Editor’s Note: In an effort to feature more opportunities for gig drivers, Courier Hacker will be featuring brands in the gig economy from time to time. This article is an interview with GigSmart President Rich Oakes about COVID-19, its impact on gig work, and the opportunities for gig workers with GigSmart’s apps – Get Workers and Get Gigs.

Fighting COVID-19 And Unemployment

Courier Hacker: We’re in a pandemic. And most of the brands associated with the gig economy have been making headlines with lost in demand (rideshare brands) or seeing soaring demands for their services (food delivery and grocery, for example). Or they’re making headlines in political discussions such as Props 22 in California. Or they’re making an IPO debut (DoorDash and Airbnb). But we’re hearing that GigSmart is trying to fight unemployment. Can you tell us a little bit about your company?

Rich Oakes: GigSmart is a staffing company that connects businesses and residential users looking for talent/labor with individuals looking for work through the Get Workers and Get Gigs apps. Unlike other gig platforms, we are not specific to one use case. Our apps are the only apps that help users find and connect to workers across 3,000 skills – you can hire help for your business or you can connect with workers for your residential tasks and projects. 

We’re on a mission to help people get back to work – whether it’s picking up a side hustle or finding their next permanent part-time or full-time job opportunity via the GigSmart Job Board, we connect workers to all gigs and jobs actively hiring in their area.

CH: GigSmart was founded in 2016. This was around the time gig platforms were raising a lot of money in the Bay Area and making headlines. But we didn’t hear much about GigSmart. Why was that?

Oakes: Today, GigSmart is privately funded by a family office. At some point, we’ll approach the market to raise additional capital. 

CH: How have you and your GigSmart team responded to the pandemic? Did it affect your operations?

Oakes: We lead with empathy and transparency and are seeing more growth as a company than ever. Our sales team doubled in size in the last six months. Development productivity is up 25-50 percent since we shifted to remote work. We saw a 460 percent increase in the number of hourly gigs posted in our app since March, despite COVID-19 downfalls to the job market. 

We don’t know what’s next, but we are continuing to evolve and find ways to improve from pivoting to a happy remote culture down to product development. Our confidence in the success of GigSmart is deeply rooted in the abilities of our team to innovate and collaborate. I cannot wait to see what we accomplish in 2021.

CH: On the other side, you work both with gig workers and businesses. How have companies reacted to the pandemic? Is there any reduction to your business clients?

Oakes: No reduction. Because we aren’t specific to a single industry or use case, we were set up to easily pivot to help where we were needed most. We were fortunate enough to be able to connect essential businesses with available workers to keep our communities open (trucking, food delivery, etc.) 

Additionally, we’ve seen more companies are utilizing gig workers as we continue to navigate this crisis. By hiring temporary workers on an as-needed basis, they’re able to continue operations but have the added flexibility to scale up or down their staffing models as other circumstances (like demand, county or state COVID restrictions, etc) fluctuate.

GigSmart Gig Apps

CH: So there are two apps. Get Workers and Get Gigs. Tell us about them.

Oakes: Get Workers allows businesses to find and hire local workers for hourly shift gigs, full-time, or part-time positions). In addition, residential users can use Get Workers to connect to hourly workers to complete home improvement, landscaping, or maintenance tasks around the house.

Get Gigs helps workers find, apply for, and complete local work. Users can browse hourly gigs or part-time and full-time opportunities actively hiring. All Shift Gig requests are based off of Skills. With over 3,000 available skills in the app, Get Gigs is different from other gig platforms because it gives workers the ability to monetize all of their skills. 

CH: Who uses your app the most now, and who did in the past?

Oakes: Most popular categories/industries of 2020: Moving, Cleaning, Construction, Food Delivery, Warehouse, Residential 

Impact Of COVID-19 On The Gig Economy

Rich Oakes shared with Courier Hacker that some categories of gigs saw their demand soar due to the impact of COVID-19. Gigs related to moving have been driven by lower interest rates (on mortgages) and an increase in home sales. Commercial cleaning has been growing in demand due to the current COVID crisis. The state at home orders across the country cause demand for food delivery and transport of consumer goods to soar. While mandates locked people up at home, many sought home improvement projects. As a result, GigSmart saw a 478% increase in the number of residential gigs completed on the Get Workers app.

As the world experience, a digital shift in commerce, the growth of online shares resulted in growth in demand for warehouse workers. Gigs that are essentials and continued to operate under COVID-19 conditions were construction.

“On the other hand, catering, events, in house dining types of roles are significantly down,” said Oakes.

GigSmart Pandemic Growth

Everyone would expect the pandemic to boost the company as most people are looking for extra income. How much growth have GigSmarts experienced since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic? Rich Oakes shared with us these remarkable statistics:

• GigSmart has seen a 460% increase in the number of hourly Gigs posted since March despite COVID downfalls to the job market.
• The number of hourly Shift Gigs completed from October 2020 to December 2020 increased by 39%.
• The top three industries that hired in Q4 were warehouse (up 381%), delivery services (up 386%), and cleaning (114%).
• Completed Gigs in 38 states last year
• The average worker payout for completing a Shift Gig was $99

Future Of The Gig Economy Post-COVID

CH: Finally, I would like a forecast for the future. Do you think that the gig economy’s era is approaching? Do you believe that the changes have come to stay?

Oakes: COVID has accelerated gig work. When it comes to the future of the gig economy, there are two inarguable facts: More and more American’s want flexibility and control (57 million Americans completed a Gig last year). More companies want flex-labor solutions. What workers want and what companies want are completely aligned. I’m very confident gig work is here to stay and will only continue to grow.

Editor’s note: As a driver of the gig economy myself, I would have to agree with Rich. The gig economy is the future of work. For more information on GigSmart, visit GigSmart’s website,