Career

Shomvob has emerged as one of Bangladesh’s leading job and HR tech mobile platforms, serving over 1 million users across web and mobile applications. The platform bridges a crucial gap in the employment sector by connecting employers with both blue-collar workers in manual labor and silver-collar employees in entry-level organizational roles. Through advanced matching algorithms as well as proactive outreach and support to both employers and workers, Shomvob is transforming how organizations access talent while helping individuals discover meaningful career opportunities. However, Shomvob operates in a context where cultural norms and societal expectations often limit women’s mobility, access to jobs, and ability to move up to higher-paying roles. Female labor force participation in Bangladesh is just 40% compared to 80% for men. This trend was reflected in Shomvob’s user-base as well, which was dominated by male job-seekers. Shomvob has made a concerted effort to make their platform more gender inclusive  since 2023. They hired a gender expert to lead activities, set up women-only online groups to create a safe space for women to communicate with the company and launched trainings, on digital literacy and application navigation, to address women’s barriers to access. They also ran marketing campaigns that highlighted success stories of women’s placement through the platform and conducted direct outreach to women’s groups in low-income communities. They complemented these job seeker-focused initiatives with providing support and counseling to employers to address gender biases in recruitment. In September 2024, about nine months into this effort, Shomvob partnered with Caribou Digital and 60 Decibels to understand how effective their attempts had been and what they could do to improve. 60 Decibels conducted comprehensive interviews with 416 female users who had been active on the platform for at least three months. These conversations uncovered actionable insights into the barriers women face, how the platform is tackling these insights, and the impact women experience as they progress in their engagement with Shomvob. Earlier I used to do a part-time job and earned less. Because of Shomvob I got a job with a good salary and it helps me to earn a better income. Female,24 Making Job Searches Accessible and Safe Shomvob is addressing the employment problem by making the job search process easier and more accessible for women in Bangladesh. 75% of women report that Shomvob has improved their job search experience, citing better access to specific job opportunities, comprehensive listings, and the ability to apply remotely. They spoke about feeling more in control of their employment choices. Early concerns about safety on the platform were also unfounded—when asked about safety and risk, 70% of women said they feel safe online and confident they won’t face harassment. Women who were placed through the platform speak about improved earnings and ability to contribute to household decisions. Unfortunately, this is a small proportion of their overall user base, with the proportion of women placed out of the registered users at 2.10. While Shomvob is successfully bringing jobs to their fingertips, women struggle to fully pursue the opportunities available to them, highlighting several social and cultural barriers that still need to be addressed. I am a housewife and it was difficult for me to go outside and search for a job. Shomvob’ platforms makes it easy to search job from home and I can apply without anyone’s help. This self dependency is really a good improvement. Adapting Design to Address Gender Barriers Mobility and Time One of Shomvob’s key challenges is the drop-off in job placements. 2 in 5 women who received a job offer did not accept it. Another 2 in 5 accepted the offer but left the job shortly after. Their reasons included salary disputes, inconvenient location and unsustainable work-life balance. Similarly, less than half (42%) of those who were shortlisted for an interview (‘shortlisted’ users) attended it. The remaining mentioned mobility and scheduling as big challenges that prevented them from appearing. These findings highlight the complex barriers women face, particularly limited mobility and the difficulty of managing competing priorities alongside professional commitments. Instead of expecting women to adapt to these constraints, Shomvob shifted its focus to improving employer practices on multiple fronts. They began actively approaching companies more likely to offer flexible work arrangements, better benefits, and a supportive work environment for women. At the same time, they pushed for clearer communication of job expectations to address women’s specific needs. Employers now have to include a GPS location of the job site to help women assess commuting safety and distance. Additionally, job postings now include detailed information about work hours, enabling women to apply to positions more suited with their lifestyle. These efforts aim to foster a more transparent and supportive job marketplace while aligning opportunities with women’s priorities. The job locations were quite far from my place. I also had some personal issues which prevented me from attending the interviews. Female,24 Targeting and Skill Building With 60 Decibels’ insights, Shomvob discovered a notable disparity among its users – 71% of female users held a university degree, highlighting the importance of education and smart phone ownership in accessing digital platforms for services. Women who did not have university education formed less than a third of their female user base. Furthermore, many shortlisted users expressed a desire to develop interviewing and communication skills as well as training in computer literacy. The latter was also an area of support mentioned by women who were on the platform but not engaging actively with it. Shomvob has used these insights to provide more targeted support to women with lower education levels. Undertaking active outreach to employers hiring for roles that may be suited for women in this demographic group, Shomvob has successfully placed over 600 women without degrees into jobs in just ten weeks. Partnering with companies like Pubali Bank have enabled placements in roles such as field sales operations, where female participation has traditionally been low. Similarly, 30% of the staff hired from Singer’s initial recruitment drive will be Shomvob’s female job seekers, opening new doors for these women