An award-winning Limerick entrepreneur has devised a solution for hospitality managers stressed by staff no-shows while simultaneously providing employment for hundreds of people in the county. Hannah Wrixon and Gillian Wrixon Rijke, who are cousins, have established www.GetTheShifts.com which supplies bar staff, wait staff, baristas, kitchen porters, event staff and cleaners with just three hours’ notice.
Based in Shannon, Get the Shifts uniquely will supply staff for just one shift if that is what is required, charge a flat fee to clients no matter how much relevant experience the staff have and offer a comprehensive follow-up customer service. They also pay their staff very favourable rates.
Hannah Wrixon explains, “Our innovative software, developed in association with Temp Buddy, allows business to browse through hundreds of pre-screened staff, offer work and manage usage from their phone. Clients can also use facial recognition to ensure they have the right person and even sign off on timesheets by signing the worker’s phone.”
Get the Shifts was a natural development for Hannah and Gillian as hospitality runs deep in the Wrixon family. Both their fathers were publicans and their grandmother ran a hotel on her own from the age of 16! Hannah worked in her dad’s bars in London and then in Limerick before emigrating to Australia where she worked for 6 years in a variety of hospitality roles ending up in management and being involved in that country’s Hospitality Awards. Gillian worked as customer service manager with Apple in Ireland for seven years before setting up her own HR consultancy some years ago.
Four years ago, Hannah set up Last Minute Minders which supplies staff to various childcare businesses and pop-up creches for weddings & events. Last Minute Minders, which was a participant on the Enterprise Ireland New Frontiers programme based at the Hartnett Enterprise Acceleration Centre in LIT, took bronze in the BOI start-up awards 2015, bronze in the Boots Maternity and Infant awards and Brides of Limerick “Best children’s wedding service 2015 & 2016 and was a winner at the LIT Annual Startup Business Awards. Inspired by its success, she decided that the hospitality sector needed a similar business model. Get the Shifts, which launched just two weeks ago, has offices in Limerick and Dublin.
“Managers in the hospitality business find no-shows by staff one of the most stressful aspects of their business,” Gillian says, “and they told us they needed to find staff quickly but just for that one shift. Other companies do offer replacement staff but look for block bookings and they don’t allow staff to wear the client uniforms.
Our use of technology in addition to face-to-face screening of all potential staff sets us apart. The App puts employer and screened employees in direct contact and geo location means that employers know if the replacement staff are even slightly delayed on their way to work. Both employer and employee rate each other via the App following the work shift.”
Hannah and Gillian have ambitious plans for Get the Shifts which includes expanding throughout Ireland by March of next year and into the UK by the end of 2017. They created this animation to help explain to potential clients what they do https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdXFeMw9nOE
Hannah established Aire Children’s Centre on the SCrd which was included in Limerick City Enterprise Board’s ‘Success Stories’ and which they used as a case study in an educational DVD for enterprise in secondary schools. Hannah was also a finalist in the ‘Young Entrepreneur of the Year’ 2006.
www.GetTheShifts.com hello@gettheshifts
