Bureau of Local Employment with Kalibrr Concludes Successful Roundtable Discussion with E-recruitment Companies

Manila, PHILIPPINES – In lieu of a growing collaboration with the Bureau of Local Employment, Kalibrr, a recruitment tech company, recently hosted the BLE Roundtable Discussion last September 10, 2018 at Kickstart Ventures headquarters at 55 Paseo de Roxas, Makati. Opened by Kickstart’s Community Manager, Pia Angeli Bernal and Dexter Ligot-Gordon, COO of Kalibrr, attendees were welcomed to the founding home of the tech startup.

With the primary objective of developing alignment between the government and the online recruitment industry, the gathering is composed of BLE spokespersons and representatives from different e-recruitment companies including Kalibrr, Jobstreet, Careerhub, Jobs180, HalloHallo, ServeHappy, Mynimo, and Recruitday.

To set the agenda for the event, Dominique Rubia-Tutay, Director of the Bureau of Local Employment, gave a few remarks on how they see the collaboration will function. One, she wanted to break the stigma put on the department as a regulator and controlling authority.

“We are not here to regulate. We want to understand the industry,” she stated.

Her aim is to put out the image of a helping hand to make the industry flourish. According to her, there is a lot more room for fully understanding the technology of online recruitment platforms and she encourages the industry representatives to share their processes, methods, and plans for the employment scene in the Philippines. Aside from the development of the industry, a strong goal of the bureau is to protect the job seekers of the country by providing every individual with employment opportunities that are matched to their skills and she seeks the help of the businesses to achieve this feat.

The main program was divided into four parts. The first speaker was Atty. John Diana from the DOLE Legal Service. His presentation was focused on specific segments of the Labor Code of the Philippines that are applicable to the e-recruitment business. Although he encourages compliance in order to protect business interests, he echoed Rubia-Tutay’s statement that there is still much to learn about the new but continuously growing industry in order for the bureau to have a better grasp of how the government can cooperate.

The next presentation was from Gerardo L. Abordo, Information Technology Officer for BLE-MLIRCGAD. The discussion revolved around the Labor Market Information System which regularly provides statistical insights on the status of the employment market and touched on the different employment programs of the bureau such as PESO (Public Employment Service Office), DOLE Job Fairs, Jobstart Philippines, etc. He also introduced a new online-based applicant matching system called PhilJobNet, “which aims to fast track the jobseeker’s search for jobs and the employer’s search for manpower.”

For the third part, Precious Nicole Bugayong, Officer II of BLE-MLIRCGAD, presented a snapshot of the upcoming Jobsfit Report 2022. The objectives of this report are to update the lists of emerging industries including the corresponding skills requirements and to determine gaps and issues in the current labor market.

The last speaker was Christine R. Sevilla, Jobstreet’s Senior Manager for Special Projects, who presented the results of the Local Jobs Survey conducted by the company. The study focused on the work location preferences among Filipinos. It details the reasons why Filipinos choose to go abroad or stay in their locality for work opportunities.

Following the highly informative and insightful discussion, the event was concluded by Ruth R. Rodriguez, Division Chief of BLE-MLIRCGAD, with a take-home task for the e-recruitment representatives to share their data and knowledge on the employment status of the country in order to create a harmonized ecosystem between the government and the industry that would benefit both the employers and job seekers in the Philippines.