As South Africa prepares to celebrate Youth Day, a significant milestone in the nation’s history, Job Crystal, an online recruitment platform committed to empowering the youth of the country through contributing to hiring opportunities, facilitating quick hiring, and investing in targeted outreach initiatives.
Youth Day, observed annually on June 16th, commemorates the bravery and sacrifice of the youth of 1976 who fought against the oppressive apartheid regime. It serves as a reminder of the importance of youth empowerment and the need to create a bright future for the next generation.
With a deep understanding of the challenges faced by young job seekers in today’s competitive market and their vision of making a dent in unemployment, Job Crystal is dedicated to connecting the youth with suitable employment opportunities. Young people in South Africa are underemployed at far higher rates than older people on the job market. By the end of the first quarter of 2023, the underemployment rate was 6.3% for 15 – 24 years of age, and 5.2% for those aged 24 – 34. This is significantly higher than the national rate (4.9%).
Empowering business growth
Their platform is aimed at making the hiring process as quick and painless as possible. Crystal, the AI sourcing tool created by Job Crystal, automatically finds matches to a listed job description, drawing from a wide pool of active candidates (on the job market) and passive candidates (not actively seeking work). This saves companies, especially SMEs, not only time, but also money. This empowers employees to focus on growing their businesses, potentially leading to additional employment opportunities in the future.
“SMEs are a crucial to our economy, so by providing the tools to help them hire as efficiently as possible, we hope to contribute to creating job opportunities for the workforce of South Africa,” says Kelly Louw, COO of Job Crystal. “By taking on the challenge of limiting the time and budget constraints associated with finding great talent, we aim to empower businesses to focus on the uniquely human parts of building their team. That’s where the growth is.”
Empowering job seekers
Job Crystal is also focused on making the application process equally as painless for job seekers. They provide a platform for candidates to upload their CVs to an online database that not only suggests available roles based on the information in their CV, but also makes their CV available to the many businesses looking to hire via the platform.
A free salary benchmarking tool on the platform allows applicants to assess offered salaries to see if they match up to the national average, providing important knowledge to ensure that job seekers are able to negotiate a fair contract with their potential employer. They also try to eliminate one of the most frustrating parts of any job search – not hearing back about applications – by making sure every applicant receives an encouraging response, even if their application was not successful.
Empowering youth initiatives
Job Crystal is a proud supporter of The Kay Mason Foundation, an organisation that provides educational opportunities for promising leaders from disadvantaged communities. A portion of Job Crystal’s monthly profits is donated to the organisation, and the company is also focused on donating their time via mentorship programmes and other initiatives.
Sasha Knott, CEO of Job Crystal says, “the most impactful change comes from the right leadership, and that’s why we want to provide opportunities to future leaders. By partnering with The Kay Mason Foundation, our goal is to invest in amazing young people who will go out into the world and make waves. Education is such a vital tool for empowerment, so we’re passionate about investing into it as much as possible.”
Job Crystal’s CEO, Sasha Knott shares her top ways business owners can join in empowering South Africa’s working youth:
- Invest in education and skills development. Find a local organisation and invest your money and time. You may not be able to help every single young person in South Africa, but one more person helped is one more person more likely to succeed and make a difference.
- Promote entrepreneurship. Work with young entrepreneurs to build and develop their ideas. If you can, help them secure capital or provide networking opportunities with those who can. Provide mentorship on things like setting up business plans, finding legal counsel, seeking financial advice, and business management.
- Invest in growing industries. Know where the future of work is and invest in these sectors. Areas like renewable energy and communications/information technology are becoming vital and are sectors where there will likely be many job opportunities for roles that are still being invented.
- Address socioeconomic barriers. Assess whether there may be hiring bias in your processes and address it head-on. Provide internship and training programmes to bridge the gaps that there may be between disadvantaged and more privileged segments of the community. Equality benefits everyone in the long run.
- Provide flexible work opportunities. Some young people do not have the option to choose between having to work to support themselves and their tertiary studies. By offering flexible work opportunities, you provide future leaders an opportunity to support themselves while getting their vital education.
