DUBAI — Artificial intelligence-driven recruitment platform, FifthEdge, has launched its Coronavirus Recovery Initiative (CRI) to aid the recovery of employers and employees in the construction and engineering sectors impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. FifthEdge’s cloud-based platform, which commenced operations in 2020, has seen a number of high profile construction and engineering companies subscribe to the service, seeking to increase recruitment capacity and reduce cost-to-hire. The platform has also attracted in excess of 35,000 candidates, both active and passive, looking to connect with companies for their next roles. Coronavirus has impacted the construction and engineering sector at a global level. Despite efforts of the UAE government and authorities, projects in the region have been impacted along with oil prices, tourism and capital markets. As the country continues to implement social distancing measures to flatten the curve of the spread of Coronavirus, an increase in remote working has impacted administrative procedures essential to site works. Additionally, procurement and supply chain have been affected due to the closure of manufacturing facilities in exporting countries. To assist both companies sourcing talent and candidates who have recently been made redundant or face uncertainty in their current roles, FifthEdge has launched its CRI. Employers and candidates can access the platform free of charge, connecting people who need jobs with employers looking to fill roles live and constantly updated. Marcus Taylor, founder and CEO at FifthEdge, explained the decision to open the platform up: “The COVID-19 pandemic has had a massive effect on most industries around the world. We are seeing more redundancies in the construction and engineering sectors, but we are also still hearing from employers who need to fill roles as quickly as possible. We wanted to help. We want to get people who need jobs into roles, without all the red tape and expense. “We have set up a portal for anyone who is currently looking for a role in the construction and engineering sectors. Candidates can create an account, upload their CV and set their profile to ‘immediately available’. They will then be added to an always-live talent pool. FifthEdge’s AI system will contact candidates every 15 days to ensure their details are still up to date and find out if their status has changed. “We’re giving companies free access to this talent pool, so they can see who is available right now. They will be able to review CVs and choose candidates who match their requirements, confident the information they are viewing is up to date.” While FifthEdge would usually carry out an AI-driven, industry-specific, in-depth assessment of profiles and match candidates to employers, the CRI will see all candidates and companies added to the same portal. Therefore, companies will be able to view and connect with thousands of candidates. Taylor said: “We’re all in this together, so we really just wanted to do our part to assist the region’s construction sector. We created a solution that connects people in the simplest way possible. If we can help people who have lost their jobs find roles with some of the companies working on projects in the region, we’ll be very happy with that.” — SG