HerPortal.co targets women, employers offering flexible hours

• Pioneering women-centric job portal in Malaysia
• Starting small but with an eye on regional expansion

 

 
While such women-centric job portals do exist around the world and even in neighbouring Singapore, this is the first of its kind in Malaysia. “We want to be the pioneer,” says HerPortal’s Founder and Chief Trailblazer Angeline S Chin. Stellarworks Sdn Bhd owns and operates HerPortal.co.
 
The idea for the portal started when Chin quit the corporate world to spend more time with her family. She found searching for and finding a job that offered flexible hours difficult. “I found a lot of job postings that sounded like scams, which was a waste of time, and I wondered why we didn’t have a portal that filtered jobs according to what women, especially women with families, needed,” she says.
 
“There are many job portals for the masses. Why can’t we have something specifically for women?”
 
HerPortal.co lists freelance, part-time, temporary, contract and full-time jobs as well as those requiring shift work and for employers to work from home. This range of options is ideal for women who want a break from the corporate world, are looking for job option that allow them to spend more time with family or for women who are making the transition back into work after having taken a break, explains Chin.
 
Those looking for employment can register as members on the portal to start looking and applying for jobs. Employers are able to post jobs on HerPortal.co with a standard fee of RM90 per posting, though the portal does offer special packages. It is currently offering a 12-month package at the discounted price of RM999 to 100 companies. It does not operate on a credit basis as most other job portals do.
 
The portal underwent a relaunch in early September this year, transforming from beta site Moms4Projects.com, which started in August 2015, to its current incarnation. The previous website contained only job listings; the current one contains that plus workshops, event listings (such as bazaars) and a blog that features successful women entrepreneurs who are either employers on the portal or members.
 
HerPortal partners with Avana, Shoppertise and MYNIC Bhd to provide workshops and training for its members on running their own online business. Chin found that a number of members were selling their own products from their home while looking for other employment through the portal, and so decided to help these members succeed in their endeavours by offering education.
 
In the two weeks since the relaunch, Chin has obtained 10 employers for the portal. HerPortal has retained its members from Moms4Projects.com – there are currently 1,700 members.
 
“We grow organically, so I was surprised that we could grow from about 600 in August last year to the number we have now. We didn’t have a goal for number of members when we started,” says Chin.
 
The next thing up for HerPortal is to reach out to employers outside Malaysia. Chin says that there Malaysian women have skill and talent and generate enough demand for freelance or work-at-home jobs from overseas, so the portal should offer the jobs they want to them.  
 
“We want to be a one-stop portal for women in this country and to encourage more employers to explore female talent exclusively,” says Chin.
 
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