Best practices for posting Ops

1. Post at least 12 hours in advance for single day ops

Although you can post ops closer to the time you need workers and still get bids, it is best practice to post at least 12 hours in advance. This allows workers to have time to prepare for the task at hand. They might need to map out where your building is and arrange transportation, childcare, and take care of other responsibilities. Without enough time to do what they need to before they come to work, they might not show up due to these circumstances.

Single day ops get the best responses if posted the day before the op.

2. Post two or three days in advance for multi-day ops

When planning ahead for multi-day ops, give operators a bit more time than you would for single day ops. A multi-day op is more of a time commitment than a single day op, so the worker might have to make the same arrangements mentioned above but for more days. For example, imagine trying to find child care for three days on short notice!

Multi-day ops have the highest fulfillment rate when posted between two and three days in advance.

3. Shorten the duration of your op

Most of the workers using Veryable only work eight days per month on ops they find in the app. The primary way operators use the platform is for short-term engagements with companies.

By posting ops as daily ops instead of one op that lasts a week, you are opening the door to the best operators.

For example, if you post one op that lasts from Monday through Friday and a great worker is only available Monday through Thursday, you would lose that worker’s attention because they will be looking for an op to fit their schedule. If instead, you posted the op as five daily ops, that worker could pick up Monday through Thursday and another worker could pick up Friday. 

4. Post daily ops while building your labor pool

This is the best and fastest way to get good workers familiar with your operation and build up a roster of people to invite to ops when you need them. By posting daily ops and choosing new operators for each day, you can evaluate many different workers to decide which ones you’d like to invite back for future ops. We call this group of workers who are familiar with your operations a labor pool.

The way you post ops might change to match your demand cycle in the future, but at first, it’s best to post daily ops so you can quickly add good workers to your labor pool. 

5. Create a cadence for evaluating your daily labor needs

As your labor pool grows and you have a more solid base of workers to invite to your operations, you should start figuring out the right rhythm for posting that works for you. Ideally, you post as soon as you know your demand, not before and not long after.

Every business is different, so your demand might change more on a monthly basis than a weekly basis, for example. Whatever timeline you’re looking at, you should post ops as soon as you know your demand for a given period of time. This is the best way to balance supply and demand, and the closer to the time of demand variation you can schedule workers, the better. 

For example, if you find out about Thursday’s demand on Tuesday, you should post the op right away for Thursday. Having a minimal baseline amount of ops is fine, but you should not set out on Monday to post all your ops for the week and then play a guessing game for the days you don’t know the demand for yet.

6. Post ops as piece work instead of hourly where possible

By posting ops as piece work, you will be able to better evaluate the performance of the workers you bring in. Piece work ties the pay to the work completed and gives you a better picture of how productive your processes are.

If you post ops as piece work, meaning you pay for the outcomes of the work instead of time, you will be paying directly for output. This of course will require that the outcomes be measured in a concrete way. 

Paying based on outcomes creates a habit of measuring the output of each role in your production process. When you know the output of each role, you can improve the productivity of your overall process by knowing where you can make changes to gain efficiency.