MoHRE wins Ideas UK Award for Virtual Labor Market Platform

The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MoHRE) has won the Ideas UK Award 2020 for its Virtual Labor Market Platform in the category ‘Innovation in Crises’, which has recently been announced.

The decision taken by a committee of international jury members to grant the award to the ‘Virtual Labor Market Platform’ (VLMP) was based on the fact that the VLMP was the best innovative idea proposed locally and internationally in the crisis management and confrontation theme, said Aisha Mohamed Belharfia, Assistant Undersecretary for Labour Affairs at MoHRE. The VLMP offered clear positive solutions to face the recruitment challenge during the COVID-19 pandemic and achieved unique results that enhanced the flexibility and stability of the UAE labor market, she added.

Belharfia pointed out that the VLMP is an initiative launched by the MoHRE as part of the ‘national program to support the stability of the labor market.’ The platform enhances the mobility flexibility and reducing the operational burdens in the establishments that have a surplus in the number of expatriate workers through recording the data of these workers in the website careers.mohre.gov.ae, she added. These workers would be employed in other firms and this would support the labor market’s needs for domestic workers due to the suspended recruitment of overseas workers as a result of the UAE precautionary measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, she said.

The VLMP enables companies to conduct remote job interviews via an innovative video program that also allows them to enter notes and candidate evaluation points instantly, thereby supporting physical distancing measures, she added.

It also enables companies to communicate directly with those registered on the platform and the recruitment teams and to send messages to them without the need to use the company’s e-mail. In addition, the VLMP enables a new dashboard to be designed to display the details of the recruitment process and the performance of companies’ recruitment teams. This enables employers and managers to take an integrated picture of the recruitment process.

The VLMP allows expatriates interested in registering in it to upload a short 30-second video to highlight their strengths including their various job experiences, thereby increasing their employment opportunities.

Meanwhile, Ayoub Al Marzouqi, Chief Innovation Officer at MoHRE, said the MoHRE obtaining the international award concerned with documenting innovative practices reflects its success in implementing policies and programs aimed at promoting the use of modern technology  and digital transformation for providing services in line with the directives of the UAE wise leadership and the relevant UAE Vision.

The MoHRE relies on the innovation methodology and the application of a package of creative solutions and ideas to face the various challenges, he said. This reflected positively on the MoHRE’s services and procedures, which are in line with the best international systems and standards, created a distinguished and facilitated experience for customers and contributed to the stability of the labor market, he added.

The Ideas UK Award is an international award concerned with documenting innovative ideas and rating innovative foundations worldwide based on clear global standards with a view to firmly establishing the innovation system in the areas of corporate work and performance improvement.