Glowork: Empowering Women to Enter the Workforce

By: Moniza Khokhar

Khalid Alkhudair, wants women to be active players in the workforce, particularly in the Middle East. Surrounded by strong professional women, he recognized that women did not have a platform dedicated to helping them enter into the workforce. With statistics like, 60% of women that hold PhD degrees, were unemployed, he knew something was wrong. Alkhduair assembled a team of the best professionals within the region and started Glowork, a website dedicated to connected qualified women with potential employers. Elan sat down with Alkhudair for an interview.

Why are the unemployment rates of women in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia so high?

Glowork recently conducted a study on what females think of the job market and opportunities available in the Kingdom. We found that the majority felt that there was a good number of opportunities available for them, however they just didn’t know how to apply for them, as there is no clear process on how to apply to jobs in the Kingdom, especially for females. They also lack the education on how to write CV’s and conduct interviews, which is something that is currently missing in our educational institutions.

Why did you personally get involved in the global struggle to empower women? Is there a specific story, course, or experience that inspired you?

I have a sister who graduated from Canada. She came back to the Kingdom last summer and had a difficult time finding a job. Many females share this story, as you are well aware, driving in Saudi is prohibited for females, and thus this makes things more difficult when they try and job hunting. Recruitment emails and the company’s websites are rarely checked and thus the jobs will only come to those who have connections, not on credentials.

I, also, have personally worked with several females across the globe either managing or being managed by one, and I find that females gives more dedication to their work. So the website designed to empower women is something that is their right.

How do you inform women in the GCC about your services? How do they become part of the network and how easy is it to use?

Our website is designed to attract females from the first click. It’s very hip and trendy and the brand “Glowork” is something that took our creative mastermind Mr. Joao AlMeida a matter of days to create. Before launching, we looked into what other websites in the region have to offer. We are the first website in the GCC that is dedicated purely to female recruitment and this in itself is an attraction. We currently use all social media channels such as facebook, twitter, linkedin and have everyone interactive competitions. We also came up with a free Blackberry Messenger service in which we have 500 subscribers so far. This service is designed to keep all subscribers aware of the latest jobs available on the website. Job seekers register for free and its extremely user friendly. We also have a service of CV writing assistance at a very minimal charge in comparison to other sites.

How does your company associate itself with the government and also with large corporations?

We have approached several government institutions and large corporations over the past month, everyone loves the idea and thus we managed to attract 45 companies from the likes of Microsoft, KPMG, General Electric, Pepsi Co. to sign up and post over 150 vacancies in the past 3 weeks. We are still trying to get our message to the Human Resource Development Fund along with the Ministry of Labor and see how we can tap into the potential females.

Which universities do you collaborate with? And how do you assist them in their career paths?

We are proud of the reception we have received from universities thus far. Actually one of our brand ambassadors is Dr. Haifa Jamalalail, the president of Effat University. Universities like King Saud University, Prince Sultan University and Dar AlHekma have offered to email our marketing material to all potential female graduates along with other communication channels where we get access to all potential females. We have a great in-house learning and development team, and are looking to partner with the universities in the Kingdom in order to provide training or workshops on the following subjects: how to write your CV, how to conduct an interview, what should you expect from the private and public sector, what should they expect from you, etc.

What progress have you seen so far since you launched this initiative?

The positive feedback we have been getting is phenomenal. We are in the midst of launching our Arabic site and this will easily double our daily visits. We have had over 60,000 clicks in the first 3 weeks, and expect this number to increase rapidly over the coming months due to our strong marketing plan.

Who are key members of your team?

Myself and three other young entrepreneurs launched this initiative. Mr. Jamal al Mansour, an HR expert with over 22 years experience in regional and international financial institutions. Mr. Khalid Al Saleh the current CEO of Dr. Café, who is an operations and servicing guru, as well as Muna AbuSulayman, the Secretary General for AlWaleed bin Talal Foundation and the UN Goodwill Ambassador. We are also proud to have our brand ambassadors who have helped us in our launch and promote our website within no time! We have Dr. Haifa Jamalailal, the president of Effat university; Razan Baker, a leading Saudi sports journalist; Captain Hanadi Al Hindi (the first Saudi Female Pilot); Said Baaghil, (Brand and Marketing Guru) and Maha Taher (Social Advocate).

Do clients get a chance for face-to-face consultations?

We do interact with our clients very frequently, by calls, meetings and emails. As we are still in Beta mode, we have been asking our clients for their feedback on our work and what we can do to enhance it.

What other services does this network provide?

We want our website to be a one stop shop for full female career advisory. We want to roll out psychometric tests at universities and even high schools to assist them with their career choice at an early stage of their personal lives. We also want to ensure we work in developing career events not only in the Kingdom, but for females studying abroad as well and collaborating with the cultural bureaus in various countries. We have no limit to the ideas that we want to implement, it’s just a matter of time till we execute them.

Do you work with any feminist, non-profit organizations or NGO’s?

I personally work with ADHD Afta group in Saudi Arabia, in assisting them with some of their marketing projects. Also the YIG (Young Initiative Group), which is founded by Maha Taher and Muhammad Al-Bakri, YIG is an organization we will be heavily working and interacting with in the near future. We are approaching a number of NGO’s that work in the field of women development and InshAllah these will be announced in due time.

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