Field note
Seasonal hiring and the application backlog nobody scheduled
Sarawak employers who hire in waves — mills, logistics, project contractors, schools before term — already know the pile. What they often do not know is how long a form sat unread, or which channel overflowed first.
During peak windows we see acknowledgements stop, walk-in books fill with names and no dates, and agencies asked to “just send whoever” without a written brief. The quality of the eventual hire may still be fine. The file will not be.
If you know a peak is coming, the audit-minded move is dull: a temporary intake owner, a daily stamp on new packs, and a freeze on new channels until the existing ones are emptied. Opening a second portal because the first one feels busy is how duplicate people and missing outcomes are born.
We can time a review after a peak rather than during it. The sample is richer. The staff are less exhausted. The findings are the same story, told with dates.