ANATOMY OF ‘BENCH ON’ START-UP COMPANY
A start-up is a company that is in its early development stages and is typically started by an entrepreneur to solve a business problem; however, success is not guaranteed. The entrepreneur capitalizes on a market gap by effectively developing a viable service, product, or a platform. Tim Walmsley’s Bench On, founded in 2017, is a start-up company based in Australia that solves the problem of employee underutilization. In Australia, employee underutilization costs the Economy billions annually due to loss in productivity. In heavy project or contract-based industries, underutilization causes reduced job stability, decreased business growth, and ultimately increases overall cost to the organization. Tim Walmsley’s Bench On addresses these problems through Software as a service solution that matches reputable Government agencies and companies with idle staff for the provision of contracts. By efficiently matching these parties, the organizations can easily manage the troughs and peaks of the business phases with high-quality staff or through the provision of contracts to the idle employees to offer support during surges in demand. Bench On enables the different organizations to come up with employee profiles for all the staff members and to hastily suggest underutilization periods for every individual during the year. Based on an employee’s listed skill set, qualifications and gained experiences, Bench On will then match available long or short term contracts to them. Bench On Software as a service provides an interactive and attractive Graphical User Interface that companies can proactively use in employee contract management.
Through the created Bench On company profile in the provided Software as a Service, the company can submit short term job contracts or requests. The organizations and the businesses in the related field that have got available or underutilized staff who meet the stated requirements are matched to the job offer in a prioritized manner. The matching procedure first prioritizes the team to the organization then effectively matches throughout the listed industries regarding how fit they meet the position’s criteria. Through the matching process, the Software as a service providing company, Bench on breaks down the industrial boundaries to fetch the most competent employees for a certain job provided regardless of their industrial jurisdiction. To reduce the burden of organizations involved in the matching process, Bench On takes care of the administrative and the contracting paperwork. Bench On target a large number of customers with its primary target being small to medium businesses that have got excess staff capacity. The excess staff cripples the finances of the company, and they are forced to lay off some valuable employees. Large organizations are also targeted by Bench On to solve their problem of lacking a high-quality staff that is on standby to respond to client’s requests and short notice tasks. Agencies that do not know where to find skilled and qualified task force to award contracts or to work on a project are also beneficiaries of Bench On.
Organizations need a highly competent employee’s to be part of their team to have a competitive advantage over the others who operate within the same field. To harness the untapped potential of underutilized employees, the Bench On platform solves this by matching the employees to various companies and other government agencies based on the required skill set, experiences, and qualifications listed for contract provision. Small to medium employees can alienate fears of being laid out by their employers since Bench on harmonizes them to various employers seeking task forces to work on short term projects and client requests. Large organizations aren’t left out since they can solve the problem of inadequacy of competent and skilled task force to work on large projects that have been issued by their corresponding clients. Through Bench On, organizations can outsource experienced personnel at a cost to fast track project completion. The Bench On start-up facility addresses the significant problems, needs, and wants through the provision of valuable services. The first service that proves vital to solving the organization’s problem of underutilized staff is the management of the Company’s Employee Bench. Businesses should not cut off their employees whether they need to pocket in an extra penny into their coffers or need to generate additional revenue. During low seasons, when the business has got tiny assignments and employers are worried about small profits. Bench On provides a platform that employers can make their staff members active once to ensure profit maximization by matching them to short term tasks from other listed companies in the same industry. Management of Employee Bench has got features that enable employees to manage user profiles via the dashboard proactively. Bench On has many benefits since it helps clients to diversify their businesses with contracts from multiple industries.
Finding talent from the Bench is the second vital service provided by Bench On; the service can match client contracts, tasks, and project requirements to the hidden and un-tapped employee potential in the Australian companies. Feature here enable clients to get matches that meet their project, contract, and task requirements. Companies can be contacted using their listed details or Bench On can organize to set up the processes if need be. Finding talent on the Bench encompasses a number of benefits both to the clients seeking to match their listed contracts or projects to the diverse companies and also the employees seeking tasks and short term contracts. The clients are able to get access to experienced professionals from trusted and reliable listed brands and also experience about 40% cost saving in market rates. Employees matched to the listed contracts by the client are entitled to daily pay rates since the parent company covers all its employee’s costs. What makes Bench On different from the current competitors is that the client can get a diverse set of skilled personnel with varying years of experience in various fields who are charging different rates to work on a contract. The client can choose the staff to issue a task wisely by comparing it from a list of more than ten industries registered on the platform. Bench On also takes the responsibility of the administrative and contract paper works. It goes the extra mile to organize for meetups with the client and the company in case one party is unable to arrange for the former. The ultimate difference offered by Bench on is policy protection against employee poaching and conflict of interests.
Bench On uses the ‘as a service’ business model and works precisely with Software as a service. The organization offers its platform and software services to clients and other companies. Companies registering and creating profiles for their esteemed employees also pay for the service. A client uploading tasks, projects, or contract offers to the platform to obtain a match with available idle employees who have the required skill-set and preferred qualification also make payments. Whenever a client gets a match and signs a contract with an employee, a percentage of the entire agreement, task, or project is given to the hosting company. The value of a project or assignment is regulated following the listed required skills and years of experience. Small to medium enterprises are also given discounts whenever they create profiles for new employees within a given duration of time, unlike the already existing companies that are charged the regular rates. The Software as a service incorporates a subscription model providing a balance of value to the customer and the start-up at the same time. The users of the service are required to pay subscription fees annually or once in 6 months. One major challenge that Bench On faced during its development phases was bringing the right people on board. In business, hiring the right personnel makes a significant difference in personal and organizational success. Bench On managed the problem by registering individuals who have specific job descriptions and companies that are known and that have a good reputation. In hiring the employees to handle client requests and match them to trustworthy companies, Tim Walmsley took the time to identify and select a team using a very rigorous hiring process.
Profitability is another problem that Bench On Company in Australia faced during its establishment. Being that the industry is very competitive, transitioning from the start-up to a profit-making organization proves difficult, the company conducted research and came up with digital innovations that have since helped it to achieve profitability. Software as a service platform has provided a solution to the profitability problem. This has proved vital in the popularity and uprise of Bench On. The greatest lesson that other businesses in the same industry as Bench On should learn is that the employees and other team members are very vital assets in an organization since they help in revenue generation through ensuring the business maximizes its profits. In case an enterprise needs extra cash flow or finds itself in a crisis, the bare minimum is to lay off members of the staff. Laying off employees creates a short term relief to financial burden experienced by the company at present but, in the long run, adds a long term cost for the business. Other organizations should adopt the strategy used by Bench On Company to link its idle staff to clients that have got incomplete projects, tasks, or contracts to improve their profit margins.