earwig , a website enabling agency workers in construction to review and rank agencies on their performance is set for launch later this year.
The website, founded by electrician and agency worker Harrison Moore, gives some 250,000 agency workers access to real-time, peer-to-peer data they can use to make smarter
decisions when choosing jobs.
“At the end of 2017, there were 35,000 agencies registered in the UK. The threat of skills shortages, increased digitalisation and low barriers to entry have led to a proliferation of agencies in all sectors, particularly construction,” said Moore. “Having
certainty of an agency’s credibility and service offering is absolutely essential for a tradesperson’s sense of job security, productivity and workplace wellbeing. We need to feel confident we’re making the right choice and that our expectations will not be violated when we arrive on site.”
Having secured investment for earwig by winning the 2017 Our Place in the World Prize – launched by Deputy Labour leader Tom Watson – Moore is now developing the project at InnovationRCA , the Royal College of Art’s business incubator
programme. He worked as an electrician for 14 years, using agencies for half that time and attended art schools in London between 2011 and 2017, where he came up with the idea for earwig.
Moore explains, “My mission is to encourage supportive conditions in construction and transparency plays a key role. It has to work for everybody too. Tradespeople deserve to be well-informed on the decisions that affect their livelihoods. While great
agencies, irrespective of their size and budget, deserve a place to promote their reputation and to find workers who have the right expectations. earwig establishes a much-needed lens of transparency and helps to put the right people in the right jobs,
first time.”
earwig is now inviting users to register. To join the community or to learn more, contact Harrison Moore at hello@earwig.work, or visit the website at www.earwigwork.com