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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SELLER IN THE SPOLIGHT: CALLING FOR THE KIDS
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SLIVERS FUTURES: NHS TRAINED
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TIP: PRINT FOR RECEPTION
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CASE STUDY: AWARENESS IN RUSH! | |
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SELLER IN THE SPOLIGHT: |
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Calling for the Kids |
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Olabisi: rolling bookings |
“I’d been doing some volunteering but I really wanted to work” says Olabisi Oyeneyin of East London. “The problem is I have two children – one’s 10, the other’s 4 - who I am bringing up on my own”. Eventually Olabisi found a work placement with East Thames Housing Group. They told her about Slivers and how they use the marketplace to book people who work very flexibly around other commitments in their life. “I was hooked” she says.
Now Olabisi [Bookings: 140, Hours Sold: 525, Buyers: 12] works Slivers around her Childcare. “At the moment I’m doing a lot of hours” she explains. “My Mum looks after the children during the day. But she’s going back to Africa in a few months so I’ll have to cut back again”. With Slivers, of course, that’s easy. It’s accessing a computer that can be more of a problem. “My brother has a laptop I use to say when I am available” says Olabisi. “But when he’s not around I have to go to the community café to do it. I like the system, it’s easy to use.”
Olabisi is no longer scouring local employers asking for a work placement. Through Slivers she’s worked in different departments for three London Councils. She’s done catering work in a bank, in schools and on a boat. With Mum handling childcare, Olabisi is now doing rolling bookings in a call centre. It’s demanding, but she’s on top of it. “Iwas quite scared about the induction. But there were other Slivers workers being trained at the same time. We kept encouraging each other.”
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SLIVERS FUTURES: |
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NHS trained |
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John: Slivers trainers
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Employers are beginning to see that it’s a good investment to put Slivers sellers through an induction process. That way they know they have trained local people who can be called in when there’s a sudden demand. Take John Wycliffe, Head of Administration for the District Nursing Department at the NHS Newham Primary Care Trust. He runs five bases, each has around 25 nurses and each of them visits something like 10 patients a day. That’s a lot of admin. support required.
John uses Slivers local sellers to cover staff sickness but also because he likes to try people out on short bookings. He explains: “I use the system to check CV’s of available sellers. The person has to justify the training we put in. But we’ve had some very good Slivers workers, one of them has had his booking rolled on for 3 months now”.
Induction can take a day. It includes signing of confidentiality agreements. After that Slivers workers are used for data entry of District Nurses’ patient records, for handling phone calls to set up appointments and for filing. John explains “right now we have a Slivers seller here bundling up old patient records and preparing them for storage”.
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TIP: |
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Print for recepetion |
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Cartoon by Shamima Aktar Koli, Slivers-of-Time seller
[Bookings: 91, Hours Sold: 333, Buyers: 4] |
Buying in a Slivers-of-Time Market? The Purchase Confirmation screen is designed to be printed out. You might want to give it to your reception so they know who is coming in and when. |
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CASE STUDY: |
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Awareness in a rush! |
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| Kirklees Council: World Awareness |
“I thought the Slivers workers were wonderful” says Glenis Burgess of Kirklees Council in Huddersfield. “I had only a couple of weeks to make residents aware of a big new event and our local Slivers people did it brilliantly”. Glenis works within the Events Team in the Council’s Culture and Leisure Unit. A recent challenge was the local World Music event. She explains: “it was a new event, we wanted to reach a new audience. I felt posters were the way to do it”.
Glenis knew that managers at Kirklees were being encouraged to use Slivers workers when that was a better way of getting a job done. And they were! “The Slivers people worked out where the posters could go and then drove around asking businesses to display them” she explains.
“I was delighted with the results. People said they’d seen a poster in their local store, at the GP’s surgery, in a farm shop.” In the end 10,000 people turned up for the big day. They had tea dancing, gospel singing and Samba workshops. Just as the posters promised.
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August 2008
Published on the last Friday of the month |
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Slivers-of-Time Working: 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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