Book temporary workers online

Businesses that need short-term staff to cope with peaks of activity will welcome the new initiative, backed by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, called 'Slivers-of-Time'.

The scheme enables people to 'sell spare hours to local employers', and is designed for individuals who can only fit in work around other commitments such as caring or studying.

The benefit to employers of this new web-based service is that they can book workers with great efficiency, for exactly the times they are needed, at the best market rate. Slivers-of-Time workers can be booked for very short periods, from as little as half an hour, to whole days or weeks. Businesses can buy precise hours from one to 100 local people in less than a minute. They only pay for the time needed, and no minimum booking periods apply.

The scheme has recently been launched in East London and will be extended to the rest of London during 2006; the service will roll out across the whole of the UK in early 2007.