It’s a community platform, website and app to put businesses in touch with people who want to earn a little extra money, perhaps students or recently retired people with flexible time on their hands.
It is about outsourcing and using local services. There’s a review facility, so both businesses and individuals can build up trust and reputations for reliability.
People looking for part-time, or fixed term, a few hours of work or even just an hour from time to time, are able to apply via what is a jobs board with a difference – and payments are made via the app.
From a business point of view:
I thought about how useful this would be to Leeds Living. Well, if all of our writers were occupied and unavailable for an urgent job, Airtasker could be the first port of call. Over time, it would be reassuring to know that via Airtasker, sudden needs and deadlines can be met with barely a ripple.
If I was a manager whose team was struggling with a sudden influx of tight deadline work, having a potential pool of talent to step in for the short term would be such a boon. I might just want someone to use as a sounding board, at a distance from the internal network and thereby completely impartial.
Sometimes at work, we have to let each other down. Sudden family crises and illness happen. The rest of the team cannot necessarily cope, although often do. How good that I could turn to the app to help.
What about the domestic scene?
There is cleaning. The inlaws are visiting imminently and I know the limits of my housekeeping and my mother-in-law.
Flat pack furniture assembly. Someone else can figure it all out and find the missing bits.
Dog-walking. I love her so I shouldn’t ever have to leave her on her own all day.
Baking. It’s for a worthy charity, but where do I find the time?
Even queuing!
This enters the world of the handyman and the home help, but why not? Sometimes, it’s hard to find people with that availability and flexibility. Have you experienced how difficult it is just to find someone to hang a heavy mirror, put up a shelf or stow some things into the loft?
What about the perspective of the task-seeker? I know only too well how much skill, experience and talent sits with the recently and even not so recently retired, and of course the student population is brimming with creativity if not yet the experience, but my first question would be about safety and security. How would this be assured?
Well, the platform operates much like Uber, so posters and taskers can build up their reviews so that trustworthiness can be measured.
Now, I must contact all those people I know who might well be interested in this one: My friend has to have a knee operation soon. Who’s going to walk Jasper? This is the third year running that my neighbours have said they want to tackle that shady corner of the garden. I know someone who is struggling with prepping a significant presentation……
You can find out more here.
