Local firm joins thousands of LinkedIn competitors

Staff in an office setting. Kenyan based firm Fuzu has launched an online recruitment platform that will tap into the informal sector connecting them with formal employment. FILE PHOTO 

In Summary

• There will be considerations on skills, experience and talent, potential employees will also go through further trainings to make them market ready.
• A new report by the United Nations’ Economic Commission for Africa ranks Kenya as the country with the highest number of informal sector employment in Africa at 77.9 per cent.
• The site was launched simultaneously in Kenya and Finland with plans to move to Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi as it widens its footprints to the rest of the world.

By LILIAN OCHIENG
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Kenya based firm Fuzu has launched an online recruitment platform that will tap into the informal sector connecting them with formal employment.

The platform whose hub is Kenya, competes with LinkedIn and will offer diverse services with no bias on education, meaning that there will be considerations on skills, experience and talent.

“Candidates will go through a thorough analysis, a candidate who for instance has a high school certificate and has worked as a sales person for over seven years based on talent stands a 90 per cent chance of bringing out great results in a company,” said Fuzu CEO Jussi Hinkkanen.

LinkedIn faces growing competition from players ranging from -Facebook for business- to small and specialised start-ups carrying names like LinkedIn for teachers, LinkedIn for doctors and the like.

Employers will also have the chance to investigate individuals online and launch recruitment campaigns. Those eligible for employment will be connected to mentorship, couching, verbal reasoning test and English language test.

Though the site cuts across all kinds of skills and employers, it will be the first to keenly consider talent and experience in connecting employees to employers.

INFORMAL SECTOR

A new report by the United Nations’ Economic Commission for Africa ranks Kenya as the country with the highest number of informal sector employment in Africa at 77.9 per cent.

The study attributes the high level of informal sector workers to inability of the formal sector to absorb the huge number of job seekers.

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Fuzu is banking on the sector to grow its usage in the country. The site was launched simultaneously in Kenya and Finland with plans to move to Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi as it widens its footprints to the rest of the world.

Already, KONE Kenya, Craft Silicon, Techno Brain, Chase Bank, Equity Bank and M-Kopa are enrolled onto the platform.

Kenyans living abroad will also benefit from the recruitment site since they will scout for jobs in Kenya as they make plans to relocate.

Fuzu now join local recruitment firms Duma Works and Net Consult. However, the new entrant thoroughly profiles job seekers allowing no chance for upload of CVs.