The pandemic poses challenges to shift-based industries across Thailand. Worker demand has fluctuated, and business operations must cope with heightened COVID-19 restrictions. Workmate, a labour marketplace and workforce management platform, has proven successful in supporting employment needs for Thai businesses and workers alike during this time.
Since the pandemic, Workmate has matched close to 12,000 Thai workers to jobs, amounting to almost 450,000 workdays clocked. Many of the most vulnerable in society, especially those in the informal economy, have used Workmate to ease their hunt for more flexible work. Workmate is free to use for workers seeking employment.
Even before the pandemic, many sectors already faced worker supply shortages. Sourcing workers much further away from work locations—such as nearby provinces—is common, with daily coaches ferrying them between work and major bus stops. Finding available workers is more challenging under logistical limitations posed by the pandemic, especially for businesses that rely on their manpower to keep operations running smoothly.
A survey study carried out by ManpowerGroup finds that the transport and logistics sector had the highest growth rate in 2020, at 4.83%, owing to the thriving e-commerce perpetuated by the pandemic. The International Labour Organization also observed an increased demand for workers in distribution industries in Thailand. Logistics bottlenecks could be alleviated by workers rendered unemployed by other industries deeply impacted by the pandemic such as food and beverage (F&B) and hospitality.
Workmate’s hiring platform uses predictive matching to effectively connect businesses to a pool of available and pre-vetted workers. This gives businesses the ability to adjust workforce needs quickly while skipping the largely manual processes seen in traditional hiring.
“Digital transformation is key to getting accurate workforce data, especially in the most labour-reliant businesses where processes and data tend to be fragmented. Many of our clients saw COVID-19 accelerating the need to close these gaps, especially when it comes to hiring at scale.” Martin Sorensen, Workmate’s CEO in Thailand said. Workmate makes it easy to hire more in less time by providing direct access to a network of over 100,000 pre-vetted workers, complete with data on past performance ratings, historical attendance, proximity, and role-based skill scores. Applicants and jobs are AI-matched based on these data points. Ninety percent of jobs on Workmate are filled within four hours.
foodpanda benefitted from Workmate’s hiring solution when they launched pandamart last year in response to online grocery shopping’s growing demand due to the lockdown. Since its launch, foodpanda has partnered with Workmate to hire all its pickers for its 32 branches across Thailand. Bhavani Shanker Mishra, foodpanda’s Regional Director of Logistics (APAC) said, “Workmate was essential in the success of pandamart. It’s amazing how having the right data gets us more reliable workers quickly, allowing us to focus on a smooth and rapid expansion of this new vertical.”
RLC Recruitment Thailand, a full-service recruitment specialist and consultancy has partnered with Workmate since last year, allowing their clients with a large shift-based workforce to enhance their hiring capabilities. Richard Jackson, Executive Director and co-founder of RLC Recruitment Thailand adds, “We’ve seen many clients urgently seeking robust hiring solutions, especially in industries such as manufacturing and logistics that demand more flexible, on-demand workers due to the pandemic. Workmate’s technology responds directly to this need and equips our clients with the right tools to succeed.”
As the pandemic continues to take a toll on Thailand’s economy, active collaboration from all sectors is essential to help Thailand get through the crisis. Workmate has extended its hiring technology to the greater community. Businesses can now post a job for free on its platform and utilise its smart matching tools. This initiative is a step towards giving local workers better access to suitable jobs and fulfilling work, especially during these challenging times.
About Workmate
Workmate is a leading end-to-end workforce management platform on a mission to organise the informal workforce in Southeast Asia. It is making a difference in the shift-based workforce by building intelligent tools that simplify workforce management from recruitment to operations, helping companies achieve greater workforce productivity, while giving the region’s blue-collar workforce greater and fairer access to jobs. Workmate has raised over US$13 million to date and is headquartered in Singapore, with offices in Thailand and Indonesia. They have served over 200 enterprise clients across logistics, F&B and hospitality sectors, and provides 1.5 million hours worth of work to workers each month.
Source: Moonshot Digital
