By MICHELLE YEO

RECRUITMENT for the 3,000 job vacancies at ION Orchard mall has kicked off with a May 14-17 networking session to help fill up to 1,500 positions immediately.

Landlord Orchard Turn Developments got together with the Workforce Development Agency (WDA) and the Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) to accelerate recruitment by pre-selecting the most suitable job- seekers. e2i reached out to the public by inviting job-seekers to job fairs, where e2i employment coaches identified candidates with the right aptitude and enrolled them in training courses to acquire the necessary skills.

Shortlisted candidates were then scheduled for the May 14-17 networking session with ION Orchard employers.

For those who nail down a job, WDA will provide more training to hone their service skills prior to their employment at the mall. And the SPUR programme will subsidise further training for them after they are hired.

There are 46 tenants at the networking session, out of a total of 78 tenants at ION Orchard.

2,000 job-seekers were shortlisted for the session. 20 per cent of the vacancies are suitable for professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs), and fresh graduates. Out of all the vacancies, 70 per cent are for retail positions and 30 per cent for the food and beverage sector.

Ong Ye Kung, NTUC assistant secretary-general e2i chairman, said: 'It's about striking a balance. Today, we do not see a huge turnout of 10,000 people - we see people who are pre- screened, briefed on what ION Orchard is about, what the tenants are about and what a retail job entails. They come with the right mindset and skills. Tenants will see a more suitable group of job-seekers.'

Club 21 human resource director Rina Ng said of the recruitment process: 'It helped employers by sieving out the first layer and removing noise, so the job-seeker pool we meet is more concentrated and focused. This is more efficient and saves cost. We are able to meet people who are enthusiastic.'

Ms Ng said the usual recruitment process can take up to six months, but for ION Orchard it was accelerated to 1-2 months.

Club 21 is looking to fill 70 positions, from sales assistants to store managers, doormen - even butlers. 'The people here are passionate about retail. It is different from other job fairs,' Ms Ng said of the networking session.

Shortlisted candidate Suhari Samsuri, 32, was retrenched a year ago due to company downsizing. He has been doing online retailing since.

'I feel this (the networking session) acts as a form of ice-breaking. It's casual and informal,' he said. 'We get to meet employers beforehand, and this gives us an advantage and preparation when the one-to-one interview comes.'

The HR manager of RSH - which retails Zara, Massimo Dutti and Sephora among other brands - said the quality of job-seekers at the networking session is good and they have the right expectations. They come knowing the working hours and the job scope, she said.

This article was first published in The Business Times.