In 1995 Amazon started a website selling books, and in 2019 they accounted half of all retail sales in the country.
That is a staggering number which speaks to the efficiency of platform marketplaces. Even more surprising is that it has taken twenty-five years for the fallout to reach the staffing industry. But make no mistake, it is here now.
What the heck is a “platform”?
That word gets thrown around heavily in the workforce management industry and can have a bunch of different meanings. In the case of staffing, a platform is a medium where producers and consumers come together over a handy app that facilitates the transaction, in ways the traditional process simply cannot. They often create value through finding new users and use cases, but more often, platform businesses simply grow by disintermediating (traditional) businesses in an existing market..
Ready or not, staffing is next.
A perfect example of staffing’s pending disruption is Indeed’s recent announcement of Indeed Flex, an app-based staffing agency providing light industrial workers in Texas. It will likely expand fast and wide. Uber also jumped into hospitality staffing under the Uber Works brand, and jumped out due to the pandemic. Safe to say they will be back in the recovery, positioning themselves as a great alternative for venues and restaurants to meet the opportunity of pent-up demand.
Staffing owners have been hearing about app-based disruptions in other industries for years, and now it’s finally headed our way, and fast. So, what does that mean? And how can small and mid-sized agencies compete before the phone stops ringing?
The fact these behemoths want to get into temporary staffing is both terrible and fantastic news for the industry. It is obviously terrible because they are formidable competitors with huge reserves of cash. But the other side of that is the industry outlook is very bullish, otherwise, why would they want in? Competing against them means leveraging relationships and providing great service.
But service can only take you so far. For example, I used to get fantastic customer service from my local Blockbuster Video. But the first time I watched a movie on Netflix was the last time I rented a movie in a store.
Don’t get “Blockbustered”, get Arrived
Layering Arrived technology provides our clients with a fully branded app in the Apple App/Google play store, right alongside the big competitors. I’d like to help staffing agencies of all sizes to adopt a mobile platform on their own terms. At Arrived, we design our technology to fit our clients’ existing processes, instead of making our clients change their processes to fit our technology. Adopting our digital offering helps win new business, retain existing clients, adapt to changing worker expectations, and adds recruiter efficiency. If you want to know more or even just discuss market conditions and strategy, grab some time on my schedule here.