Interview
A workforce management platform for accessible hiring — Spotwork
MaRS and CIBC Inclusive Design Challenge 2021 Winner
Organization:
Spotwork
Website:
https://spotapp.co/
Your name?
Darren Perlman
Your role at the organization?
Co-Founder
Spotwork’s solution as a socially responsible hiring platform is now being used by over 50 employers across Canada and providing accessible job opportunities to over 300 people a day.
Let’s hear your origin story! How did you get into this work?
When we dreamt of a social innovation for the gig economy in 2019, we endeavoured to radically reimagine the possibilities for equitable employment in Canada. As change makers, we regarded the growing divide between the jobs of the future and available skills with both concern and optimism, but we knew it was an opportunity to provide a groundbreaking solution to a compelling challenge.
Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic had created unprecedented impacts on the communities and industries. Massive disruptions in retail, manufacturing, and hospitality have challenged us to uncover new opportunities for growth. Even as some industries struggled with structural changes, we noticed significant increases in demand for our services in several areas including manufacturing, logistics, and healthcare.
COVID-19 propelled our staffing marketplace technology as an answer to the labour shortages experienced by Canadian employers. Spotwork’s solution as a socially responsible hiring platform is now being used by over 50 employers across Canada and providing accessible job opportunities to over 300 people a day.
What does your organization do? What makes this important?
Spotwork is a workforce management platform and marketplace that helps employers recruit, onboard, schedule and manage their workforces in real-time using mobile and web technology.
With Spotwork, job seekers can find and book flexible opportunities in real-time on their mobile devices, with direct payment sent weekly for completed shifts.
What we do is important because we are eliminating the friction points between employers looking to hire and job seekers looking for work. We cut down the recruitment time and costs for employers, and help job seekers find opportunities quickly. We also provide development opportunities to job seekers free of charge on our platform through our Learning Management System. Job seekers can use your platform to find full-time opportunities, develop skills, build experience, or find flexible opportunities that work for them. We help everyone work on their terms.
This filter built inside our current app will help job seekers find accessible opportunities that work for them and encourage employers to create more accessible friendly opportunities.
How does your organization support inclusive and accessible hiring for people with disabilities?
We support inclusive and accessible hiring for people with disabilities with our proposed accessibility app filter. This filter built inside our current app will help job seekers find accessible opportunities that work for them and encourage employers to create more accessible friendly opportunities. The filter will include a wide range of needs.
We plan to continue to support inclusive and accessible hiring for people with disabilities throughout our current employer partnerships. We will do this by educating our partners with a goal to provide more accessible friendly positions on our platform.
What keeps you going (other than coffee)? What are you most proud of so far?
I am most proud of the full-time job opportunities we’ve created through our technology. What keeps me going is our goal to provide more opportunities for persons with disabilities by educating employers and increasing the amount of accessible opportunities on our platform.
You were one of the winners of the MaRS & CIBC Inclusive Design Challenge! How will this win help you build on your mission?
Becoming a winner of the MaRS and CIBC Inclusive Design Challenge is helping us build our proposed accessibility filter within our current app. The prize funds have been allocated to the research, design, and development of this feature.
The accessibility filter will help job seekers find accessibility opportunities that truly work for them. It will include a wide range of needs (i.e., vision, hearing, mobility, mental & more). Employer education will also be conducted to promote more accessible opportunities on the platform.
In conclusion, this win is helping us with our mission to provide more accessible opportunities for persons with disabilities.
What’s the best way for people to support you?
The best way for people to support us is to become social advocates. You can do this by following us on social media, sharing one of our posts, or sharing our story. We also enjoy partnering with other like minded organizations.
