BANGKOK, 4 January 2023: SAIJAI, a digital homecare platform, has launched SAIJAI Hospitality Staffing, enabling workers to navigate a return to the hotel industry by offering flexible working hours and terms.
Thailand’s hospitality industry struggles to find workers to fill the 1.45 million jobs lost during the pandemic, with many unwilling to return to the sector under previous working conditions.
SAIJAI launched during the Covid crisis, was founded by 28-year-old Viona Zhang to address the challenge for those seeking flexible working arrangements such as part-time or work-from-home options.
“Covid accelerated what was going to happen anyway, as the country has been steadily shifting into a Western-style economy over the past decade. But it has also resulted in a perfect storm with rising inflation and a spiralling number of workers who are needed – but who are not attracted to service-type jobs.”
Thailand has 20 million informal workers, according to the country’s National Statistics Office (NSO), a segment which accounts for nearly half of the nation’s total workforce. This sector was the backbone of a hospitality industry now in recovery mode – but lacking in staffing.
SAIJAI responds by creating SAIJAI Hospitality Staffing which taps into its base of service workers from a hotel, tourism or restaurant background.
Zhang adds: “There were 1.45 million Thai hospitality workers, according to the Tourism Council of Thailand, who lost their jobs during the pandemic. Many are unwilling or unable to return full-time to the sector. Still, our online platform can enable service workers to manage their schedules, meet family or educational time constraints and offer them a better future.”
About SAIJAI
SAIJAI is a Thai-based country-wide digital homecare marketplace that tackles the problem of finding reliable part-time service partners. It is also introducing a new product SAIJAI Hospitality which connects hotels, resorts, property management companies and restaurants to part-time workers.
Bill Barnett of C9 Hotelworks and Michael Kenner, who heads Digital Broker Ventures (DBV), support and invest in the project.
