Takeaway from epidemic: Less paper, more web

The 2020 National Job Policy for fresh graduates, announced on Wednesday, has adopted a new guise. More than 20,000 job fairs will be held in April, but with one major difference: Employers will be encouraged to interview job-seekers online and not face-to-face. And those who clear the interview will be encouraged to sign contracts, again, online.

The new format has much to do with the novel coronavirus epidemic. Holding job fairs and interviews and signing contracts online will help prevent people from coming in close contact and curb population flows, thus minimizing the chances of the epidemic, which has now been curtailed to a great extent, from returning.

Anybody who has ever been to a graduate job fair will know the colossal waste of paper, as any number of curricula vitae get collected only to be dumped later. And despite applying with a CV, candidates called for interviews are asked to bring a copy of their CV. With the whole process going online now, one can at least expect a large number of trees to escape cutting.

Online interviews will also put an end to unnecessary business trips for interviews, increasing transport capacity for other, more important trips.

The novel coronavirus epidemic has opened our eyes to the possibility of holding interviews online and saving so much paper and costs; it would be advisable to continue these practices even after the epidemic is fully controlled.

There are others who can learn lessons from the epidemic. Many meetings can continue to be held online while many jobs do not require staff to go to office. Those in publishing, media and IT sectors can consider renting smaller offices and raising efficiency levels to win future goals.