Canadian innovation has a blind spot: Workers
We studied 400 “Future of Work” initiatives from around the world. Here’s the takeaway for Canada.
While the Canadian technology scene is hot, and the government is pouring money into superclusters and venture capital funds, very little of this is showing up for workers. As work changes to become less about traditional full-time jobs and more about freelance, temporary and gig work, we need innovative solutions now more than ever.
At Social Capital Partners, we started a search almost two years ago for Canada’s best innovations that will help people adjust to changing work conditions. We came up almost entirely empty. So, we started looking elsewhere and partnered with the Royal Society of the Arts in the UK on the Future Work Awards — a massive search for the world’s best worker-focused innovations. We profiled over 400 initiatives and a global committee of judges chose 34 winners at a recent event in London, UK.
None of the 34 were Canadian. Only a few made the first cut.
And that’s not because there’s no need. Of the winners, I think there are at least 12 that would solve problems in Canada right now. I’ve profiled them here. From better gig platforms to modern unions and to better credit ratings, they are similar in their commitment to making work better. And this is the tip of the iceberg — so many of the 400 initiatives we looked at were solving challenges that Canada faces.
The great news is that very little investment would be required to either bring these to Canada, or provide incentives for Canadians to build our own versions of them. As we launch the $225M+ Future Skills Centre, and as the “future of work” discussion heats up, there’s no need to start from scratch.
On to the list:
Bob Emploi (France) — AI-powered career coaching
Bob is an online coaching tool that helps guide unemployed French workers through a career search. Since launching in October 2016, Bob has had strong results with over 150,000 jobseekers receiving coaching and 43% of users who found a job saying that Bob was crucial to their success. The most exciting thing about Bob is that they’re a non-profit led by civic-minded technology entrepreneurs who just want to make a difference. As a result, they have access to data from the government of France that they otherwise wouldn’t release, and the data is leading to a better result for people who need support. Not only would the tool itself be useful in Canada today, but we could learn a lot from their partnership with the French government.
Catalyte and Pursuit (United States) — Low barrier high-tech training
Catalyte and Pursuit are both examples of a new approach to training. They take blue-collar workers and provide them with intense high-tech training — with no tuition fees. Once they’ve completed the program, each organization provides or sources full-time employment with benefits at much higher salaries (Pursuit says their participants go from an average of $18K to an average of $85K). While they have somewhat different approaches, their programs both lead to very high rates of retention within the high-tech industry for their alumni.
Credly (United States) — Digital credentialing
As work changes, new skills are needed by employees. But we don’t have good ways of validating skills and competencies, other than in traditional institutions like colleges, universities and in-person academies. Credly is one of the leading companies in the nascent digital credentialing space, which validates skills from alternative sources like on-the-job training. IBM is a major partner of theirs, and they’ve seen completion rates for their in-house training skyrocket since they started using Credly to make their employees’ accomplishments portable to other jobs. Credly issues one credential every second to people in every country in the world, but adoption and partnerships have been slow in Canada.
Organise (UK), Workit (USA) and Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) (UK) — Next generation unions
With the decline of traditional unions, it has become harder for workers to organize and fight for better conditions. This is even more so the case for non-traditional workers. These three organizations are changing that. Organise uses a technology platform to help people…um…organize on specific issues, WorkIt has built an app that helps low income workers understand their rights and IWGB describes itself as an actual union for gig workers. From better pay for gig delivery couriers to paid family leave at Walmart, all have won important victories for workers that otherwise have no representation. As independent workers become a bigger part of the workforce and traditional unions struggle to serve them (or ignore them entirely) we will need ways to ensure their views are heard and rights are protected.
Portify (UK) — Better credit scoring
Tools that help low-income earners manage their finances is the most developed category of worker-focused technology. Portify is one of these, and they tackle the particularly important challenge of improving the credit score system. It uses actual banking data and user behaviour information to give a more complete picture of the creditworthiness of freelancers and gig workers. These workers don’t usually score well in the antiquated credit rating system most banks rely on, so Portify helps them access debt, and at lower interest rates. Until you’ve applied for a car loan without a full-time job, you can’t understand how terrible and demeaning the process is. There’s lots to do in this space, and Canada has a fraction of the activity going on in the US and UK.
SMart (EU) — Freelancer support
SMart provides wrap-around services to creative freelancers, like debt collection, insurance and a workspace. Canada’s social safety net (and pretty much the rest of our society as well) is designed around full-time employment. If you fall out of that category, which workers increasingly are, life is a hell of a lot harder. Until we start addressing these challenges, initiatives like SMart can help. It’s a self-funded cooperative — its members contribute some of their earnings to pay for the organization’s activities and fund the members’ insurance. In fairness, this one is starting in Canada, as SMart is in the midst of expanding to Montreal. But we should encourage more of these organizations to support the burgeoning freelancer market with subsidies, investments and in-kind support like free public workspaces.
WeMind (France) — Insurance and support renting an apartment
One of the least talked about challenges for people in non-traditional employment is how hard it is to rent an apartment. In hot markets landlords can pick and choose between renters, and a letter from an employer is often a requirement. WeMind provides insurance for freelancers that guarantees the landlord that rent will be paid. It also covers health, liability and some legal support. Like SMart, WeMind is trying to recreate a safety net for non-traditional workers. They’re mentioned separately here for attacking the rental issue — almost no one is thinking about solutions to this growing problem.
Hogaru (Latin America), Up & Go and Alia (United States) — Fairer gig platforms
This one is fun — three different ways to achieve the same thing: a better deal for domestic cleaners. Hogaru is a for-profit company, Up&Go is a new type of organization called a “platform co-operative” (where online platforms are owned by their providers) and Alia is an innovation of a union — the National Domestic Workers Alliance. Hogaru turns a traditional “freelance” activity into a full-time job by directly hiring the cleaners and providing stable income and benefits. Because Up&Go is owned by its workers, 95% of the proceeds go directly to them, leading to an average wage 30% higher than industry average. Alia allows the clients of domestic workers to contribute to a personal benefit fund that provides important insurance for things like sickness and disability. As with SMart and WeMind, these types of initiatives are critical for people who need to cobble together the safety net that full-time employees enjoy.
Initiatives like these aren’t just going to pop up in Canada on their own. Despite all of them showing traction and success, many still struggle for funding. Only four of the 12 have received venture funding (Hogaru, Catalyte, Portify and Credly), as many are targeting markets in which people can’t afford to pay very much, or they have a limited path to scale. These aren’t exactly the “Uber of Dry Cleaning!” type of investments that quicken the heart of venture capitalists. Instead, they are often ideas generated from the communities they serve, prioritizing the community’s needs over profits.
A relatively small worker-focused investment fund and the active support of governments would go a long way in this space. The people behind these companies are committed, mission-oriented leaders and if we can find creative ways to fund them, their initiatives could help thousands of Canadians. To date, the government’s support for innovation has been very “founder” focused: how do we support underrepresented entrepreneurs? While this is great, we should also be “client” focused — which underrepresented Canadians are not being served by the innovation economy today? Why? How could a different approach to funding or other kinds of support help change this?
My suggestion? Let’s figure out how to get these 12 over here and go from there.
