I am Stephen Hewitt, Bristol City Council’s Slivers-of-Time Co-ordinator.
As you may know ‘Slivers-of-Time‘ is a Government backed initiative to help tackle worklessness, improve local services and develop skills. Slivers-of-Time IT already operates in a number of places – East London, Hammersmith and Fulham, Leeds and Liverpool.
It is a virtual employment agency that brings together casual workers (sellers of time) and employers (buyers of time) through a web-based system. It offers a radical new employment model to those who have limited or irregular work availability and therefore find it difficult to gain access to employment through the usual means. It allows them to balance family and caring responsibilities, study commitments and health issues with part-time work commitments. For employers, it allows them to use the Slivers-of-Time to more efficiently meet their business needs by employing temporary/casual staff just when they need them, and at short notice.
The City Council is looking to set up a Slivers-of-Time service within Bristol. This will be on a phased basis. Initially within the City Council to get the system up and running and deal with any teething problems, then to roll it out it to other public bodies and then extend it to all employers – private and voluntary sector – across Bristol.
What we now need is a name for the Slivers-of-Time service in Bristol. Slivers-of-Time is fine as the name of the initiative, but it doesn’t work as a public brand or website name or says what it is about. Admittedly this is not scientific, but when asked what Slivers of Time is, responses I have had back include – an episode of Doctor Who, the next James Bond film, a modern art installation and an album by a second rate heavy metal band.
Successful web sites tend to have short, simple, easily memorable names that are easy to say and hard to misspell. What is needed is a name for the Slivers of Time service within Bristol that is user friendly and reflects that the service will be available to all employers across Bristol (public, private and voluntary sector), not just the City Council.
Some ideas so far include:
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- wwwBristol (Work – Whenever – Whatever)
- eWorkBristol
- work2suitU
- timeforwork or time4work
- timetowork or time2work
What do you think of any of these? Or can you think of something better?
Let me know here by Wednesday 10 September 2008.
