Pudong helping firms as city goes online

The novel coronavirus outbreak has prompted Chinese people to live a “digital” life — studying online, working online and making purchases online. As business recovers, the Pudong New Area has launched a platform enabling online recruitment, officials told a meeting on Wednesday.

The platform allows employers to advertise vacancies and recruitment requirements, and users can look for jobs and send out resumes. Replacing job fairs, the platform reduces the possibility of cross-infection and increases efficiency, according to Pudong’s Human Resources and Social Security Bureau.

At the meeting, Alibaba's fresh food and grocery market FreshHippo used the platform to publish ads, hoping to recruit 500 deliverymen. It took less than a minute to register on the platform and fill out the requirements.

Pudong-based Shanghai C&G Safety Co has also received help from the bureau to find workers.

The company was designated by the State Council to supply protective outfits to Hubei Province. However, due to the Spring Festival holiday, it only had nine workers on the production line at first, said Yu Bo, operating vice president of the company.

“The bureau has worked hard to seek workers from communities and through online recruitment, and they have done the job interviews to ensure qualified workers,” Yu said. So far, the company has recruited 78 workers.

“Now, we still lack workers to do sewing and packaging work. And the bureau is still offering help,” she said.

Also at the meeting, a new “shared staff” platform was launched.

During the epidemic, many brick-and-mortar stores suspended operations, especially restaurants, and their staff had no work to do. At the same time, e-commerce platforms were witnessing a surge in business, and needed more staff.

Companies needing staff or whose workers are idle can turn to the platfom for help. They fill in their industries, locations and requirements, and the bureau will help them find suitable staff. 

The bureau has helped Pudong-based online grocery shopping platform Dingdong to find workers through online recruitment. And it is considering the “shared staff” platform to solve its labor shortage.

So far, Dingdong has taken in more than 1,000 employees from over 10 restaurants to do sorting and packaging work.

“Due to the Spring Festival and the epidemic, we can’t find workers at job fairs. So we decided to work with other businesses,” said Dingdong’s Chen Ying. “Like Dingdong, restaurants also deal with fresh food. So, it’s easy for their workers to work for us.”

Chen added: “As restaurants are recovering, some of the shared workers have returned to their original positions.”

The bureau has also released a set of favorable policies to support local companies through hard times.

So far, four loans, worth 9 million yuan, have been granted to small and middle-sized companies in Pudong hit by the epidemic. And 2,574 startups and technology companies have given rent reductions.