The most innovative recruitment tactics used in Singapore

When JobStreet.com launched an updated mobile app which allowed applicants functionalities no other company was offering at the time, the firm saw more than 2 million downloads in two years.

This accomplishment helped it win gold for best recruitment innovation as an agency in the inaugural edition of the Asia Recruitment Awards, Singapore.

The silver at the ceremony was shared by Robert Walters Singapore and AYP Group, while Aryan Search landed the bronze, in a judging process spearheaded by foremost HR directors across Asia.

What JobStreet did in 2014 was introduce an advanced feature to its mobile application which allowed users to update their resume from their smartphones.

It also allowed candidates to receive "reviewed" and "job interview invite" notifications on the app, which inform them when their applications are reviewed by employers.

The new features didn't just accelerate the number of app downloads, but also ensured a gain in the number of active users as well as their usage duration.

Chook Yuh Yng, country manager of JobStreet.com Singapore, commented on the win: "We are very humbled by this recognition as it validates JobStreet.com’s continuous improvement to help more Singaporeans find jobs in a shorter amount of time through continuous innovation of its products and services."

"For example, we realised the increasing mobile adoption rate in Singapore and have made several enhancements to our mobile app to allow candidates to search, update resume and apply on-the-go."

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Another innovation witnessed by the judges was that of Robert Walters, which launched the "Balik Kampung" campaign in 2014 to reach out to overseas Singaporeans and inform them of the job opportunities back home.

At the core of this outreach programme, Robert Walters Singapore wanted to maintain constant contact with overseas Singaporeans via different communications channels.

Explained Toby Fowlston, managing director of Robert Walters Southeast Asia, "These contacts are the foundations of our efforts to build an overseas Singaporean database to keep in touch with talent who are potentially looking for a move back home."

"We aim to be the first touchpoint for overseas Singaporeans looking for a new career in Singapore, and match them to clients who are increasingly seeking local talents with global work experience and skill sets currently in shortage in the Singapore job market."

This mission is indeed becoming reality, as new overseas Singaporeans are being registered daily through regular communication, outreach, referrals and events, with more than 2,000 recipients, and counting, for the the quarterly e-newsletter.

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For AYP Group, innovation involved the development of a patent-pending technology, Smart Profiling Engin, aimed to reduce time taken by consultants to search for candidates, and improve the accuracy of the type of profiles consultants look for.

The resulting system uses smart technology to refine the search algorithm. For example, it ranks each candidate based on the number of keywords that appear on their resume.

Since the time the system was rolled out, the firm's candidate database has gone up by 30% in two years, along with a corresponding growth in social recruitment endeavours.

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Vikram Shervani, director of sales and recruitment at bronze-winner Aryan Search expressed his delight at the achievement.

"Being a young company, the recognition is fantastic. Our recent innovations have ultimately helped our clients massively reduce the cost to hire whilst improving performance, something that we are proud of in achieving," he explained.

The team at Aryan testified to using continued flexibility and adaptation to disrupt the industry with solutions that are meaningful, smart and suited to the markets it operates in.

Added Shervani, "It is tremendous to see our consultants' hard work and creativity pay off. We will continue 'recruiting for excellence'."

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