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Flexible work in 2020

Coople was founded 10 years ago (then called StaffFinder) to create the future of work. A future, where anyone can work flexibly and fit their work around their life, instead of the other way around.

If that doesn’t sound very futuristic, you are right. Because that future is now. Today, you can work by the hour, find jobs that allow you to fund your start-up or take care of family. Flexible work can help you save for buying a home or traveling the world. It enables you to bridge a gap between jobs or resign from a position you don’t like, knowing that you can keep paying your bills.

If you run a business, freelancers and flexible workers can bring in much-needed skills, help during crunch times, and allow you to maximise your income. Many shops, warehouses and restaurants cannot operate during peak hours without flexible staff. In larger businesses, flexible workforce management has become a core component of business strategy.

In 2020, all of this assumed a new meaning. During a crisis, flexible work is no longer just a way for businesses to do better than their competition. For many, it’s the only way to survive. For workers, it is one of the best, if not only, options to pay their bills, change career paths, or find permanent positions after trying a few temporary jobs first.

Flexible work provides great opportunities in good times. It can become essential when things get difficult.

Coople’s Beliefs: Rewarding Ambition

Despite the importance of flexible work, something still seems to be missing. When you think of flexible work, what is the first thing that comes to mind?

Are you thinking about unmotivated staff, low salaries or poor work experiences? Then you are not alone. Flexible work still has a bad reputation. Many people think of it as an option for people who have no other options.

We have known this for a while and have been trying subtly to change that reputation. But that is not enough. With our re-branding, we want to put our position on this front and centre.

At Coople, we believe that flexible work is not a ‘holding pen’ for B-employees or a last resort for businesses. It creates career opportunities for ambitious people, and business opportunities for ambitious employers. On a digital platform like ours, your reputation matters more than your CV. By showing focus and commitment, you can reach your goals. Your ambition gets rewarded.

We are sure of this: Meet our Cooplers and clients

What makes our team most proud are your successes on our platform.

Meet Coco, who started working as a Coopler to bridge a gap while she was unemployed. After working a couple of shifts and getting great reviews, she applied for our internal one-year trainee program in the marketing department. Two promotions later, today she is a Marketing Manager.

Amgad works flexibly to support his A-Level studies. He can fit work around his study schedule to ultimately reach his goal of getting an Economics degree at Oxford. His Coopler experience in workplace communication and teamwork will help him in his future career.

RHIAG, the auto parts wholesaler, relied on a team of flexible hires to improve productivity and take pressure off their core team during peak hours. Their entire Swiss logistics operation now relies on Coople for staff management.

Just Eat built a pool of over 100 dedicated, flexible workers for their customer service team. Not only did they hire them, but they also trained and promoted some to team leaders. The right flexible work strategy enabled them to fill complicated shift patterns reliably.

All of them reached their goals with flexible work by working hard and showing commitment to their work or workers – no matter how long the contract.

Our new look

You will have noticed that things look differently on our website. We took a bold step and made it black and white. Why? To put the spotlight on our Cooplers. We know that employers come to Coople because of our Cooplers’ focus, dedication and commitment. That’s what we want to highlight. The photo competition we launched will give Cooplers the opportunity to show off their work (and make some money). Have a look at it to participate or to see our Cooplers at their best!

We’ll also sound a little different from now on. You come to Coople to work with professionals. You want to be challenged, in a constructive and respectful way. And you know that reaching your goals is hard work, as an individual or as a business leader. We want to help you do that and we can. We understand flexible work like nobody else. And we want to share our knowledge and experience with you. Like a good work mentor who asks the tough questions, says it as it is and helps you reach your long-term goals.

Each shift is a step towards meaningful goals

Our product is changing as well. If you log in regularly, most of this probably isn’t news to you. We’ve been doing the work under the hood and even our new website has been live for a while. If you haven’t logged in for a while, come and have a look!

As part of the re-brand, we conducted specific interviews, surveys, and focus groups with many of you. What stood out is your ambition and your desire for showing commitment, whether you are a Coopler or a client. Cooplers want to contribute meaningfully, no matter how long or short the work relationship. They want to build new skills, and then use them. Businesses want to find Cooplers who have the right skills, but are also a good fit for their team, to be able to develop longer-term relationships with them.

We’ve been hard at work to make changes to the Coople platform that will make these things easier for you and support long-term relationships:

  • We overhauled the jobs marketplace for Cooplers to make it much easier for you to find jobs at the firms you’ve worked at before, and especially those where you’ve been selected as a ‘favourite’. We are using AI to notify you of the jobs you most likely want to apply for and are likely to be successful with. All of this to help you contribute meaningfully, have rewarding work experiences, and reach your personal goals.
  • On the employer side, we transformed the information you can see about Cooplers which will help you to make the most informed hiring decisions. You can now see more easily where Cooplers have worked before and which of their skills are rated highly by other employers. This focus on their platform reputation allows our most ambitious Cooplers to stand out, and it allows you to easily find them instead of having to download their CV. We have also made it easier to select Cooplers as ‘favourites’ so you can request them again whenever you need them.

At Coople, you control where you work or whom you hire. We are striving to continuously improve this experience, so that all ambitious workers and managers who join our platform can have the same experience that Guiseppe, Coco, Saomanee and Amgad had, where each shift was a step towards their own, meaningful goals.