This newsletter is distributed to anyone selling in a Slivers-Of-Time
marketplace. Also, to those waiting for a market to start in their area who have registered at www.sliversoftime.com
It will keep you posted on developments in this exciting new way of working. |
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IN THIS ISSUE |
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WAITING FOR SLIVERS: |
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The lead-in in Leads |
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Jill: 9-5 and Slivers |
Jill Hunny feels like she's waited all her adult life for Slivers-of-Time Working. “I bought up a son alone, I've always had all sorts of things going on in life. I've really needed work that could fit around other things” she explains. Was her Son left home. Jill gave up her job maintaining the Purchase Ledger for a water company and moved to Leeds to train as a care worker.
“I found two evenings a week of work” she remembers. “When someone is deteriorating but not incapacitated, they will often want a care worker to go round one or two nights a week and sleep over. It gives the rest of their family a break.” But Jill wanted extra hours and a lot more variety. Then she heard what her council was planning to launch for the local area.
“I loved the idea of Slivers immediately” she says. But just after she registered her interest, the care work dried up. Now she had a lot more availability. Driver Hire, the agency offering Slivers in Leeds quickly found her a 9-5 doing Customer Care for a workwear provider. That's good. But she's still eagerly waiting for the Slivers launch in Leeds. “I will happily work Thursday and Friday evening when I felt like it and either Saturday or Sunday when I'm in town. I definitely want more experience of work.”
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SLIVERS FUTURES: |
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Agency Intelligence |
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Sarah: Central Agency
Intelligence |
There's a network of organisations behind each Slivers-of-Time marketplace around the country. One key component in each case is a recruitment agency. They vet the participants and make sure all the back end processes like payrolling run smoothly.
The UK's original job board – www.jobsite.co.uk – manage our relationships with agencies. They came on board Slivers over a year ago. Jobsite's Sarah Lawton now works full time with recruitment agencies looking to offer Slivers working to clients and candidates. “Agencies do see how the world is changing away from 9-5 posts” says Sarah. “But they're busy people, it can take time to get them to sit down and get their heads round something new.”
For Sarah it's all reminiscent of 1995. That's when she first started working for the newly formed jobsite. “We had to constantly explain to people what the Internet was and why they should take it seriously. Some people ‘got it' at once. Others took a bit longer.”
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TIP: |
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Know the codes |
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Cartoon by Shamima Aktar Koli, Slivers-
of-Time seller [Bookings: 72, Hours Sold:
233, Buyers: 4] |
When you sell your Slivers-of-Time you get all the information you need to complete a booking in two text messages. The first tells you all the basic details, and when to confirm by. The second gives you reporting instructions from your buyer.
We pack a lot of data into the second message by using abbreviations:
• DC = Dress Code for this booking
• FD = Food – is it provided a the place of work?
• PK = Parking – is it provided?
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CASE STUDY: |
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Clear at the Centre |
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Steven (Right) and fellow seller clearing up at Huddersfield's Deighton Centre |
You run a community centre. You've just had the drive re-surfaced. But the aftermath isn't pretty. There's packaging and litter strewn around the place, plus all the leaves have just fallen. What do you do?
For Sally Beaumont, in charge of Building Resourcing for Kirklees Council, the solution was simple. Having seen a leaflet for the council's Slivers-of-Time Working initiative, she got clicking. 45 seller hours were booked spread between five sellers. “Within the first hour it became clear it was going well”, she says. “We couldn't believe how much rubbish they found in the grounds, they just kept coming back to the office to ask for more bin bags.”
The clean up was a personal landmark for seller Steven Cooper, 47. It was his first period of work in 6 years since a hit-and-run motorbike accident and diagnosis with Marfan Syndrome, a disease of the body's connective tissues. “ I genuinely do want to work”, he points out, “it's boring sitting at home”. But it would be very hard for Steven to hold down a job. If he's to work: it has to be Slivers.
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October 2007
Published on the last Friday of the month |
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Slivers-of-Time: the basics
Marketplaces for Slivers-of-Time are for:
who wants to work around other things in their life, such as:
-childcare
-studying
-part-time work
-caring for adult
-medical commitments
- Organisations who need top-up workers at short notice, for short periods:
-councils
-caterers
-retailers
-logistics supplier
Benefits:
- Sellers: do whatever odd hours of work they want and quickly build skills, experience and a track record they can print at any time.
- Buyers: access a self-selecting pool of local people who choose to work in a way that demands flexibility and rewards reliability.
Signing up:
Anyone who wants to know when a market-place is starting in their area should enter their details at:
www.sliversoftime.com
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