WorkInn – Web Application And Recruitment Marketplace For The HoReCa Industry

Horeca Service is a Polish company with many brands in its portfolio focused around the HoReCa, Event & Mice industry, offering services as well as sale and rental of equipment. Their clients include hotels, restaurants, event organizers, and private clients. One of the branches of their business is the WorkInn recruitment marketplace, which was commissioned by the owner of Horeca Service, Łukasz Cieślikowski.

challenges

The main challenge of the project was the development of the web application. The client came to us with a ready idea for the application. Our role was to verify this idea, conduct a business analysis, define the project’s scope, and plan the project’s roadmap.

Even before the start of development, we faced the challenge of creating an application design for a recruitment marketplace from scratch. In this process, we had to consider the needs of two types of users – employers and employees. Both groups required the ability to create a profile, add specific information, and some custom features.

The recommendation engine combined with push notifications, communication flow between both groups of users, the evaluation and feedback system, and the automated process of issuing an offer, signing the contract, and settling the order were different challenges of this project. One of the project assumptions was the acquisition of search engine traffic, that’s why we have to focus on SEO optimization.

How we build a web app and recruitment marketplace

As part of this project, we provided services such as UX/UI design, web development, RWD, front-end development, back-end development, and Quality Assurance tests. Already at the design stage, we distinguished two groups of users for whom we prepared dedicated accounts, equipped with functionalities needed for each group. 

The employer’s profile includes the company’s logo and description, opinions about the company written by users employed by WorkInn, a calendar of all company events, offer statistics, a summary of expenses, a list of candidates and participating employees, and settlements. Additionally, the employer has the opportunity to obtain the status of a “trusted employer”.

The employee profile is less advanced, the necessary functions are employee availability settings, profile photo, description, work experience, as well as statistics from the offers he participated in. In addition, we designed and implemented a landing page supporting the process of registering employees and employers on the platform.

The main functionality of the application is the possibility of posting job offers, i.e. adding events to the company’s calendar. When creating an offer, the employer specifies who he needs, the time of the event, the number of hours, the hourly rate, and the location. It can also create recurring events. All offers of a given company can be found in its calendar visible on the employer’s profile. Events can have one of three different statuses: upcoming, in progress, and completed. Employees can filter events by location, position, or hourly rate and apply for events with the upcoming status.

Another key functionality is the recommendation system combined with push notifications. Based on the data from the offer and candidate profiles, the system sends the employer proposals of candidates who may be invited to take advantage of the offer. The employee receives information about new offers for selected locations, positions, or companies, but he can also use a search engine and use these conditions as filters. Both parties receive push notifications by e-mail or via the Inbox in the application – depending on the user’s settings. 

A separate challenge of this project was to plan communication between the employer and employee and automate the cooperation process. In the first step, the employer issues an offer and the employees apply. Then the employer checks the profiles of the candidates and accepts or rejects them. Accepted candidates gain the possibility of contact via Inbox in the application.

After the event is over, the system settles the cooperation. The employer receives a summary of hours worked and the hourly rates for approval, which he can increase when he wants to give the employee a bonus, or lower when he is not satisfied. The final summary is sent to the employee, which he approves or rejects. In case of rejection, the process is repeated and if after two cycles the parties do not agree, the matter is settled by the WorkInn administration. If the settlement is approved, the system automatically generates downloadable contracts for both parties in two language versions: English and Polish.

After the job is finished, the employer and the employee can form an opinion that will be visible to each of them on their profile.

Results

The result of the cooperation is the creation of the WorkInn web application and recruitment marketplace with a number of improvements and functionalities for two groups of users. As we started from scratch, we had to understand the idea, design the web application, and develop it. The well-thought-out architecture of the application guarantees functionality for both groups of users, thanks to which they are able to establish dozens of cooperation every day.