From Jay Donovan at TechCrunch:
It’s been some time since I worked hourly (mostly in restaurants) but I do remember that scheduling my shifts was a real hassle and involved a paper sheet on a cork-board in the shift room. I’m sure organizing those schedules for multiple employees was an even bigger hassle for the manager.
As of 2014 there are nearly 80 million workers in the U.S. that work hourly and a new crop of businesses out there are using mobile technology to minimize this hassle for these “desk-less workers” and their managers. Competing businesses like 7shifts, Jolt, Zip Schedules, ShiftPlanning and When I Work, among others, are taking on this challenge.
This last one in particular, the Minneapolis-based startup When I Work, just secured $15 million in a Series B round led by Drive Capital. Arthur Ventures and High Alpha also participated. This follows a $9 million Series A led by e.ventures, Greycroft Partners and Arthur Ventures, bringing the company’s total financing to date to $24 million.
When I Work is not only for scheduling because employees can also use the service to “clock in” with their smartphone. Mangers can also integrate the tools into their payroll mechanism. It definitely seems easier than the hodgepodge of paper schedules phone calls that I remember and therefore seems interesting to me. Continued venture backing also seems to indicate the efficiencies of businesses like this are palpable.
The company’s platform now reaches 2 million employees at 50,000 workplaces including some 15,000 nurses and on-demand services like Munchery, Foodpanda and Uber’s community service team.
The company is planning to used the additional funding, according to founder and CEO Chad Halvorson, to “double-down on communication and collaboration tools purpose-built for the hourly workforce” and “to aggressively acquire engineering, product, and sales and marketing talent.”
