one company appear only in one place.
"It’s slightly cheaper than placing ads in the newspapers. With Jobstreet, we are not constrained by the column inch billed by newspapers. We have more flexibility in describing the minimum requirements of the positions we would like to fill," Sumpaico said. "Let’s be realistic, one placement with JobStreet can save you oodles of money."