Recruitment agency eases overseas job application with new SMS service

Filipino workers will experience greater ease and convenience when applying for overseas jobs with JS Contractor Inc. 

The multi-awarded agency, which has deployed over 100,000 Filipino skilled and professional workers since 1977, has launched the JSCON SMS service, allowing job applicants nationwide to better access its services.

With JSCON SMS, the company has become the country’s first land-based recruitment agency to apply SMS as a customer service tool. 

"We want our applicants to easily access us through their mobile phones. It’s the easiest way for us to reach them and for them to reach us," says Mary Jean Borra, JS Contractor president.

To register, job applicants can key in ON JSCON and send to 2800 for Globe and Touch Mobile, 216 for Smart and Talk n’ Text, and 2288 for Sun subscribers. The applicant will be provided a valid registration ID. 

JSCON SMS-registered applicants will regularly receive updates on job openings and interview schedules through personal alerts. 

The applicant can also make a simple job search or even specify a country, monitor his or her application status or send queries or ask for help on his or her application.

Borra cites many advantages for the thousands of jobseekers in dealing with the 28-year-old overseas recruitment company. 

While the SMS service is its latest innovation, JS Contractor has worked over the years to provide professional overseas human resource services with the use of technology.

The company was the first overseas recruitment agency to utilize the Interactive Recruitment Information System (IRIS), a comprehensive online recruitment information system designed for it to easily monitor the employer and applicant’s recruitment process. 

"The employer can view our data pool and submit its manpower requirements from anywhere, anytime. Applicants, in turn, may also view their recruitment status from the time of selection up to their deployment," explains Borra.

The system bridges the time difference between the employers and JS Contractor as well. 

JS Contractor views the online database, assesses candidates and shortlists them for the client’s evaluation. Communication between the company and the clients has much improved.

"We are also able to view and check the balance of visas sent to our office. The system really improves online collaboration and cooperation among our staff and departments. We get a real-time update on the process undergone by selected workers," she adds.

IRIS has so simplified company operations that Borra estimated actual recruitment costs to have gone down by as much as 60 percent. Applicants are never charged placement fees.   

Job applications are accepted online for free at www.jscon.com.ph. The system also allows the applicants to update their applications if they wish. In turn, JS Contractor can easier match them to genuine job orders where they are best qualified.

"From two months’ job application processing, it now only takes an average of three weeks to complete the whole recruitment process," she says.

JS Contractor office in Intramuros, Manila is a Wi-Fi Internet zone and also houses 24/7 videoconferencing facilities for clients abroad to easily interview job applicants. It has branch offices in Davao, Cebu and Kalibo, Aklan.

The company has deployed about 1,100 workers to Canada, the Caribbean, China and the Middle East in the first half of the year alone. It hopes to recruit even more qualified skilled workers for the construction, oil and gas, telecommunications, automotive and for hotel and service-oriented industries.