Bayt.com to launch first pan-regional Virtual Job Fair in Middle East recruitment drive
March 16, 2009
Bayt.com, the Middle East’s number one job site, announced today that it will be hosting a pan-regional Virtual Job Fair (VJF), in a region-wide drive to address the Middle East’s growing levels of unemployment. The VJF, which will be operational on the Bayt.com website, will run for five days between March 22nd and 26th 2009 and will offer both employers and job seekers from across the entire Middle East a convenient and hassle-free opportunity to interact.
The pan-regional VJF is the fifth online job fair organized and run by Bayt.com, and follows from highly successful versions over the past year including in the UAE, Jordan and KSA. A total of 99,000 job seekers have participated in the previous four Virtual Job Fairs.
Sponsored by the Qatar Foundation, the organization leading Qatar’s drive to become a knowledge-based society through education and learning, and in conjunction with media partner The Peninsula and Al Sharq; the pan-regional VJF will focus on effectively connecting qualified job seekers with the best-fit career opportunities around the Middle East region.
Candidates will have the easy and unique option to ‘attend’ the job fair from any Internet-accessible computer and submit their résumés to participating companies of interest at all times, while enabling local, regional and international employers to establish an active and highly effective talent-seeking presence, without physically being in a location.
As in previous VJF events, animated 3D “virtual booths” will be set up for the participating employers on the website, and each booth will, as in a physical job fair, be branded with the exhibitors’ names and logos and will provide access to a range of information about the company, including its corporate culture, objectives and recruitment practices.
Visitors to the Bayt.com Virtual Job Fair will also benefit from a CV drop option for job seekers to directly submit their résumé to the booths of their choice and directly apply for advertised jobs; and an option for employers and job seekers to interact in real time via online or video chat. A series of links will enable job seekers to connect to a directory of current vacancies in a particular company, avoiding the hassle of having to search through multitudes of job postings.
“At Bayt.com we are committed to developing innovative methods and continually facilitating the process for employers to actively find, interact with, and recruit relevant job seekers; and for job seekers to easily research the newest and most exciting vacancies from some of the best employers in the Middle East,” commented Bayt.com’s Regional Manager, Amer Zureikat.
“During these challenging economic times with the ever-rising numbers of highly qualified unemployed professionals, events like our fifth Virtual Job Fair take on added significance. Online recruitment has for some time now had a fundamental role to play in the way that companies recruit their staff in the region, and in hosting this fair, we hope to boost the speed, efficiency and scale with which job seekers find work, and employees fill their talent gaps – to ensure a brighter future for all stakeholders in the region,” added Zureikat.
The Virtual Job Fair offers a variety of significant advantages to job seekers and employers alike. The VJF saves the time off work and travel and logistical costs associated with visiting physical job fairs, while providing professionals complete confidentiality and the convenience of participating in the job fair from the comfort of their home or office.
Employers can save themselves travel and accommodation costs as well as the costs of stand building and maintenance involved at physical job fairs – allowing for savings of more than 50%. Moreover, following the event; employers have the option to immediately measure the success of the Bayt.com Virtual Job Fair for their organization, with advanced and accurate reporting tools.
The Qatar Foundation Spokesperson commented “By launching the Pan Regional Virtual Job Fair, Bayt.com once again is reconfirming its position as one of the most pioneering online recruitment jobsite across the Middle East. Such an innovative and creative event offers a fast, easy and cost effective dialogue between job seekers and employers. We at Qatar Foundation highly appreciate Bayt.com’s dedication and are looking forward to taking part in such a promising event”.
Also participating at the event are Rawabi Holding Company, Mobily and Arabian Trading Supplies as Platinum participants; Tasweeq - Qatar as a Gold participant; and NBC, Zamil Holding Company, Veolia Water Solutions and Technologies, Management Solutions International, Esense, Said Al Ghurair, Menaitech, Olympic Group, Qatar Holding and BDO National Brothers as Silver participants.
“At The Peninsula and Al Sharq we remain committed to supporting innovative initiatives that benefit our readership and the general community alike. The Bayt.com Virtual Job Fair is a pioneering online event that is changing the regional recruitment landscape and promoting employment across sectors and career levels, and we are proud to be one of the main driving forces supporting this ambitious and highly commendable initiative,’’ stated Mohamed Helmi, Advertising Manager, The Peninsula and Al Sharq.
The VJF has been extremely popular with many employers at the forefront of the recruitment industry, who can see the benefits and importance of state-of-the-art employer branding activities and are prepared to tap into the most advanced technologies to harness the power of the web to interact with top talent on a real-time basis and hire the region’s best.
For more information and to find out how to participate in Bayt.com’s pan-regional Virtual Job Fair log on to www.bayt.com and click on the Virtual Job Fair banner/button.