Uber launches a shift-work finder app, Uber Works, starting in Chicago – TechCrunch
What do you do when your current business model is so staggeringly loss-making that you have to warn investors that it can never make a profit while under increasing legal and regulatory attack?
One answer might be to turn. Uber does not do just that. Not yet. But it has just officially announced the launch of a new app to match shift workers with shifts, called Uber Works, and collaborate with staffing agencies.
The announcement confirms a report from the Financial Times a year ago, which reported that Uber was working on an on-demand staffing business. The company declined to comment at the time.
The tech giant is best known for its ride-hail platform, but has diversified its business for a while ̵[ads1]1; getting into food delivery (Uber Eats) and buying into the micro mobility trend (with Jump e-bikes and scooters.
becoming a matchmaker for shift work seems to be the next step in Uber's quest for sustainability – both its core business and, well, its reputation for leveraging labor.
In a blog about the Uber Works launch, starting in Chicago, but planned to Expanding to more areas "soon," the company writes that it is "committed to providing services that support skills upgrading and promotes re-entry of work," and says it will partner with "various organizations that support workers in their work journey."
One month ago, Uber's hometown state of California enacted employment insurance for gig workers targeting giants, [19659002] The new law means working with a large economy that is algorithmically managed via platforms, is very likely to be entitled to minimum wage, employee compensation and other benefits because it requires employers to use the ABC test to classify a worker as an independent contractor – meaning they will need to prove that the employee is free from the control and direction of the employment unit; performs work outside the scope of the business operations; and is regularly engaged in work on an independently established trade or other similar business.
The law will come into force on January 1, 2020. Uber is not cautiously entering that good night, and has continued to deny the law applies to business – saying it will do what is necessary to maintain contractor status.
But it is pushing against the tide. At home and abroad. In Europe, it has already been forced to offer a number of concessions (such as free insurance and working hours) following a number of legal and regulatory challenges, as well as careful political scrutiny of how the business works – including the salaries and conditions it provides to employees.
The regulator for Uber's most important regional city – London – continues to hold back a full license renewal. Transport for London rejected the application to renew the license in 2017, citing security concerns and questions about the company's governance and culture. And Uber's ride-hailing business is still in very short supply, with only a two-month extension last month – along with healthy conditions.
It is safe to say that the cost of ride-hailing does not shrink.
Uber Works looks like an attempt to find a less bumpy path to profitability – via a matchmaking platform for workers hired by staffing agencies, which Uber's blog posts carefully label "employ, pay and manage benefits". Ergo Uber does not have to.
What it wants to be is a technology provider for staffing agencies, offering a platform that matches agency employees to available shifts – in roles such as prep cook, warehouse worker, commercial cleaner and event staff – while also performing time tracking, tied to a carrot for workers with more "timely" payments.
The platform's ability to track work will also clearly work for agencies, but with Uber suggesting the "technology-first" approach "will lead to a" more efficient marketplace … [b] and provide a reliable pool of guards and qualified workers ”. So there is a code that workers who relax will be seen by technology as slowing down – and probably will not be matched by major shifts if they do.
Here's how the Uber shows the play:
Today, millions of Americans use staffing agencies to find work. Still, the status quo is not ideal, not for workers or businesses.
Workers face rigid planning and opaque information about where to pick up shifts and how much they can expect to earn. Businesses are struggling to staff up to meet peak demand, and must cope with forgotten shifts and high turnover.
We believe a new, technological first approach can provide faster and easier means for people to get work, while providing greater insight into the many opportunities for work out there – enhancing the experience for both workers and businesses.
That is why over the past year we have studied and built technological solutions that can help influence workers' shifting experiences and eliminate bottlenecks. to find work.
There is – it must be said – more than a little irony here. As lawyers for Uber, the ride giant, have been repeatedly instructed to claim that it is just a technology platform, not a transport company. (Two years ago, Europe's CJEU blew this argument out of the water.)
With Uber Works, Uber hopes again to fold itself as a technology platform. Although we work with staffing agencies, there is hope that there is less legal risk involved.
Uber says that the years-long Uber Works project grew out of its business incubator – and leveraged its "market technology and operational knowledge to help solve the pain points found in connecting workers with businesses."
There is no word on where in the US it could extend Uber Works to the next.
The tech giant is certainly entering an already crowded field.
19659002] There are a large number of shift, temporary and blue collar job search applications that target a similar fast-paced, high turnover need in the US and Europe – including the likes of Bacon, Catapult, Gig, JobToday, Limber, Rota, Shiftgig , Shiifty, Snag and Syft to name a few.