TECHdotMN: News about Minnesota Startups

June 3, 2010 | by Son Huynh Comments

According to recent BLS data, there are over twenty-seven million part time employees working in the United States, many of which are concentrated amongst the  hospitality, retail, and restaurant industries within the service sector. While the variable scheduling often associated with a part time job can be of benefit to the employee, it can be a burden for the employer managing multiple (up to 50 at times) different schedules on a monthly or even weekly basis.

FlexShift was conceived by Benjamin Adegoke, Ph.D, to address this precise pain point in the thick of part time and temporary labor arrangements.  Started in 2008, the product spent all of 2009 maneuvering development and release cycles prior to official release in early February of this year. FlexShift doubles as both an employee scheduling solution and as a vendor management system, which according to Adegoke, is a new concept of merging a scheduling application with temporary staffing tools.

As a scheduling application, FlexShift allows businesses to project staffing needs and schedule employees with ease. Owners and managers have access to plenty of useful features including auto identification of time gaps, calculating employee reliability, viewing employee experience levels and other custom reporting options. On the flip side, employees have 24/7 access to the web interface to view their schedules and shift information, accept or reject shifts and indicate hours of availability. FlexShift also provides an optional telephone system, called JOT-TIME, by which employees can  call in to an automated system using a pin and perform similar tasks.

By doubling as a vendor management system, FlexShift goes further in aiding managers by offering the ability to borrow human capital from temporary staffing agencies through the system. As a free service to the agency, they can be integrated within FlexShift so businesses can obtain temporary workers on-the-fly. The businesses can also see specific profiles of available temporary employee’s in order to ensure the right fit for a particular role.  As a bonus, invoices are seamlessly created and automatically sent to businesses from the agencies

FlexShift is a Software as a Service (SaaS) model whereas the hosting, billing and maintenance is done by FlexShift and delivered via internet application.  As such, FlexShift runs on a subscription rate of $49.95/month per location with unlimited users (no contract) and the company has obtained early revenue through initial customers such as Wildside Caterers and Holiday Inn Express Bloomington, amongst others.

Mr. Adegoke can be reached through Benjamin at FlexShift dot com or 651.707.3985.

Tags: Benjamin Adegoke, FlexShift Software