One theme that's emerging is individuals who aspire to a particular ambition and need “bits of work” to fund themselves as they move towards their dream.

 

Wannabe actors, therapists and teachers are well represented. We have aspiring reflexologists (they do a kind of very sophisticated foot massage if you didn't know). Someone working at Microsoft with an aspiration to leave wants to sell Slivers. But the most unusual ambition is focused on world class paddling. Adam Marshall of Nottingham is an Olympic level canoeist. He needs a local Slivers-of-Time market to emerge so he can work 10-16 hours a week around a training schedule dictated by weather and event timings.

 

More brain than brawn, SophiaRiaz-Condron needs a new way of working to fund her PhD. Her laboratory work involves giving leukaemia to zebrafish, then curing them in a way that might be transferable to people. It's vital research that could be a lifesaver …. and it's funded by weekends on the till at a supermarket. Sophia explains: “A PhD is typically three years with a year to write everything up. I am now in the writing up stage, my funding is exhausted and I have to work. Trouble is I can only find work at weekends so I never see my husband.” Sophia needs Slivers so she can sell spare hours around her writing timetable.

 

 

“We've always felt our clients get a bum deal from the big players” explains General Manager Steve Alltoft. “Go into a high street agency with not much work experience, maybe not a lot of confidence, and you're never going to be a priority for them.” Steve and his team will be launching their market that gives local people the chance to quickly build a track record by doing “bits of work” for lots of employers by end of March. But that's just the thin end of their wedge.

 

“We hope to attract employers with something new then grow that Slivers activity into an agency that offers our clients conventional temporary placements, competing with the well known chains” he says. Clients with spare hours to sell but no experience of computers are being groomed for the Slivers market. Probe were among the 20 winners of “Social Impact Demonstrators” grants from UK Online in January 2007. That's provided funds to train techno-virgins who need a personalised form of employment.

 

The Isle of Man based firm wanted to leaflet commuters in Canary Wharf and The City of London. A small batch of leaflets was printed and sellers booked as soon as the parcel arrived from the printers. Those leaflets were handed out to commuters in rush hour the same day. Response rate at the call centre? Not too good. So, a new leaflet was designed, printed and distributed hot-out-of-the-box. But still, they weren't quite right.

 

Finally Charterhouse settled on a giant £10 note design. Their learning process was limited only by design/print constraints not distribution processes as is usually the case. With an instant workforce for same-day 90 minute rush hour slots, Charterhouse refined their messaging at less cost in less time than ever before.  

It's changed their thinking.   “We're a fast moving, entrepreneurial company” says manager Lisa Underwood. “Now we know about Slivers workers we'll definitely be finding new ways to make use of them in the future.”
	Singing tenners: Slivers leafleteers