The ‘On-Demand economy’ has definitely been a game changer in today’s fast paced environment and it is here to stay! Online medium is no longer restricted to shopping, mobile recharge, travel, etc. but it has many more dimensions. In fact, it acts an effective medium to reduce the demand-supply gap.
Blue Collar Recruitment : Bridging demand-supply gap
For skilled jobs, portals like Elance, Fiverr, etc. act as marketplaces that help to fill the Demand -Supply gap but Unskilled/Semi-skilled workers (blue-collar workers) like drivers, cooks, cleaners, delivery boys, etc. have to still rely on their acquaintances when they are looking out for a job. If they do not have any reference, they need to rely on agents who take huge amount of commission from them. Though the blue-collar job market is highly unorganized, driven by the urbanization coupled with growing internet penetration, huge market size & fragmented demand-supply, many startups are solving the problem of connecting skilled low-skilled workers with potential employers.
Industry estimates put the demand for blue-collar and entry-level white-collar jobs at 20 crore a year, and the market at USD 15 billion [Source]. Apart from the demand-supply gap, a shorter lead time is also required to identify potential employee for an employer e.g. There is a huge demand for part-time delivery boys during the Big Billion Days, Amazon Great Indian Festival Sale,etc. and any delay in on-boarding or shortlisting potential candidates could have significant business impact [Source].
Though vertical job sites e.g. Quikr Jobs, Naukri,etc. are trying to solve this problem, there are startups solely focused to simplify Job search for blue-collar job seekers. Today, we have a look at Galijob [‘Gali’ means ‘Lane’ in Hindi] that can help potential job seekers find a job in 24 hours.
GaliJob – Job marketplace for entry level & blue-collar job seekers
Galijob is a mobile-first (and mobile-only) marketplace for entry level and blue-collar job seekers. It is loosely based on a tinder-like matching service where the job seeker can get a job in 24 hours and likewise the employer can get potential candidate in the same time period!
For job seekers – Job seekers can create a profile on Galijob at the tap of a button and apply for a job in minutes. In order to maintain the 24 hours promise, Galijob ensures that the candidate receives a response within that time frame else application gets withdrawn from the employer’s list of candidate profiles. They encourage employers to be proactive and adhere the 24 hour deadline which ensures they stay at the top of Galijob’s preferred list of employers & receive good ratings. Once the profile is shortlisted by an employer, the candidate can call/chat with the employer in order to get further details about the position.
For employers – Similar to a job seeker, an employer needs to just post his requirement along with the location on Galijob. Once the requirement is posted, he can check the list of potential candidates on the platform & arrange for the next steps of recruitment. Galijob encourages shortlisted candidates with a positive rating to turn up for interviews which ensures they are always at the top of rating table and receive call from many potential employers. The concept of Rating ensures transparency in the entire recruitment process!
While reviewing the app, we browsed through the list of candidates (as a guest and with location turned on) and the results were accurate (shown in ascending order of distance). Since messaging has become so prominent, Galijob also supports Chat where potential job seekers can have a one-to-one chat with employers on the platform.
To summarize, the key features of Galijob are free job listing, One-click apply, Hassle free process, transparent rating policy, advanced semantic search to find what you are looking for and secure chat.
GaliJob – App Review
The app is currently available on the Play Store and on installation it takes around 14 MB of storage. Memory footprint is very critical for an app that caters to a market segment that might have Android phones with less internal storage (and many of them might not be using an external SD Card).
Though the app supports 5 regional languages along with English, it still is not 100% regional since the job description still appears in English. Once the language is selected, user needs to categorize himself as Job Seeker or Employer. There is also a guest mode which is like a read-only mode. Profile creation as a job seeker/employer takes only few minutes and once profile creation is complete, a job candidate would be shown with relevant recommendations based on his expertise & area of residence. We tried couple of searches in Whitefield area and results were favourable though results might vary based on locality.
The design of the Galijob app is simple and creation of profile on the platform is very easy! For reviewing the app, we did a chat with couple of candidates and the chat worked without any issue. Job seekers & employers can also do a search filtered by pin-code which comes in very handy while selecting a candidate.
GaliJob – Team, Competition and more
Galijob is founded by Ajay Anandteertha & Saurabh Saha and their startup is mentored by DAIICT Incubation. In terms of competition, Galijob competes with the likes of Babajob, Aasaan Jobs that are also horizontal-marketplaces for blue-collar recruitment. There are also vertical job sites like Quikr jobs addressing the same problem. It is currently bootstrapped. Galijob is currently operational only in Bengaluru and has received recognition from the Karnataka government for their unique initiative.
Conclusion
Currently only 49 percent of Indians own mobile phones and the data penetration is only 21 percent. However reducing prices of data, wider adoption of 4G [particularly Jio] and the push for Digital India can result in wider smart-phone adoption. Galijob follows App-Only approach, a strategy which was not well received by the users of Flipkart and Myntra [Source], though the model of app-only market place for blue-collar recruitment is already proven by the likes of Cornerjob, JobToday.
Though there is a huge difference between app-only for e-commerce vis-a-vis app-only for job marketplace, only time can tell whether India is ready for an app-only mobile marketplace! If you are an employer looking to hire the best talent in your industry, do give Galijob a try and share your feedback in the comments section…