
Show HN: Staffjoy Flex – Marketplace Scheduling for Contractors - philip1209
https://www.staffjoy.com/flex/
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philip1209
Today we are launching Staffjoy Flex, which is our product for scheduling
independent contractors. Last month, we launched Staffjoy Boss, which is our
employee product.

The key difference is that, with Flex, we implement a marketplace for
scheduling. So, contractors pick the shifts they want - rather than being
assigned them. This helps with IC compliance for businesses, while at the same
time giving workers long shifts and flexibility.

Staffjoy Flex is the result of our research into how contractor-based startups
schedule hourly workers. We found that engagement by contractors falls off
with each additional step necessary. Collecting availability doesn't scale,
and we found that contractor availability changes quickly. With Staffjoy Flex,
contractors pick from available shifts, then immediately know whether they are
working.

This approach scales to thousands of workers without significantly changing
the time it takes to schedule. Staffjoy Flex is used to schedule the agents
behind a popular chat bot, to manage food delivery logistics, and to manage
on-call rotations.

The core is Staffjoy’s proprietary algorithms. We match the contractor levels
to business demand. This means that a courier company can scale labor to match
peak demand for lunch hour, then drop off staffing levels right afterward. We
do this while offering configurable shift lengths.

We also opened our API this week (docs.staffjoy.com). If you have any
questions, we are here to answer them!

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samp615
Looks great!

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asimuvPR
It would be really nice to be able to play with a demo account before signing
up. I know people who could benefit from something like this bu can't tell
them to check it out without me seeing the UI first and making sure its simple
to use. :)

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noir_lord
Even a quick screen recording of the high notes would help hugely for that,
the only screen shots I could find where in the docs and tended to be parts of
the UI not the whole thing.

I used to be a retail manager before I was a programmer full time, their IT
skills on average are terrible so knowing something is easy to use would make
it a lot easier to recommend.

~~~
asimuvPR
Yes, double this. These are people used to using ugly GUIs with either overly
big or overly small buttons.

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rpedela
What is an example use case? When I think independent contractor, I think
freelance work which doesn't necessarily have shifts.

~~~
philip1209
For Flex, here are some uses:

* Managing the agents behind "AI Bots". They routinely have to staff contractors (e.g. Amazon Turk / Upwork) to do basic tasks.

* Managing couriers. We have app-based food services internationally that use Staffjoy to schedule bike, scooter, car, etc drivers based on order volume. They like that our algorithms vary staffing levels to match order volume.

* Managing on-call rotations, e.g. for support. We had one user "stress test" a video game by scheduling contractors 24/7 to play it.

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educar
Typo in headline: Contactors

Edit: oops, already reported by someone else

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bikamonki
Big typo on home page: "Contactors"

~~~
philip1209
Whoa. Thanks for the heads up. New build going out now.

