Blog: Thank You, Dr Virendra Kumarji

Context :

Centre preparing to launch unique employment exchange for senior citizens / Eco Times / 28 Aug 2021

Extract :

Ø Senior citizens looking for jobs will soon have a platform to reach out to potential employers, as the Centre is preparing to launch a unique employment exchange for the purpose.

> The employment exchange, tentatively named SACRED, acronym for

Senior Able Citizens for Re-Employment in Dignity, will start off as a

facilitatory web portal, as per plans drawn up by the social

justice and empowerment ministry.

Ø Taking a cue from the gig economy model, the portal will allow for various work models :

# Full Time # Part Time # Freelance # Probono option

Ø In inter-ministerial meetings held so far, it has been agreed that retired persons from,

# Armed Forces # Reserve Bank of India # Nationalized Banks # Public

Sector Undertakings

# State and Central Government Officials,

- could be among the first set of Senior Citizens to be re-engaged given the special set of skills and experience they bring

Ø Short term employment, teaching and counseling jobs have been identified among ways to productively engage senior citizens to mutual benefit

Ø Industry bodies – CII, Assocham and FICCI – are likely to be mobilized to coordinate and create a narrative on the benefits for institutions in hiring Senior Citizen

Ø Besides, it has been proposed that State Governments serve as possible employers for skilled Senior Citizen, given the huge backlog of vacancies they have across departments

To reach out to Senior Citizens to rejoin the workforce, it is proposed that NON-

GOVERNMENTAL organizations working in the field, be mobilized

MY TAKE :

Dear Dr Virendra Kumarji

[ Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment / officesjem@gmail.com ]

Many thanks for this initiative which brings hope for income to approx. 150 million Indian citizen above the age of 60 . By 2026, this figure is expected to reach 173 million.

Though some of them might still be working ( eg: farm workers / self-employed / manual labourers / domestic servants / street vendors etc ), there could be, as many as 50 million who might benefit from use of SACRED portal

( source : Senior Citizens - status in India )

Most sought after would be retired Engineers – Doctors – Lawyers – Accountants – Teachers – Professors – Scientists – Software Professionals - Business Managers – Sales & Marketing Executives – Finance Managers – Production Managers – Design Experts - Judges etc. This list is merely representative and not comprehensive

From the very short list of SOURCES mentioned in the news-report, it seems that such RETIREES would have worked in Organized Sector before retiring

SACRED would act as a “ Match-maker “ platform, based on :

Ø Skills / Expertise acquired by these retired persons during their careers , and

Ø Shortage of younger persons possessing such skills ( as against their market-demand )

All existing job-portals ( eg : Naukri – MonsterIndia – TimesJobs etc ), carry out such “ Matchmaking “ routinely, by getting their software to compare :

Ø Skill-related keywords and other data contained in the RESUMES of the jobseekers , with

Ø “ Man-specifications / Job Descriptions “ contained in JOB-ADVTS ( vacancies ) posted by Employers

[ Some of these job-portals even send out suitable job-alerts on the mobiles of the jobseekers ]

Except that , only rarely :

Ø Any employer / recruiter, posts jobs on these portals for “ Retired “ persons

Ø Any 60+ years old, registers (submits his resume) on these portals ( no hope anyone would search ! )

Of course, for the Design Team of SACRED, to “ copy “ ( for benefit of the retirees ), the matchmaking process of traditional job-portals, is a simple and straight forward process

I urge you to resist the temptation of such a COPY-CAT following of existing job-portals .

It will amount to RE-INVENTING the WHEEL !

While designing SACRED, it is worth remembering that most of the retired professionals would want to :

# Work part-time

# Work from home ( to avoid travelling through dense traffic and spend many

hours on the road )

# Work flexi-hours ( time of the day/number of hours per day or per week etc )

# Work on short-term projects ( no long-term commitment due to limitations of

advancing age )

Following is my suggestion for SACRED platform :

# As with current job-portals, it will require retired professionals to submit a

detailed RESUME

# Besides standard PERSONAL data (+ contact details ), the resume will have

greater emphasis on CAREER /EXPERIENCE HISTORY,

, providing details of each Company/Organization served – Duration – Salary

drawn –Designation / Title held – Functional Responsibility – No of employees

supervised etc

# Employers ( Recruiters ) too, would register and provide Company details, but

there will be no Job-Posting

# Employers would have facility of “ Resume Search / Shortlisting “ and sending

e-mails to targeted retired persons, explaining the nature of assignment /

desired completion target / compensation etc

# SACRED platform would provide ONLINE VIDEO DISCUSSION /

CONSULTATIONS between a retired professional and ( one or more ) Company

executives ( quite like ZOOM – Google Meet etc )

# Platform would also have facility to enable Company to make online payment (

of agreed fees ), to the retired person

# Platform would enable such online consultations in VIRTUAL CABINS

# Platform will “ assign “ a specific Virtual Cabin to a Company ( with scheduling

/ cabin booking process )

# On SACRED platform, there will be no limit to the number of Virtual Cabins

that can be generated. Upon request, more than one VIRTUAL CABIN can be

assigned to any one Employer. Platform will support thousands of

consultations, simultaneously

# Platform would charge a small ( token ) fee to the Employer Company, linked

to its online usage of Virtual Cabins ( hourly rate )

# This CONCEPT is explained in great details at :

Ø Visual Analytical Resumes ……………………………………[ 02 July 2013 ]

Ø ONLINE JOBS FAIR …………………………………………… [ 11 Feb 2016 ]

Ø Software Architecture For Online Jobs Fair…… [ 29 Mar 2018 ]

Ø Will Chatbots take away Jobs ? …………………………………[ 24 June 2017 ]

# It would be quite easy to “ adapt / modify “ the basic architecture of SACRED

platform to enable retired professionals to earn income by offering their

CONSULTANCY SERVICES online, in following areas :

[ A ] Health-Care ( Psycho-Therapy Consultations / Counseling )

Share - Your - Soul / Outsourcing Unlimited………….[ 24 July 2016 ]

[ B ] Judiciary ( Virtual Courts )

Justice delayed is Justice Denied ……………………………[ 12 Sept 2018 ]

[ C ] Tourism

Future of Tourism ? …………………………………………………[ 22 July 2020 ]

Dear Dr Kumarji,

If SACRED design team needs any clarifications ( with respect to my suggestion ), I will be happy to help

With Regards,

Hemen Parekh / hcp@RecruitGuru.com / 29 Aug 2021

National Career Service Portal ………………………………..[ 21 July 2015 ]

2016 ( 2 )

TOWARDS A NATIONAL JOB PORTAL ? …………………..[ 07 Feb 2016 ]

How About Virtual Call Centers ?..........................[ 04 Oct 2016 ]

2017 ( 3 )

Idea whose time has come ? ……………………………………..[ 16 Feb 2017 ]

Wormholes Across the World ? …………………………………..[ 03 Mar 2017 ]

National Jobs Policy : Treasure Hunt ………………………… [ 15 Dec 2017 ]

2018 ( 3 )

Recruiters threatened by AI ?................................. [ 31 Mar 2018 ]

Video Interviewing ……………………………………………………….[ 12 May 2018 ]

Job Description : an Obsolete Document ? …………………[ 20 June 2018 ]

2020 ( 4 )

Consortium of Indian Job Portals : a First Step…………. [ 04 Aug 2020 ]

Pandemic inspired Placement Process ? ……………………..[ 20 Aug 2020 ]

Promises vs Practices …………………………………………………..[ 08 Nov 2020 ]

IT Outsourcing : a Silver lining ?...............................[ 11 Nov 2020 ]

2021 ( 5 )

“ Distributist “ Economy ?....................................... [ 05 Jan 2021 ]

One Person Company[OPC]–A welcome FIRST step…….[ 15 Feb 2021 ]

Saturday, 28 August 2021

Thank You, Dr Virendra Kumarji