Navigating the job market at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic had been difficult that it even required both jobseekers and employers to adopt a different approach to job searching and hiring. Due to community quarantine restrictions, companies began to recognize the digital technology’s importance in hiring workers. On the other hand, jobseekers had also started migrating submission of their applications online after the pandemic upended the job search process.
The health crisis had become the tipping point that changed the way things were done. Since then, businesses and even government organizations had to play catch-up just to cope with the challenges. During the pandemic, the Public Employment Service Office has learned the importance of digital technology the hard way. It cannot facilitate job fairs and can barely do other employment facilitation services due to restrictions on mass gathering. While the PESO managed to innovate by holding off-site job fairs just to connect jobseekers to employers, it cannot deny the fact that digitalizing recruitment processes was already imperative.
In mid-2022, the PESO invested money and effort to develop a web-based recruitment portal that would allow job searching and hiring online. Almost a year later, PESO Jobs PH came into existence. By design, the job portal is not just for the jobseekers and employers that are based in Tacurong. With the digital job market transcending geographical boundaries, jobseekers and employers from around Region 12 and nearby regions can use and benefit from this innovative recruitment platform.
Exactly a year into the administration of Mayor Joseph George Lechonsito, the portal has finally been soft-launched. Our LGU PESO takes pride to have developed this first LGU-powered recruitment portal in Region 12 and we hope that this digital platform could be here for the long haul.
ALLAN S. FRENO
PESO Manager