I went along to a Startmate presentation last week, one of the new apps that was presented and i think is worth including here is a great new app called ‘Shiftr‘
In short, its an app that enables you to swap shifts, call in sick, pick up extra work via working extra shifts
Shift work
One of my passions is future trends and last week i went along to hear Carol Coletta talk as part of the City of Sydney creative life talks
Carol said when it comes to employment in cities:
There is only:
1, High skiled, high wage or
2, Outsourced and
3, Low paying jobs
This news of course is food for thought for everyone.
If you have a career, how do you become ‘Outsourced proof’? This is definitely a work trend i can see progressing.
The reason Shiftr will be a killer app is, a lot of people i have been meeting recently have been very vocal on just how much they do not like going to work.
The Shiftr app makes it easier for shift workers to:
1, Not go to work
2, It makes it easier for someone to earn more by covering other peoples shift, we are after all in a capitalist society.
Think of it this way….
Now, think back if you will to the days pre mobile phones, if you wanted to meet someone in the city, there was a place and a time and you couldn’t afford to be late, if you were going to be late, you had to ring someones mom, and get someone to pass on a message.
Then along came mobile phones, and being on time pretty much flew out the window, you could text people and get out of meetings and appointments without having to give a reason, and this was one of the reasons texting became so popular.
And for this same reason, this is why Shiftr will be popular, the developers are rolling it out to Mac Donalds all over the country, and one of the beauties of a franchise roll out is people that work in different outlets can cover shifts in different locations, like a roving work force that is very mobile and agile.
Richard Branson built his empire from these kind of app-less phones
When you think of it, if the people that don’t want to work are not there and people that do want to work are there, would that be beneficial for
- Staff moral, the people that are at work want to be there
- Efficency, managers wouldn’t have to ring people, the management of shifts would manage its self
- Boosting a work force numbers as outlets could share/select human resources
It seems like an incredible tool to service the low paying jobs sector which is currently huge and will only get bigger, the outsourcing trend is here to stay
Another presenter for an app called ‘Goodcall‘ at this exhibit said they sourced and paid very little for helpdesk employes from America, he referred to Americans as
‘The new third world’
And the competitive advantage to this Shiftr app is they are the first to market and definitely one to watch
Kieran O' Callaghan 