aNewDomain.net — Gigwalk, a web-based temp agency, assists businesses by providing labor for small tasks. The company says their labor force can work in a variety of fields, including the audit of retail locations, market research and demo-ing of a product.
The service currently focuses on digital skills and flexibility, and uses Android support in the pipeline. In many ways, the venture-funded company resembles Amazon’s Mechanical Turk and oDesk. In 2012 Gigwalk raised $6 million in capital.
Image credit: Gigwalk
Gigwalk distinguishes itself from similar agencies by providing both online and offline services. The hireable labor could, for instance, interview customers at a cafe. This ability to handle physical tasks is unique to Gigwalk and allows the company to succeed where other services might fail.
As is the case with all temp agencies, cost is always an issue. Gigwalk’s cut is 30 percent and payment is expected up front. Gigwalk advises businesses it charges $10-$15 for an hour-long task, with travel time included.
For comparison, most jobs in the San Francisco Bay Area pay an hourly wage of $10-$20.
Image credit: Dell
Gigwalk’s service also comes with technology that can automatically assign workers to a task based on their skills, experience and availability. According to the company, its software removes any workers who don’t complete their tasks on time.
Employers also have the option to manually select specific workers for a task. This allows companies to find “Gigwalkers” they know and like, add them to a trusted team, and give them priority assignments before other workers.
For enterprise, too
Initially, Gigwalk might seem especially useful for entrepreneurs and SMBs, but it turns out some blue chip companies are also Gigwalk clients. For example, there are quite a number of Microsoft Bing postings via Gigwalk in the Bay Area.
The Bing gigs – all are similar – generally involve taking a few pictures of a local business and answering a list of survey questions. All of that for $10. Larger clients can take advantage of Gigwalk’s 250,000 workers across the continental United States and Canada. It’s an intelligent group and 93 percent of the workers have been to college. Profiles of Gigwalk workers include ratings from prior employers and other relevant metrics.
Inexpensive, flexible labor that’s useful on a large scale coupled with services for organizations of many sizes makes Gigwalk an excellent, useful service.
Based in San Fransico, Max A. Cherney is a tech journalist. He contributes tech info and articles here at aNewDomain.net. Email questions or tips to: max@anewdomain.net.
