Case Study: Ridesharing Platform Connects Workers
Business Issue
Several ManpowerGroup clients in France struggled to fill vacancies in temporary roles. Insights and candidate surveys revealed this challenge was due to candidate transportation challenges, particularly for jobs in rural locations. Owning a car is not common in many parts of France due to the high cost of ownership (gasoline, tolls, limited parking), widely available public transport options in urban areas and environmental concerns. Access to reliable public transportation, however, is not easy to find in rural France. This meant that organizations faced the productivity and financial challenges associated with unfilled positions while candidates were unable to connect to meaningful and sustainable employment.
Solution
Around the world, ManpowerGroup is committed to scanning the market to find best-in-class technology partners that can be combined with our workforce expertise. ManpowerGroup looked for a partner that could provide transportation that is safe, reliable, cost effective and accessible to workers. The team found just the partner they were looking for at the VivaTech conference in Paris.
BlaBlaCar is the world’s leading long-distance carpooling platform – founded in 2006, a global, trusted community of 75 million drivers and passengers in 22 countries. The service was named for its rating scale for drivers' preferred level of chattiness in the car: "Bla" for not very chatty, "BlaBla" for someone who likes to talk, and "BlaBlaBla" for those who can't stop talking.
BlaBlaCar stood out because of their unrelenting focus on the customer. The partnership was also seen as a win-win because BlaBlaCar wanted a way to test their short distance carpooling service BlaBlaLines. This provided a practical solution to ManpowerGroup’s own associate travel challenges.
The solution consisted of providing ridesharing/carpooling services to ManpowerGroup associates, temp workers and candidates. ManpowerGroup created a button on the existing ManpowerGroup Associates App for temporary workers in rural locations. Through the app, workers gained the ability to offer or accept shared transport options with others travelling to the same location.
Results
The partnership is a model in solving industry-wide and environmental challenges. Select results include:
- Increased mobility helped ensure clients had the labor force they needed, when they needed it, while enabling candidates to have access to meaningful, sustainable work.
- The partnership has resulted in faster time to fill and more opportunities for candidates.
- Since May 2018, Manpower-driven traffic to BlaBlaLines’ application has exceeded 46,000 visits.
- The partnership was showcased at the 2017 and 2018 Viva Technology Conference in Paris as an example of an innovative solution to a common workforce challenge.