Almost each and every Egyptian citizen's career is now affected directly or indirectly by BasharSoft, the parent company behind WUZZUF and FORASNA.
I've had an amazing experience with the job site WUZZUF as an employer and also as a job seeker. Even in my voice speech, while announcing to be running for the head of the association of the Egyptian engineers,
I've highlighted WUZZUF specifically, but indirectly, as a success story that we need to partner with in order to help the engineers to effectively find jobs:
Accordingly, I would like to share a couple of suggestions regarding WUZZUF, the startup that truly enjoys extremely talented leadership & team members.
1- The Business Model:
Zillions of job sites are just like WUZZUF. Employers pay them to publish job vacancies on their portals (that's usually the main revenue stream), job seekers submit applications, and the hiring decision is made.
The platform may or may not generate revenues from other sources such as placing paid ads or supporting the employer's recruitment team to approach qualified candidates from the database.
In my humble opinion, this outdated business model MUST change. Not only because employers spend zillions of hours filtering applications, screening profiles, etc, but also because talented calibers could be found elsewhere as they're not necessarily looking for a job, actively.
Is allocating resources to such a strategic path and a business model - is it sustainable? Aren't there much more severe challenges that WUZZUF can address and make a profit out of solving them?
In 2014, Inc.com published an interesting piece titled "
Meet the Next Generation of Job Search Sites". For example, the San Francisco-based Hired.com, which lets tech talent auction themselves to prospective employers, received $15 million in funding. Facebook and Twitter have signed on.
What is the #1 issue or concern for any employer?
It is, simply, to validate the experience, attitude, and quality of candidates.
Many job seekers claim they did so and so, but it is painful for recruiters to validate and do reference checks let alone ensuring cultural fit. Such a process causes a headache of expenses, lengthy in-office interviews, etc in a city like Cairo with its traffic jam.
So, I suggest WUZZUF to create a portal like Upwork.com; a transparent marketplace for both job seekers and employers.
More about Upwork here:
So, imagine a startup in Cairo that can reach out to hire a talented female software engineer or accountant from Aswan. Using a portal like Upwork, she can get paid instantly using verified payment methods (Fawry, Visa, Vodafone Cash, etc).
This will break the monopoly in Cairo but most importantly will make the job competition much healthier across the entire country because a transparent and open marketplace for talents is finally there.
WUZZUF can earn 10% to 30% out of each and every transaction (Upwork starts with 20%) capitalizing on its own escrow feature that protects everyone's financial rights effectively.
This percentage will be in USD when enabling platform access to companies in the US and the Gulf who are seeking to hire talents from Egypt. For example, imagine a US-based company that wants to hire a recruitment specialist to shortlist few candidates before management visits Egypt to sign the office renting contract or a Saudi businessman who wants to hire a talented Egyptian architect for his new office design - opportunities are unlimited as I've seen such requests on Upwork already.
From my own point of view, such revenue stream will be much higher, and more sustainable compared to the current revenue stream out of employers paying WUZZUF to just post jobs on a monthly or yearly basis.
Is it the best decision to hire tens of call center agents?
It is publicly known that tens of call center agents are working for BasharSoft (WUZZUF & FORASNA) just to help potential job seekers to join the platform and complete their profile.
I fully understand the nobility behind such decision and the eagerness to get more and more qualified job seekers, but what about replacing call center agents with career counseling coaches who can effectively help job seekers to unlock their potential, realize their capabilities, update their CVs, and then, at the final stage, create a profile on on WUZZUF or FORASNA to find a suitable job.
I guess the ROI will be much higher as WUZZUF can easily start selling career counseling services to job seekers. Such much-needed career counseling service can easily generate a sustainable stream of revenues for WUZZUF.
- The New Join Now (Registration) Page:
1- Why to join?
Part of my campaign activities for the head of the syndicate of the Egyptian engineers is to help job seekers. I was shocked to find some young engineers in some governorates who do not know WUZZUF and even its competitors!
Below clearly explains why this happens while WUZZUF keeps investing in branding and advertising.
Simply, join now page, doesn't list any tangible benefit for joining the platform. Yes.
It says: "Creating a Wuzzuf profile will help you get alerts for the best jobs, search for Jobs using advanced filters, add your CV and be seen by the top employers".
It would be better to say something like this instead:
"
Join to create a profile on WUZZUF:
One million job seekers
15,000 employers can contact you directly before announcing a vacancy
Hundreds of daily new jobs
Opt-in to receive weekly relevant jobs
"
2- The absence of unified terminologies/branding:
