Attention all dayworkers! The first fully integrated online temp recruitment platform for the private yacht industry is now live. DayWorker.com connects yachts seeking crew, and crew seeking yachts between 15 to 100-meters-plus.
Nick Chambers, a former deckhand and the founder of DayWorker.com, emphasizes that the platform isn’t a recruitment agency. Instead, it provides a fast, convenient, and secure way to book freelance dayworkers. He compares it to Uber and Airbnb because it encourages clients to rate its service providers; on the same token, its service providers should rate its clients in an effort to improve user experience.
After registering on the app — indicating location, availability, skills, and experience — recruiters can easily react. Registered yacht managers, captains, and owners can request a particular dayworker and once agreed upon, they will be dispatched to the yacht’s location at a certain date and time. To secure a booking, a pre-payment is made by PayPal to the platform, which is released to the dayworker upon satisfactory completion of their work.
Although it launched in May 2017 in Spain, they spent 18 months developing the platform for their March 2019 launch, DayWorker.com began registering crew and the booking system opened for recruiters in May. “The response was fabulous,” says Chambers. Within a week, they had 100 crew registrations and by the end of May, they had 500. These registered dayworkers range from entry level to highly experienced crew, from chefs and engineers to chief stews and relief captains. “We expected the initial response to come from aspiring junior interior [and] exterior crew but to our surprise, about half the sign-ups are experienced professionals,” Chambers says.
The platform significantly reduces financial risks inherent in hiring short-term crew. Since the position will sometimes be for just a few months, most yachts don’t have the necessary time or resources to do the process justice. “Agents usually won’t search for anyone for less than the value of one month of the salary for the role to fill,” explains Chambers. “That is acceptable if you are seeking someone for six months, but harder to justify for three months or less.” DayWorker’s platform lets you quickly and easily identify and hire someone for two weeks in exchange for a 20 percent booking fee — you can offer them a longer position for the whole season at no additional expense. They don’t charge crew to register, nor do they charge for connecting them with yachts seeking their skills.