(Brigad) Level 2 — work for/in the future
It has been one year since Brigad was officially launched. Thousands of hours have been worked since then. Today I am sharing a few thoughts and ideas on work, on people and how I think they’ll have to be managed in the future.
#0 — Optimizing experience
All individuals have skills, knowledge, and past experiences that can be optimized. By optimized, I mean that this “skills package” can be useful for other economic agents willing to pay for it.
A small part of the world’s population is on LinkedIn (100 million monthly active users). Bankers, consultants, lawyers, entrepreneurs, engineers. But who has ever seen a waiter, a baker, a plumber, a nurse, a school teacher, a mason on a professional social network?
Our job at Brigad is to identify and optimize every single skill of our users and provide them with jobs that fit their capacities.
“Our job is to identify and optimize every single skill of our users.”
Too many people’s skills remain unused; whilst at the same time companies are craving for them. This is due to the lack of communication / transparency / fluidity of the market.
#1 — Future is all about flexibility
Flexibility is often seen as something employers / companies fight for to easily adapt to changes or economic cycles. This has probably been true for a while but it is now just a thing of the past.
“Flexibility now lies on both companies and workers.”
Flexibility now lies on both companies and workers. Workers, also, adapt their life cycles and their needs through it. On-demand jobs/work is a perfect way to do so. People should be able to work anywhere they want, whenever they want if they have the skills to do so.
#2 — Short-term means long-term
I do believe in long-term jobs. They are the spine of a healthy economy.
Working only with temp workers would mean instability . Every business must have its regular staff and independent contractors should only be to adapt to economic variations.
“Long term jobs are the spine of a healthy economy.”
While accepting short-term projects / jobs, workers meet with potential long-term employers: they create a network, their network. Employers want to be sure that their long-term staff is reliable and will always be happy to hire someone they’ve been working with before. On the other hand, multiplying short-term experiences will increase the chances of getting a long-term job.
We’re happy when someone finds a full-time job thanks to Brigad. These are beautiful stories. Yes we’re “loosing” (churn) a great user (the freelancer). But more than anything we’re making two very happy users (both the freelancer AND the business) that will come back later to the platform for sure. Doing so we’re building a strong and long-term relationship with our ecosystem and a real barrier for our competitors.
“We’re happy when someone finds a full-time job thanks to Brigad.”
#3 — On demand workforce is good for small and medium businesses
Finding great people to work for a company is hard regardless if this is a small company or a big corporation.
Small and medium businesses are more sensitive to economic variations. Forecasts can hardly be made months in advance. Studies reveal that an average restaurant loses $10,000 each year because of staffing issues.
To face all unexpected changes and variations, all companies need to adapt their workforce seamlessly. It means having more people available for work when the demand is high and less workers when there is a drop in demand.
Our role as a platform is to provide individuals with a maximum of jobs / projects. When a business does not need staff and another business requires some work then our users always have the chance to work if they want to.
#4 — People need and seek protection
Easy to say, hard to build. But true. Independent or freelance work does not have to mean you get zero or low protection. We are building platforms that provide people and businesses with jobs and workforce, this gives us legal and moral responsibilities:
> Platforms must secure the work environment.
> Platforms must provide independent workers with insurance.
> Platforms must train people (and will increase their value doing so.)
> Platforms must help people prepare their future.
At Brigad, we spend a lot of time building this safe and sustainable environment and also encourage other platforms to do so. Platformization (or Uberization) does not mean lowering people’s life standards. It means facilitating connections and transactions between economic agents.
“Platformization does not mean lowering people’s life standards.”
Happy and well-trained freelancers / independent workers make a great platform, full of value for its final users. Our job is to create this safe and secure atmosphere.
#5 — Full-automation is even harder when it comes to work
People are unpredictable. Life is full of uncertainties. We’re working hard on anticipating every single situation that can happen. But you always face something new. We’re working with humans, meaning anything can happen at any time. That’s why even if algorithms are Brigad’s basis, you might need support. We have a large support team available to you.
“We have a large support team available to you.”
This “human touch and feeling” is critical; nobody likes to talk to a machine. We’ll have to find a way to keep it while scaling.
#6 — User expectations are high
And they are on both sides.
Businesses expect perfectly qualified and motivated people to do the job.
Workers want peaceful and secure working conditions. Our job is to create the best environment for all stakeholders: simple tools, easy-to-use services, reactive client support, safety, proactive functionalities and more.
— Two things must be kept in mind:
> Platforms create opportunities both for companies and people.
> Platforms have to protect their users (in our case on both sides).
Thanks for reading.
#letswork ⚡️
About Brigad: Brigad is an smart & on-demand staff dispatcher service designed and developed in Paris. Available for hospitality jobs in the Paris area. Accelerated by 50 Partners.
