Wellington
Matching both sides of the equation for part time jobs sounds like it should be easy.
‘Employer has limited hours required role = young person willing and happy to do it’.
Sounds easy are the operative words though.
Now, contrary to popular belief modern youth are keen on the experience gained and income derivedfrom working around their study.
Equally, employers really like to hire part time competent people with time flexibility.
But uumm….how do you equalise both sides of the equation.
Said youth can go door knocking, make phone calls, drop off their CV, apply for advertisedpositions, do all the things they’re meant to do to show they’re keen. For many reasons, most ofit around timing, they’ll probably miss out.
Employers can (shudder) advertise what is usually a low-skilled job, get dozens of replies, weedthrough them to then carry out a few interviews and find the perfect person...only to find they’reonly available at certain times.
There’s a disconnect on both sides.
The efforts and desires and struggle for a (would be) part time job seeker and provider is waydisproportionate for the actuality of the role.
Enter PartTimer (parttimer.jobs), a responsive web page(not an app, but more on that later) that is a fairy godmother in this flexible job/availability,and very importantly, live-close-by, market space.
PartTimer creator Rebecca Gidall has helped co-grow this ‘introductory’ service over the past14 months.
The ex Victoria University student (she’s quit to learn how to run a real-world business) waspart of a Creative HQ Venture Up accelerator group towards the end of 2015.
The problem of finding part time work to fit around their study was something all the team hadexperienced. They originally saw the need to help high school students, but quickly realised it’snot just their challenge. There’s many reasons different people have different needs andavailability around part time roles.
One of the biggest stumbling blocks Rebecca found is that a part time position needs to bephysically close to where a would-be worker lives. After all, a distant job, usually around minimumwage can have a significant transport component especially if it is only for an hour or so. Theopportunity cost of time, money and effort to get to work can be a major factor in itsdesirability.
PartTimer solves these issues by allowing would-be workers to state their availability(ies) andlocation, as well as other relevant information. Would be employers can put their job requirementsup on the website and carry out a search of job seekers. The employer makes a contact request (byemail or text) with the worker, and that person can say yes or no. If is only after a ‘yes’ thatthe employer is charged a flat fee of $9.95.
The part timer isn’t charged - filling out their profile is enough ‘work’ says Rebecca.
There’s also another (perverse?) first. There is NO app. Rebecca says a commoncomment is “thank you for not making me download yet another app to fill up myphone”.
The traditional recruitment industry and process (and companies) is a system that’s ripe fordisruption - and cheaper, faster and better solutions. Part time roles don’t have the complexity,nor crucialness, of a full time hire.
After all, though part time jobs will require a small and fast tidbit of training, most youngpeople are smart (enough!), keen and personable to do them.
As a double-facing solution (like Uber and Air BnB), PartTimer has evolved and is evolving a neatanswer.
As its website cleverly explains, there’s only three steps in its process...though the thirdstep is ‘there is no step three’’.
PartTimer obtained its first investment capital from its now Managing Director Vivian Morresey (aformer team member of on-demand cloud server access success GreenButton. See that story and hisinvolvement in these Stick stories
A second round of funding has come from associates - all obviously seeing and believing in thesite’s role and functionality.
There’s a good chance these investors are also a bit like me.
As parents of late teen, early 20’s kids, they (and me) are only too aware of the challenge offinding part time work.
It’s not that the majority of youth are lazy or deadbeats.
What they usually lack are the required connection(s).
PartTimer is the virtual body hand-holding between two markets, and taking a small clip of theticket.
In an environment with no lack of competition, it will be fascinating to see how it chews itsslice of the work pie.