Hello-Rozgar: A Job Portal

In 2015, Polly was relauched in Pakistan and with a new service: Hello-Rozgar. Hello-Rozgar is a telephone-based portal for access to employment and skill-training opportunities. Employers, employees, trainers and trainees can register with Hello-Rozgar through its web or IVR interface. Registered users can post audio job ads; advertise skill training opportunities; listen and apply for job openings and vocational training vacancies.

The project's aim was to benefit people from under-served portions of the society (women, minorities, low-literate and/or belonging to geographically remote areas), by disseminating information to them about skill-training and employment opportunities; and to further benefit a subset of them via financial incentives in the form of vouchers for appropriate skill training programs.

Users interact with Hello Rozgar via missed calls i.e. they flash the phone number of Hello Rozgar and within a few minutes Hello Rozgar calls them back (hence subsidizing their air time cost). During the interaction it allows users to register themselves as either someone who is looking for a job (a potential employee), or as a person who wants to advertise job openings (a potential employer), or as a person looking for skill training opportunities (trainee). Users register with basic details like name, national ID card number, father's name, gender, age, profession/skills of interest, district and tehsil. Once registered, Hello Rozgar matches potential employers and employees based on profession and location. It then allows potential employees to apply against job vacancies. The details and of these applicants are then provided to the potential employers who can now contact them directly. In case of skill training opportunities, Hello Rozgar maintains a list of vocational training institutes run by TEVTA and PVTC throughout Pakistan and provides contact details of the relevant and closest training institutes to the users interested in skill training.

Over the last few months Hello-Rozgar has been called 63,000 times by more than 49,000 users. Currently, there are 2,600 registered employees, 407 registered trainees and 180 registered employers. Polly and Hello Rozgar are both currently live in Pakistan.

Real-time Automated Surveys among Low-literate Masses using Voice-based Telephone Services