Help at hand for job seekers Image Credit: Stock photo

DUBAI: An international recruitment company based in Dubai has launched a free, helpline service to reach out to those who may lose their jobs as the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to affect businesses globally.

Aws Ismail, general manager of Marc Ellis told Gulf News that the initiative was launched on March 21 via the LinkedIn Platform. “The idea came from wanting to support the community during these tough times. We started to receive some applications from people saying they are available immediately due to being made redundant because of the virus affecting businesses. We thought that there must be many people like this who do not know what to do, who to reach out to and where to go, so we wanted to show a sign to anyone who may be struggling that there is light at the end of the tunnel. The aim of our service is to keep people’s morale high whilst doing our best to try and get them back into employment, or at least ready for employment,” said Ismail.

How does the service work?

Ismail said, “It is very simple. All that people need to do is send their CV to us. We have dedicated the majority of our team to view profiles and use our skillsets to identify if any work needs to be done to improve the profile and make it employment ready. Once this is done, we then send out the profiles to our partner network based on relevance or demand.”

Ismail said the service has already received 700+ applications. “The applicants have been a mix of skills including but not limited to human resource professionals, hospitality workers, accountants, technology engineers, lawyers and teachers. Most of the people whom we have spoken to have lost their employment due to reduction in the business, and the uncertainty about when things will get better. Some employers are offering their employees unpaid leave until things improve and some are simply making them redundant,” he noted.

Effort paying off

“Ismail said, “We have been approached by some members of our partner base for relevant candidates we have identified through the helpline. We are also generating a list of partners and employers with whom we will be sharing relevant profiles. We believe that many companies will be requiring a huge number of staff to allow them to cope with the increased demand for home delivery in the past few weeks and for the foreseeable future. We therefore call on all local and international companies in the UAE to reach out to us if they need us to share with them any candidate profiles to fill their current demand.”

He said, “The service will be free of charge during this difficult period and it is part of ‘our give back to community’ initiative to help local talent get back into employment.” Ismail said, “COVID-19 has hit the entire globe unexpectedly and has affected many people. For the UAE, the government’s response has been outstanding. We want to be part of the battle and give back to the community and the country that has been so great to us. As a business involved directly with employers and employees, we feel the pain of both sides and we would like to provide some sense of relief and hope to anyone who may be suffering from this ordeal, and this is the least we can do.”

How to reach Marc Ellis: Write to: help@marc-ellis.com

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