Andre Hugo chief executive officer and chief operations officer, Warren Venter are the founders of micro-enterprise solution Money4Jam.
A free recruitment service that allows businesses to post small jobs on its site could prove a more affordable way to recruit employees.
This, with a turnaround time of just four hours.
Mobile technology developers Money for Jam (M4Jam) last month launched an instant messaging platform which allows a business owner to appoint someone for small jobs of up to R45 a piece to complete often non-specialised work.
Founders Warren Venter and Andre Hugo developed M4Jam earlier this year in partnership with mobile instant messaging service WeChat.
M4Jam’s chief executive Andre Hugo says their offering beats the more expensive alternative of paying a service provider a lump sum to do jobs such as market research, field work or basically any job that can be broken down into various tasks.
“We currently have around 100 000 jobs already advertised. If interested in offering jobs, a business owner may send M4Jam an email with (the relevant information) indicating that they want to offer micro jobs or small tasks,” says Hugo.
Registration on the site is free and no documentation is required. A business may expect a response within minutes of initial contact with M4Jam to indicate that registration was successful. Once registered, a business can at any one time have up to 1 000 different small jobs uploaded on the site. M4Jam brand management office then liaises with registered candidates who may choose whether or not to accept the jobs.
“The costs are significantly less than having to appoint specialist companies that do the bigger job for you in return for payment that costs thousands of rand more,” says Hugo.
Pieter Human, director of labour advice organization Labourwise, says M4Jam’s service was currently not in contravention of any labour law, but the platform could soon change the way people in the country view employment.
“It’s a good example of how technological developments can push the boundaries of legislation and force lawmakers to re-interpret labour laws.
In the end it will probably boil down to the whether the person is an employee or a subcontractor,” he says. Hugo points out the benefits to the business owner. If a business has advertisement billboards that need to be put up in the correct spaces, it can advertise the job through M4Jam instead of opting to pay another business R250 to do the same job.
Warren Venter, M4Jam’s chief operations officer, says as a M4Jam client, the business has full control over its tasks and budget. When the job is completed and the business is satisfied with the outcome, the worker is paid via a 12-digit voucher code which is sent via SMS.
“The jobber (worker) can then redeem the voucher for cash at any Pick n Pay or Boxer till-point across the country,” says Venter.
- Visit www.m4jam.com for more information.