In 2009 Uber Technologies launched their ride-hailing services that eventually disrupted the taxi and car sharing industries. Leveraging their on-demand platform and success within the ride-hailing market, Uber eventually branched into food delivery and in 2019 into the employment and staffing world with Uber Works. This development means that BOWEN is no longer just competing with the billion-dollar giants from our industry but also with technology companies that are launching platforms to support the gig-economy. While these technologies have a limited foot hold in Canada, they are mature within the US and Europe. As a result, we ask is there a platform that BOWEN can add to our existing technology that will give us a competitive advantage within Canada?

The idea of an on-demand workforce is nothing new. In cities across the world there are locations where employers can drive up and hire low skilled or semi-skilled workers off the street corner. Technology is simply moving this concept into the 21st century. The main difference technology brings to the game is that it can expand beyond the semi-skilled and can manage skilled workers which makes this a competitor to BOWEN’s business. As an entrepreneurial company BOWEN is not looking to compete but instead embrace this technology to make BOWEN a more attractive employer to our candidates and preferred vendor to our clients.

At a high-level, on-demand platforms allow candidates to create a profile that contains their identity, skills, education, certifications, and other attributes. Depending on the platform these qualifications are either validated by the technology itself or in some combination with human interaction. Once validated the candidate is placed in a pre-qualified pool of talent and is available for assignment. On the client side, they can create job postings looking for individuals with specific skills. These postings are either done directly in the platform or with the assistance of a recruiter. Once the posting is live in the system it will automatically find potential candidates from within the qualified pool and send them a link asking if they are interested in the position. If the candidate replied that they are interested they are given more information about the job at which point they can accept or decline the position. If they accept, they are then given information about the client, any policies or onboarding documents and other relevant information. Depending on the platform, the software will now confirm that the individual showed up for work, track their time, provide the opportunity for feedback and other services.

BOWEN is looking to understand if a platform exists for the management of on-demand workers that will integrate with our existing technology, maintain or enhance the quality of our services and provide us with a competitive advantage.