Asia’s first temp job-matching mobile platform has been launched in Hong Kong by a Canadian start-up.

22 May 2015

JOBDOH founders Mary Cheung (left), Xania Wong (second right), and Eric Fong (far right) with mentor Lewis Wong, show what it takes to launch a start-up

The high turnover and seasonal nature of the temporary job market can often lead to gaps in supply and demand for workers. A Hong Kong-Canadian start-up seeks to address that by creating a mobile platform that seamlessly connects job openings with casual workers.

JOBDOH was started by three young Canadian entrepreneurs – Mary Cheung, Xania Wong and Eric Fong – who met at a Chinese University of Hong Kong-Google Empowering Young Entrepreneurs (EYE) Programme in February 2014. When the programme ended in September, “we made our business plan, handed it in, applied for funding, then got into the finals of the Google Eye programme and won,” said Hong Kong-born Mary Cheung, who spent two years in Shenzhen and Shanghai before deciding to return to Hong Kong.

Tech Efficient

JOBDOH’s mobile platform seamlessly connects casual workers with temporary-job openings

Ms Cheung said her business partner, Xania Wong, a former Morgan Stanley banker, who also dabbled in the wine business, came up with the idea after seeing problems with the hiring process in the F&B system, where 30 per cent of the workforce is temporary staff.

“Xania observed that companies that hire seasonal workers rely on a system that’s very inefficient and unreliable. She thought that technology could help make the system more efficient,” said Ms Cheung. The company came up with an algorithm for a highly efficient matching system.

With Ms Cheung, whose background is in architecture and branding, and Eric Fong, who has seven years of full stack experience with Microsoft, JOBDOH was launched in 2014.

As one of six finalists, JOBDOH received two rounds of funding from Hong Kong Cyberport – HK$100,000 from the Creative Micro Fund (CMF), and an additional HK$300,000 from the incubation programme in December.

“It all came together; we registered our business the day after we received our first round of funding from CMF, so that was encouraging for us,” said Ms Cheung.

Silicon Valley Experience

As a prize for winning the Google EYE Programme, the JOBDOH founders were flown to Google headquarters in Silicon Valley, where they met San Francisco start-ups, which Ms Cheung said “had great learnings. We met many nice people, who were happy to share with us how to improve our pitch, talk to investors, and how to make products better.”

After four months of “many long hours,” Jobdoh’s mobile platform (beta) launched in November 2014.

Job is Here

The company’s name is based on the Cantonese word for “here” or “to arrive,” which is pronounced “doh.” Hence its name reflects the company’s goal of matching job applicants with employers offering seasonal work.

“We did some research into why people took temp jobs; whether it’s for the freedom, the flexibility that made them attractive to workers,” said Ms Cheung. “We found that it was mostly young people who do temp work for pocket money or to fund the upkeep of pets.”

Using GPS sensor, the job-matching platform features job openings in six sectors, but primarily in the food and beverage and exhibitions sectors, which tend to hire on a seasonal basis.

The challenge in operating the job-matching site, Ms Cheung said, has been building a stable of reliable workers.

The company screens potential job applicants to determine their level of commitment to work. Part of the filtering process, for instance, takes into account such things as how long the applicant spends filling out the online form.

On the employer side, companies that join JOBDOH are required to submit a business registration and offer salaries of at least HK$45 per hour, which is 35 per cent higher than Hong Kong’s legal minimum wage.

Hotels are currently the company’s main clients, which initially enjoy the service free for one month, before paying a 20 to 30 per cent commission.

Ms Cheung says that, to date, the site has 1,000 registered users and about 50 companies. The company has matched 400 businesses with temp staff, with roughly an 80 per cent matching rate. Advertising has been mainly through Facebook, media coverage and word of mouth.

After recently moving to a new co-working space as an incubatee of Hong Kong Swire Properties’ accelerator programme, Blueprint project, JOBDOH is continuing to build its database. The goal is to have 10,000 temp employees on the platform by this summer and it hopes to eventually expand the business across the border in Shenzhen.

Hong Kong Advantage

As a start-up, JOBDOH has the advantage of being a lean and agile operation, according to Ms Cheung. “Hong Kong is such an efficient city, where everything is so fast,” she said, adding that the company has also benefited from Hong Kong’s simple tax system and start-up funding.

“In Asia, Hong Kong is a better place to test your idea because it’s more international. People in Hong Kong’s start-up scene are also open-minded. That is great to work with. You have to keep finding solutions for problems that arise. That takes creativity and leadership, and you can find good partners with those qualities in Hong Kong.”

Related Link JOBDOH