Some of you may remember the UK MD of Coople, Kit Glover, from his time at eBay. Now he’s running a new marketplace catering for companies needing to hire staff and people looking for work. The idea is to make it as simple to book flexible, temporary staff as it is to click and buy a product online. Want to sort your staffing needs out at whatever time of day or night suits you? Coople makes this possible so I went up to their London head office to ask Kit more about the service:
Who are Coople?
Coople is Europe’s largest on-demand marketplace for temporary staff with over 100,000 fully vetted workers signed up in the UK. We’ve raised over $72M to date from investors including Goldman Sachs.
Once you register your company, you can post a job online or via the Coople Hire app and instantly reach skilled, temporary workers who match your requirements. Within the retail sector, Coople specialises in making it easy for you to find temporary staff for roles such as warehouse assistants, pickers, packers & processing roles as well as customer service, telesales, sales assistants and general office support.
What do you do?
Coople helps clients such as H&M and Zara, as well as small retail operators like you, to meet their ever changing staffing needs. Whether they need to find extra customer service agents and warehouse staff to deal with the demand of Black Friday and the run up to the festive season, or hire telesales staff with language skills in order to complete a last minute project, the Coople platform allows companies to reach the right temporary workers at the right time.
Can you give a specific example of work you’ve done?
Sure. We’ve worked with large companies such as DPD, Swissport and Krispy Kreme, but a good example is with a company called Blue Vanilla Clothing.
Blue Vanilla Clothing struggled to find high quality staff in order to ensure they didn’t lose out on revenue during their Summer peak. They required three seasonal warehouse operatives over a three month period with varying shift patterns to assist with picking and packing. Working alongside Coople, they were able to build a pool of trusted warehouse staff that they were able to rely on for contract work, as well as cover last minute absences.
Can you give me an example of the sort of person who will turn up to a shift?
We have a broad range of workers who use the Coople app. Quite often they are people looking for some extra work which they can fit around their schedule, there are also a good number of students, as well as our regular users who rely on Coople for a large part of their income.
Put simply, there isn’t a ‘typical’ type of worker. One thing they all have in common however is that they are fully vetted to ensure they have the right skills and experience, as well as a positive attitude towards the work they’re applying for.
How does technology make this different to a traditional temp agency?
Speed, transparency, and flexibility at any time day or night. Creating a job and reaching the temporary workers with the right skills can be done in minutes. Thanks to the Coople app, you are actually placing your positions in the hands of temporary workers who have the right skills to do the job.
When it comes to hiring, the platform is completely transparent. You can view the full profile of your applicants including their CV, as well as their ‘star rating’ which is made up of all the ratings given to them by previous employers on the platform. Coople gives you the flexibility to fill a role for a day or for a few months.
What areas of the country is Coople available in?
Right now Coople is primarily based in London and the surrounding areas. We’ll have broader national coverage in 2020 as we expand rapidly across the country.
What does it cost? Does the rate of pay have any extras?
With Coople, you are always in full control over how much they pay. You set the hourly wage and a simple multiplier is applied which covers Coople’s cost. As the legal employer, we pay tax, national insurance and holiday. There are no extras, and you only pay for the hours worked once they have confirmed.
Can Coople help over the Q4 peak?
Yes. Halloween, Black Friday and Christmas represent fantastic opportunities for you
to maximise your revenue in Q4. Many retailers are using Coople to ensure they make the most of the busy period by flexing up their staff with Coople in key roles in the office and warehouse.
How do I get started and create my first job?
It’s as easy as signing up online. It only takes a minute to register, and once your account has been confirmed, you can create your first job on the platform.
Creating a job is simple and straightforward, you simply enter a few details of the job, set the hourly wage, the job role and the experience required. Once the job is published, temporary workers matching the required skills will start to apply. Then it’s just a case of choosing who you want to hire for the job.
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4 Responses
This is a little spooky as we are just about to look for casual staff for Q4.
I did click through and have spoken to a representative from Coople, who explained everything very well, however when i asked what the “Special Offer” was, there was a little confusion, so it might be an idea to say what the special offer is, either here or on the “click here” page.
Good Luck Kit
This really helped me out. Just going into the busy Q4 season, Coople could help me out quickly with good quality staff for my store.
I only can recommend it!
Spoke with them but they need all of the potential staff to go down to their office in London to be vetted, wont work for us