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UC students produce app for businesses seeking temporary employees

Wednesday 12 June 2013, 1:34PM

By University of Canterbury

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Jess Templeton
Jess Templeton Credit: University of Canterbury

A University of Canterbury (UC) PhD student has created an app for businesses seeking temporary employees.

Jess Templeton has produced phone app tempME, which increases flexibility and accessibility of recruiting temporary staff.

The app is for firms seeking professional temporary staff of all levels and disciplines within any sector.

TempME is a web-based application developed as part of the annual $75,000 Entre business competition.

Entre is a student-founded ideas competition that sees young hopefuls put their business ideas to the test with the help of mentors and business connections. Guest judges include Icebreaker innovator Brian Brackenridge.

Templeton, who is studying at UC, has just moved back to Christchurch after working with New Zealand's leading oil and gas company. She created the app with student Kieran Robinson. The app removes potential inefficiencies of the conventional temporary recruitment process and the ongoing need to employ a recruitment agency for acquiring temporary workers.

``The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment says 9.4 percent of the New Zealand workforce are temporary staff. Sixty percent of those surveyed said they prefer temporary assignments as it provides various opportunities to up-skill quickly and reduces boredom.

``Our tempME app will serve as a live interface between employer and employee. The Christchurch rebuild has generated a number of temporary assignments for tradesmen and contractors. Our initial customers will be traffic management, carpentry and electrical based firms who are limited on labour.

``We will focus on a select few companies in the construction sector initially to establish a positive reputation and a working example of our product. Manufacturing and retail organisations are known to have seasonal or peak periods.

``Companies may also utilise this product for their pool of casual and fixed-term employees. There is potential to move into the unemployment market, where Work and Income beneficiaries could register their skills, qualifications and previous training on a database which would recommend registered tempME companies.

Templeton, who is researching enterprise architecture, sees her postgraduate study as the next step towards achieving her goal of becoming one of the most influential Maori leaders in her industry.

She aims to accelerate her professional development and provide effective leadership in the Maori community around future infrastructure systems.