Getting started with on-demand labor in your operation can go smoothly or it can go very poorly. You’re probably wondering what the best strategy is for getting the most out of an on-demand labor platform like Veryable, so you can avoid spending your time to get less-than-optimal results.
Luckily, at Veryable we help businesses get started with on-demand labor every day. When it comes to posting your first few Ops, through hundreds of clients we’ve seen what’s worked and what could be improved. We’ve learned how you can avoid the most common mistakes people make when posting to the platform.
In this article, you’ll learn how to post your first Ops to the platform so you can get the best results for your business.
The best way to support your business with on-demand labor from the start is to post for general work. We define general work as the work that does not require specialization or tons of training.
You’re probably aware of some tasks that take away time from your star performers or specialized workers; these tasks are perfect for breaking off into a separate role and assigning that work to someone working on-demand.
Operators of any skill level should be able to do this type of general work, meaning you’re more likely to get bids on your Ops since more people meet the requirements. This will help you get more people in the door from on-demand labor so you can start building up your labor pool.
Location: Anywhere
Why it’s good: This takes non-critical tasks out of the way of full-time, specialized workers.
Location: Anywhere
Why it’s good: This takes non-critical tasks out of the way of full-time, specialized workers.
Location: Shipping, Receiving
Why it’s good: This is a quick way to evaluate Operators because it doesn’t require prior knowledge, and it takes non-critical tasks out of the way of full-time, specialized workers.
Location: Warehouse
Why it’s good: This takes a low-skill, tedious task out of the way of full-time workers.
Location: Production
Why it’s good: Operators can quickly be trained to spot defects and prevent backlogs for quality inspection.
Location: Anywhere
Why it’s good: This is a low-skill task that has minimal impact on operations, so it is a good testing ground for posting Ops and working with Operators while keeping full-time employees engaged with their regular work.
Location: Shipping, Receiving
Why it’s good: This is a good task where you can vet Operators while addressing a low-performing section of the workforce that would have an impact on operations.
Location: Production, Machining
Why it’s good: This takes non-critical tasks out of the way of full-time, specialized workers. It can also serve as basic training for the Operators if you want to add another specialized worker when demand grows.
Location: Anywhere
Why it’s good: Operators are often looking for shifts outside the standard 9-5 working houts. This is an opportunity to reduce the strain on full-time workers and keep the operation running smoothly at all required times.
Location: Operations admin
Why it’s good: This can help you keep up to date in your order tracking systems, and is a good experimentation Op to test out where Operators can add value to your business.
After you’ve been using Veryable for a while, you should be more comfortable bringing Operators in to meet extra demand and support your full-time employees when needed. This will have given you the understanding and comfort level with the platform to be able to identify Operators who would be a good fit in your work environment, which will make it much easier to pick workers when you start posting Ops for skilled work.
When you post for skilled work, you should identify one role at first that you can focus your Ops on. That way you can establish how you will show Operators the specifics of your facilities and machinery for this role. Establishing a procedure for onboarding Operators will speed up how quickly you can get new Operators working in skilled roles in the future and help you build a labor pool for skilled work.
After you’re comfortable bringing skilled workers into the one area, you can expand quickly into other areas so that your whole operation can scale when demand makes it necessary.
Shorter Ops get more bids and see better attendance rates. Plus, they provide your business with more flexibility while giving you the chance to try out on-demand labor. You’ll get a chance to see which workers you like and get experience posting Ops, accepting bids from Operators, and adding them to your labor pool.
This is a great way to test out on-demand labor in your operation so you can get a feel for what it takes to successfully implement it.
If you have bottlenecks caused by not enough workers in areas of your operation, this is the first place you should post Ops for. Find the task that’s most accessible and post an Op for that task to give support where it’s needed. If the work isn’t specialized, and the training can be done quickly, this will be an immediate boost to the productivity of this work area.
Posting Ops well is the first step toward getting the most out of on-demand labor. This important first step paves the way for you to build a labor pool, so you’ll reliably get bids from people familiar with your operation. Read our blog on what a labor pool is to learn how you can use these initial ops to quickly build a flexible supply of labor that’s available when you need it.
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