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.