{"id":2088,"date":"2016-10-27T18:55:34","date_gmt":"2016-10-27T07:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.airtasker.com\/blog\/\/?p=2088"},"modified":"2017-04-06T12:46:57","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T01:46:57","slug":"thinking-future-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.airtasker.com\/blog\/thinking-future-work\/","title":{"rendered":"How We\u2019re Thinking About The Future of Work"},"content":{"rendered":"

At Airtasker, we\u2019re conscious that our platform is part of the debate around what work will look like over the coming decades.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why we\u2019ve made every effort to be open and as transparent as possible when it comes to questions around our growth, values and future intentions in building the Airtasker marketplace.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve spent the last five years of our lives thinking about how to build a marketplace which will best serve our community members and would like to take this opportunity to clear the air and share some of our perspective.<\/p>\n

We exist to create more new jobs for Australians<\/strong><\/p>\n

The vast majority of the jobs on the Airtasker platform are brand new jobs that simply wouldn\u2019t exist in the traditional framework of work. For the most part, we\u2019re creating brand new industries from tasks as simple as removing spiders from homes, as fun as making halloween party costumes or as quirky as providing early-morning motivation for getting fit.<\/p>\n

For more established industries, such as cleaning or handiwork, we\u2019re making it faster, simpler and easier to post tasks and find someone to complete them. We\u2019re seeing this ease of use add to the overall amount of work in these sectors – creating new jobs for new workers as well as more jobs for existing industry professionals.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s plenty of fear out there about the rise of automation and how robots and other forms of technology intend to replace jobs for humans – we believe Airtasker is actually combating this problem by leveraging each and every person\u2019s unique skills. We believe that creating Australian jobs is absolutely part of the fundamental value we create, not just the by-product of providing a good service for people to outsource their tasks.<\/p>\n

We want Airtasker Workers to earn more, not less<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Airtasker, a percentage service fee is charged on the total value of all tasks completed. The more Workers on the platform earn, the more revenue we earn as a business. This revenue keeps our platform running, helps us build new features and spread the word about Airtasker (which in turn helps to create more new jobs).<\/p>\n

Whilst a percentage fee can often sound like a more significant figure compared to platforms that advertise lower-sounding offers like \u201c$20 per lead\u201d or \u201c50 cents per click\u201d or \u201c$500 per listing per year\u201d – we believe that the \u201cyou win, we win\u201d model provides a much fairer solution and is generally much cheaper (as a percentage of total amount earned by the Worker). This model also ensures that we\u2019re always aligned with the Workers – we\u2019re not incentivised to generate low quality website traffic or send the Workers weak leads that probably won\u2019t result in a sale.<\/p>\n

Some people have also suggested that Airtasker might be triggering a \u201crace to the bottom\u201d in terms of the price that people are willing to pay for certain tasks. We don\u2019t want this, as it doesn\u2019t benefit you and — due to our business model — doesn\u2019t benefit us.<\/p>\n

In order to prevent a race to the bottom, we have always maintained a \u201cmany-to-one\u201d quoting system in which only the Job Poster sees each of the prices offered by the Worker. The Workers don\u2019t see each other\u2019s pricing so won\u2019t undercut each other.<\/p>\n

So are we seeing a race to the bottom? In the chart below, you can see that our own internal data shows quite the opposite. As more members with more unique skills have joined the platform, the overall value of tasks has increased year-on-year.<\/p>\n

\"average-agreed-task-price\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We believe these prices increases are a result of our trusted review system which now hosts more than 350,000 customer reviews based on real, verified transactions. Our experience is that when it comes to services, most Australians emphasise the quality and reliability of the Worker rather than simply choosing the lowest price.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve also seen that top quality, reliable Workers are able to command higher rates. In the chart below, you can see that the \u201cspread\u201d between the price suggested by the Job Poster and the amount that Workers are actually paid has increased over the past years – well regarded, high performing Workers are earning more.<\/p>\n

\"post-offer-task-price\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We\u2019re a marketplace for services, not an agency<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our Future of Work<\/a> research showed that 63% of Australians agree that \u201cthe flexibility of working for yourself would make up for the lack of certainty or predictability of the work\u201d.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why we built Airtasker as a marketplace for independent Workers to work directly with their own customers (Job Posters) rather than an agency or an employer. For Workers on Airtasker:<\/p>\n