Remote employees can now choose locations that work
MANY employees have undoubtedly struggled with homeworking. After more than a year of sitting uncomfortably at makeshift desks, perhaps apologising for the noise of a barking dog or crying child, it’s clear that the ‘new normal’ working model is not for everyone.
And with a number of major companies announcing their intentions to close or reduce office space, some may be looking at the long-term prospect of working from home with despair.
Enter Swurf. The brainchild of Leithbased entrepreneur Nikki Gibson, Swurf functions like an Airbnb for remote working, allowing hospitality venues to list their work-suitable spaces on the Swurf app.
Workers can then log on, enter the criteria they are looking for (quiet space, meeting room, etc) and simply choose from the venues available.
Ms Gibson, 40, came up with the idea for Swurf while her events firm, Naked Events, was placed into an involuntary ‘hibernation’ when the industry was decimated by the Covid pandemic.
“I’ve always worked in hospitality,” explains Durham-born Ms Gibson. “Initially I was in management and sales and then laterally in events. One of my clients was Anna Wilson, who had founded Naked Events, and then in 2009 I moved across to join her and we continued to grow the business year on year – right up until March 2020 when everything disappeared.
“The impact on hospitality has been devastating. It is really upsetting to see my colleagues, people I have worked with for 20 years losing their jobs. We had around 300 events on our books that
were scheduled to happen and then everything got postponed and then cancelled. Our business suddenly went from being very positive to having absolutely nothing, no income at all.”
Ms Gibson acknowledges that she “didn’t set out to start a new business” but recognised the pandemic had created a problem which needed a solution.
“There were people like me, stuck in makeshift offices at home, feeling really isolated and dealing with the challenges that such a situation brings.
“Then there were these hospitality spaces feeling desperate, with no events, no business travel, no tourism, no revenue opportunities.
“I could see that there was all this space going to waste, as well as all these people
desperate to collaborate and come back together… it was just a natural solution to find a connection between the two.
“In its simplest form, the app is a simple way of connecting people and places.”
Swurf’s business model involves charging the host venues a subscription fee in return for access to its community of remote workers, with an annual subscription offered on a tiered basis depending on the size of the business. There is no charge for users though: a crucial point for Ms Gibson.
“I was really keen to not charge the workforce for using the app, because working remotely is something that people might not have necessarily signed up for.
“More than 12 million people across the UK are going to be remote working and by charging the subscriber we would isolate some people from having access to these spaces.
“It is a free app for users to download, so everybody can find a safe space to work.”
The incentive for the hosts, according to Ms Gibson, is a “route to market, to communicate with a new and growing audience” of remote workers.
“We encourage our remote workers to recognise that these hospitality spaces have had a really tough time, they are potentially small businesses, so we would encourage people to spend what they can while they are there.”
And businesses are clearly keen to sign up. Less than a fortnight after the Swurf app was launched in Edinburgh, 26 host venues have already joined, with a further 70 awaiting confirmation from the team.
“We’ve got a great mix of venues on board: a mixture of restaurants, hotels, some listing multiple spaces. We have initially launched in Edinburgh, but we just recruited a hot desking space in North Berwick and our aim is to eventually branch out to the west coast and beyond.
“We have had businesses contact us from Dundee, Aberdeen, even Liverpool, so there does seem to be a real demand, which is amazing.
“We are talking to investors and hoping to raise some initial capital so that we can speed up the roll-out and expand more significantly.
“Our ultimate vision is to have a global network of Swurfers. The brand is very scalable, there are no boundaries or borders with this.
“We have all been affected by the pandemic and will be affected moving forwards, so everyone can find a benefit in being able to access these workspaces in future.
“I don’t think homeworking is a phase, but a fundamental change in the way we are living.” swurf.co