PasaJob, a leading Philippine job platform with 2.3 million users on its GCash-integrated GJobs mini-program, has appointed seasoned HR tech entrepreneur Eddie Ybañez as CEO. This strategic move aims to capitalize on GJobs’ explosive growth and connect even more Filipino job seekers with employers in 2025. Learn how Ybañez plans to revolutionize the talent marketplace and tackle high unemployment.

<img style="width: 100%;" src="https://imagedelivery.net/H6_s_Eb_ylTWnSEV3HlmYQ/6816bb68-fbc8-4619-347d-36c7459f7800/public" alt="EDDIE YBANEZ Image source: Taipei Entrepreneurs Hub Facebook Page” />

Since its founding in 2020,  PasaJob has been established under the leadership of Founder and CEO, Kristen Mariano, to become one of the leading job platforms in the Philippines. To strengthen PasaJob’s leadership team, the company has brought on serial entrepreneur Eddie Ybañez to serve as CEO. Mariano will remain as COO and Chairman of the board.

The transition to Ybañez could not have come at a more opportune time. In September 2023, PasaJob launched GJobs, a mini-program it developed in collaboration with GCash as part of the latter’s “finance for all” mandate. GJobs offers a diverse selection of legitimate job opportunities for all Filipinos with different qualifications, allowing users to conveniently apply right from their phones. GJobs is also the nation’s first job platform that connects employers and job seekers through referrals; users also have the opportunity to earn by referring jobs to peers on the platform.

In less than 17 months since its launch, GJobs has onboarded 2.3 million users, who have applied for 400,000 jobs and made 1 million job referrals. Ybanez now takes the lead in accelerating PasaJob’s next wave of growth in 2025, which aims to onboard more employers and post thousands of new jobs to lead to more hired Filipinos.

Ybañez is no stranger to HR technology: He co-founded Payruler, a human resource management system and payroll system, where he served as Chief Technology Officer. Ybañez understands how to leverage technology to help Filipino talent. 

Reimagining the Filipino talent marketplace 

To this end, Ybañez has already added several features to the product roadmap of GJobs that will simplify recruiting. At the top of the funnel, employers will have the ability to search for candidates that best meet their criteria from the database. When building a pipeline, the platform will also automatically find candidates who may be qualified that did not already apply. Finally, the platform will enable jobseekers to conduct asynchronous interviews.

All of these features will be powered by artificial intelligence.

“The talent marketplace is generally inefficient and fragmented. Jobseekers know how difficult it is to find a good job; employers share similar frustrations in finding the best talent. With AI, we can streamline the hiring process so that hiring companies and the right talent can connect with one another with the efficiency we’ve been accustomed to online and through the help of referral networks,” said Ybañez.

While there are many ways to source talent, PasaJob focuses heavily on referrals. The reason for this focus is that referrals shorten the hiring period from 42 days to 29 days on average, and referred employees have 70% longer tenures than other employees. Finally, recruiting in some industries is driven entirely by referrals: 55% of BPO hires are referrals, for example.

Because of these benefits, PasaJob will be able to help all companies, especially those with high-volume hiring needs, like BPO or manpower agencies. Ybañez elaborated more on their ideal enterprise partner. 

“We are eager to work with companies in fast-growing industries that have significant hiring requirements. With our job platform built around smarter referrals, these enterprises can quickly find the talent they need and at scale. These hires will be a better culture-fit for the organization, so they can create impact while enhancing team dynamics,” said Ybañez.

Jobseekers looking for a role are encouraged to sign into GCash to use GJobs powered by PasaJob. Enterprises who want to hire via GJobs are encouraged to reach out to the PasaJob team through its website or email team@pasajob.com. In addition to GJobs, PasaJob also operates Recruiters Circle, a recruitment service for highly specialized and technical roles, and Employee Referral Platform, a company-specific, white-labeled version of PasaJob.