Imagine the following scenario: Larry lives in Liverpool and he has old mother (living in the London area) who requires some help with her groceries ever Monday and Thursday and would enjoy a social visit every Saturday late afternoon. Now imagine that you live in the same area as Larry’s mother, have spare time and are willing to befriend and help the old lady. But how could you know who would need your help… and when? Well... 'Slivers of Time system' knows.
Slivers of Time is a software platform that allows workers and volunteers to set up their availability by selecting number of hours at a specific date/time they are willing to work/volunteer. The system also allows companies/agencies/recipients to book the workers or the volunteers for their specific needs at the specific time.
It is all about a market – where you could set that you are available for example - every Sunday from 7pm to 9pm. You could also set if you are willing to give your time for free (as volunteer) or want to sell it. Then the person or the organization that needs you only has to book your time. You are going to receive confirmation sms/email message and you have to confirm and agree with the booking. And it is all set – just in a matter of seconds.
It might be arguable if the future belongs to the flexible labor market but it is certain that there will be higher demand for flexible work time workers and volunteers in the next few years. Also, self management systems will have tremendous impact on cutting costs and time of organizations and labor force management.
The current Slivers of Time platform includes a lot of features. It allows:
- Registration of volunteers/workers.
- Registration of recipients and agencies.
- Assignment of different agreements/contracts to different volunteers and recipients.
- Volunteers/Workers/Recipients management by the agencies administrators.
- Booking of hours either for money or for free (volunteering).
- Creation of timesheets for all bookings.
- Generation of different kind of reports, including: bookings, volunteers, recipients, timesheets, etc…
- Customization of the system and the whole experience, depending on the agency that is about to use it.
Currently the system is only available to agencies and not widely released to the public. This is a real disadvantage and if you wish to register and participate as either recipient or volunteer/worker you need to find an agency in your area that is using the system and register using their web site. But still there is a great potential in the platform and it helps a lot of people find needed help/services in the needed time. Another great feature is that a person could be booked for a specific job by a third party (on behalf of recipient for example) too. This way Larry (from our story at the top) could really book somebody to help his mother by providing her address and contact details. Then his mother could assess the volunteer and the service she received and this assessment is visible on the volunteer’s profile.
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