What's the need?
Marketplaces for Slivers-of-Time address an entrenched failure in the labour market. Millions of people want to work around other commitments in their life. Many employers need access to a pool of top-up workers who can be turned on and off by the hour as required.
The solution is marketplaces for Slivers-of-Time Working. Who needs to sell in them? Who wants to buy?
| Sellers of Slivers-of-Time | Buyers of Slivers-of-Time |
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Government commissioned research shows the latent demand for this market. 13.7m people need to "sell their hours" around other commitments at some point each year in the UK. 67% of people who have a need for Slivers-of-Time Working want to try it immediately. If just 5% of them take it up, the taxpayer could save £400m a year.
Why hasn't this way of working existed until now?
What problems are solved for market users?:
Sellers can work around other commitments while building a track record of reliability and wide ranging experience. Individuals with a past history of unemployment or problems can create a new "CV" of wide ranging work in a few weeks.
Buyers gain a pool of motivated, ultra flexible, top-up workers. That resource can be matched exactly with need, day-by-day, hour-by-hour.
Agencies gain a new channel. Agency temping makes up only 17.5% of irregular work in the UK. Slivers-of-Time bookings are currently fiddly, overhead ridden and in danger of non fulfillment. These new marketplaces can turn them into an annuity revenue stream.
The taxpayer can save £100m's a year in benefits payments and new tax receipts. That's according to independent research.
Downsides
Of course, there are downsides if this way of working really takes off. But the world is changing. It may be that the alternatives to Slivers-of-Time are worse for those who fear workforce casualisation.
