Malaysia Concert Work Site and App for Corporate Field Events

Stage work has increased in recent times and this can be attributed to job losses during closings. Either that or the fact that more people are willing to work on short-term projects for more flexibility and more opportunities.

This has been accompanied by an increase in demand for online promoters and warehouse teams due to the increase in online shopping habits and the creation of new jobs as content creators.

This is a trend noted by the now profitable concert-saving platform Cidekick, which recently launched an app this year to take more advantage of it. We spoke to Founder and CEO Philip Phua to learn more about the motivations behind the site and the app.

Emphasize the human side of work

There are already many gig-saving platforms and apps on the market. A few close examples include Qwork and GoGet, which also offer training for specific jobs.

Philip is convinced that even though he has some competitors in the field, Cidekick stands out among his 300 clients (and more) by focusing only on the B2B market and the preservation of human capital.

To elaborate, Cidekick targets the B2B market by specifically responding to large scale field workforce activation with expertise on different event needs.

Additionally, part of Cidekick’s mission is to create jobs that preserve human capital. This means the company isn’t trying to hire workers for jobs that could be phased out by automation, like last mile deliveries, for example.

Rather, Cidekick is looking for online promoters, video content creators, product and service promoters, etc. Philip believes these are the jobs that will still rely on creativity and human relationships for years to come.

For example, during MCOs, the Cidekick team pivoted to help their clients focus more on recruiting promoters online. These gig workers could help businesses increase brand awareness online with testimonials and usage.

“Some of them [offerings] we added helped us maintain [the business] during difficult times. Now the field workforce is slowly picking up, and our Cidekicks [will be] able to play more roles, ”explained Philip.

A safer place to play

The tipping point that led Philip to found Cidekick in 2016 came after his awareness of incidents in unsafe work environments, late payments and exploitation that part-time job seekers were exposed to.

While working as a marketer, he discovered that there were no suitable platforms to hire and choose workers together, as he could only do so through agencies. Additionally, there was a significant difference in pay between what the agencies billed and what the concert workers actually took home. With Cidekick, workers can generally expect to earn between RM100 and RM150 per day.

Another push for Philip to start Cidekick was his knowledge of unethical practices in some agencies that promote so called “on-jobs”.

This is a term used to disguise an arrangement of a concert job (usually labeled as party girls or ushers), where there is an additional option for clients to have paid sex with the workers. concert once their main task is completed, “he said. Explain.

Philip figured he wouldn’t want his own children to be cared for in this way, if they decided to work as students in the future.

Therefore, Cidekick was trained to address these issues:

• Help employers find large-scale temporary workers;
• Improve transparency and performance when hiring;
• Create a safe environment for concert workers.

One app to do it all

Prior to launching its own app in November 2021, Cidekick’s job matching was done only through its web platform. Back then, the main function of the platform was to match Cidekicks and customers during payment transactions.

With the app, the team hopes to increase accountability and transparency in hiring processes and work environments for Cidekicks and employers.

Cidekicks can point in and out of each job using a location stamp, taking a live photo on the job site, or answering any questions customers might have. Cidekicks can also respond to ad hoc customer requests through the app.

“Also if [Cidekicks] are not comfortable during a job, we can allow [them] to report a problem and we will be alerted to investigate by changing the scope of work, date, time, salary, etc. Philip said.

At the same time, employers can monitor job performance, as the app’s proprietary dashboard will allow them to track multiple workers together, individually or collectively. Employers will also have access to sales and personalized reports.

For example, such reports can give employers information about the number of product samples distributed by a concert worker or the sales figures made in the course of the job. These allow employers to assess which Cidekicks are artists and which are not.

Being equipped with such data can help Cidekick customers analyze and aggregate median performance in sales, marketing, and operational roles going forward.

Working with the state government

To date, Cidekick has acquired 15,000 active users, with 100% growth recorded in the last 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic, even with little spending on recruiting.

“Many of the users lately are former Grab drivers and hospitality and retail workers who have been hit hard financially,” Philip said.

“Realizing this, we have stepped up our cooperation with the Selangor State Government’s Rakan Digital Selangor Project, which is powered by our platform and has successfully offered jobs with the option of working from home.

His other clients include Grab, Foodpanda, Touch ‘n Go, Fave, Caring, Signature Market, among others. Previously, Cidekick had received seed funding of RM 775,000 from Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd.

Philip is now looking to attract new investors to fund Cidekick’s expansion and growth internationally over the next 2 years, with the goal of becoming the concert field working platform of choice for client companies and workers together.

“It would require an exceptional job of us because we need to create an incredible value proposition to be more than just a recruiting platform. We also need to provide enough jobs for our Cidekicks and constantly create different and new types of jobs for the job market, ”he stressed.

For now, the company is already in talks to expand its business in Indonesia next year, with plans underway to enter markets in Thailand and Singapore.

• Learn more about Cidekick here.
• Read about other concert economics articles we’ve written here.

Featured Image Credit: The Cidekick Team