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Stories

Estonian Innovators: GoWorkABit.com

In the first of a new series, Charm Offensive will profile the projects being entered into Ajujaht, an Estonian initiative which aims to find, and help, the best new business idea. Kei Karlson, one of the team behind GoWorkABit.com, explains a little more about the project.

The GoWorkABit.com team

The GoWorkABit.com team


"GoWorkABit is a web-application that connects companies who need occasionally some extra help with people, who can choose when and where they help.

There are many people who don't want to or cannot work full time. For example students, freelancers, stay-home parents or people who work already to a schedule. But they would love to make some extra-money and try new things while their spare time when the location is suitable.

And on the other side there are companies that sometimes need some fast extra help. Warehouses, service-area companies, logistics and so on. The problem is that the process of recruiting and managing extra-personnel is almost always much slower than needed.

GoWorkaBit will come to the rescue. Companies can enter their need to the application and people will get a notice via sms and/or email. If the time and place are suitable the users can apply with only one click and that´s it. They can go and work a bit. It's a win-win situation!

I've been working in an HR Company for 6 years and I know about recruiting and staffing. I also know exactly where the pain-points are. I've met many companies who struggle with these kind of problems - how to find substitutes and extra personnel very fast. It doesn't matter how good you are at planning, there will be always moments you cannot predict the workload. For example in warehousing: you will get a much larger delivery than expected but you have to unpack it with the time planned. To solve the problem you need 5 more people to help you.

On the other side, I've met many people who would like to work and make some money, but can't commit to a long-term job that is not flexible enough. So the demand comes from both sides. Today we are building the tool that has been missing and makes it possible.

Our team met on October 11th at a Garage48 event. As I offered a ride to some developers (actually they offered themselves to my car), I pitched the idea on the road, and when we arrived to the event, a back-end developer, Margus, was already recruited. The rest of the team loved the idea, understood the problem and decided to join.

The team is awesome, we have been developing, brainstorming, working very hard and we have had lots of fun doing it! In three weeks we have developed a working web-app, have met with several clients and started to build the user base. Our next goal is to win Ajujaht 2014!

 

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GoWorkABit will make the difference to how people look at the job market. In the near future, GoWorkABit will solve the ultimate problem: a shortage of working-age people. HR people all around the world are thinking about ways to include more people in the labour market. GoWorkaBit is one way of doing that."

Estonian Innovators is presented by Charm Offensive, Ajujaht and Fleep, the new social tool from Estonia, for the conversations that matter.